Slumdog Millionaire Film Opening Analysis

I annotated Slumdog Millionaire which is a 2008 British epic romantic drama adventure film directed by Danny Boyle, written by Simon Beaufoy, and co-directed in India by Loveleen Tandan.

Firstly, there were idents.

• Pathe
• Celador Films
• Film 4

''A pathe celador films film 4 presentation' signifies that these businesses worked together to present Slumdog Millionaire.

The opening shot is a close up medium shot of an asian young man sweating, opposing a middle aged asian man smoking the shot is in a dim yellow light. The young man is trying to retain eye contact which connotes that there is an awkward and tense atmosphere in the room.

Sans serif text appears high left of the screen. ''Mumbai 2006'' this denotes the time period and the location, connoting that the film is set in Asia, and was set in 2006. Audio is introduced, a man of foreign accent says ''Jamal Malik is one question away from winning 2 million rupees, how did he do it?'' this connotes that the audio is engaging the audience and beginning to describe the plot of the film. It also informs the audience of the main characters name, 'Jamal'. The text then proceeds to ask a question in the style of the game show ''Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?'' The options to answer this question are placed underneath eachother in a sans serif font which connotes modern day.

A) Cheated

B)Luck

C)Genious

D) It Is Written

The question is letting the audience make up their own mind and forebode their own opinion of how they think the film is going to go based on these four answers. 

The background of the text turns into money being scattered around, which connotes that money could be the subject which runs through the film, and could also be at center of whatever tragedy occurs in the film.

A medium close up of two characters, (supposedly Jamal and the presenter) appears on the screen, they are turned away from the camera, looking into a dark room with strong lights moving around, signifying that the two characters are about to enter the game show.

There is then an extreme long shot showing the view of the room, an audience is placed around the room which anchors that Jamal and the presenter of the show are in the game show room of ''Who Wants To Be A Millionaire''

A new shot is then introduced, back to the dimly yellow lit grotty looking room, the audience then see that the opening is based on flashbacks of Jamals memory.

Jamal gets slapped by the opposing character from the dimly lit room, not the same character as the presenter. The shot then moves to a close up shot made to look like it is under water, where Jamal's head gets ducked in, this signifies that Jamal is being tortured.

The shot then switches back to the games room, the audience is being informed that the games room is present day, and the torturing shots are from the recent past. A medium shot of the presenter is shown, he starts to make fun of Jamal by bad mouthing Jamals job, this connotes superiority, Jamal is below the presenter in a social and superior sense. There is then a medium close up shot of Jamal, signifying that Jamal is infact equal to the presenter, as he creates a come back to the presenters witty comments.

There is then a flash and the shot moves to a medium high angle shot of a girl smiling, the flash denotes that this is a memory of Jamal's, the only memory shown in the opening of the film, connoting her importance to him especially, in the film. The shot is also the same colour as the dimly lit yellow colour which is the same as the torture scenes, which possibly connotes that the two are related.

The shot then moves back to the torture scene, a new character enters the room, he is taller than the torturer, and then starts to tell the torturer what to do, connoting that he is superior to the torturer, and possibly controlling the torture.

The audience are shown from the very beginning who is the victim and who are the villians in the film, by actions and dialogue of the characters.

The boss of the room where Jamal is being tortured then stands face to face to Jamal whilst he is tied up and begins a speech, ''My wife is giving me hell'' is a short extract from the speech but even so this shows that the boss is taking all of his personal anger out on Jamal, and is really set to hurt him.
The boss then says ''Tell me how you cheated'', it then immedietly comes apparent that the two scenes are related. The audience now sees that Jamal has been tortured in the recent past because the game show are unaware of how Jamal knew all the answers which has enabled him to play for 2 million rupees, they assume he cheated, and are trying to torture how he cheated out of him. Jamal does not answer the man, so the ultimatum is that the torturer electricutes Jamal.

Jamal is unconcious, the boss of the torturer starts to shout at the torturer as he was not supposed to make him unconcious, the fear in the torturers eyes connotes that the boss is full of superiority.

The close up of the two men with Jamal unconcious in the back denotes that Jamal is the center (or the topic) of their argument, physically and mentally.

Jamal then awakens and says  ''I knew the answers'' the audienced are swayed to believe him as he is being superly victimised.

The shot then moves to a young boy playing with his friends, denoting a flash back to Jamals childhood, connoting that the audience will go through the film being shown how Jamal knows all of these answers.

The full opening lasts 5 minutes and 53 seconds.

Attack The Block

I studied the 4 minutes 20 seconds opening scene of Attack The Block.

The first thing that came up on my screen was the Idents of:

• Film 4
• UK Film Council
• National Lottery Funds
• Big Talk Pictures
• Studio Canal

The opening scene of Attack The Block, is an extreme long shot of a night sky, showing a full sky of stars, then moving onto a shooting star - first reactions of the audience may be that this film is a Sci - Fi; the camera then moves down showing fireworks over a city, which could show that their is a celebration and this film is set in an urban culture. 

The scene then moves to an underground station, hinting that this film is set in London or a familiar area. The station is busy, the first shot we see is a medium close up of a blonde haired woman rushing, showing that it is rush hour time. Another ident is then posted onto the screen. ''Studio Canal''

The screen then turns to a medium shot of a brown haired woman (early 20's) the mis en scene shows the woman wearing a hat, scarf and coat, so the audience know that it is around winter time. The audience has now been introduced to one of the main characters in the film. The media language in the film shows a woman has a 'posh' accent, and is also on the phone to her mother, suggesting innocence and a possible victim in the film.



• Tense music is introducted into the film, adding suspense and intending to put the audience on edge.
• Idents are shown for a second time. 

The scene then moves to a low, long shot of the same woman wearing converse trainers walking away from the station and along suburb roads, then moves to an extreme long shot high angle of the woman walking away from the camera, showing the audience that this lady is possibly planning on walking home back to a more privaliged part of London.

The shot moves onto the lady walking past graffiti, which is part of the mis en scene, possibly showing that she is entering a dangerous or more unprivaliged part of London, foreboding possible events of the woman being in conflict of danger. As the shot moves onto the graffiti, rap music starts to play, which also gives the audience a bigger understanding of the area that the film is shot in and what type of enviroment this woman is about to walk into, and whom she may bump into. The music then moves back to a tense tone.

A firework then goes off making a loud 'bang' which scares the woman, making the audience more on edge, leading up to conflict.

There is then an over the shoulder shot of the woman walking in the direction of youths on bikes wearing hoodies, the mis en scene portrays a sterio typical bunch of rough youths and thugs. The woman then says ''oh fuck'' which expresses how scared she is of these youths. The audience now have their intended victim and villian characters. 

One of the said youths then pulls a knife out, mis en scene is used to show how violent this character is and leads up to suspense, along with the music in the background, the audience is intended to feel vunerable.

 The character holding the knife is immedietly shown as the alphamale.

The intended alphamale then throws the girl to the ground, his entourage then laugh. The alphamale then says ''give the phone, give the phone'' the urgency in his voice and the repetition could show dispare, he is also illiterate as he misses out the word 'me'. There is then a low angle medium shot of the alphamale, putting the audience in the woman's position, and making the alphamale more superior.

When said woman stands up for herself against the youths, they do not hold back on threatening to hurt her. One of the youths says ''gonna get merked, init'' the media language intends to show slang and illiterate speech to further proceed in expressing urban culture and downgrading these youths into being thick and stupid.

There is an extreme long shot of an object falling from the sky and crashing into a car nearby the scene, the woman victim uses this oppertunity to run away, one of the youths interrupts the alphamale and says: ''oh fam shes ghosting'' to which the alphamale replies ''allow it'', showing that the alphamale has something more important to deal with, he has another plan.

When the alphamale sees that the car has been ruined and available to break into, he proceeds to enter the car, even when urged not to by his uncomfortable friends. There is a medium close up of the other youths confused by what has just happened.

A threatening figure then attacks the alphamale, showing the alphamales first sign of weakness, moving the victim character onto the alphamale and the villian character onto the attacker. It is unclear what this figure is until later on in the film, it looks like a large dog, almost a warewolf. The alphamale then uses his knife for self defence and attacks the figure, it then howls and escapes through a broken barbed wire fence (mis en scene showing how rough the estate is). The alphamale's friends start to humiliate him; ''Mullerz got shanked by a doggy!'' The audience then knows the alphamales name, the first name introduced into the film, showing that this character will be of importance in this film. 

A close up of 'Mullerz' face is shown, showing the seriousness in his face, as well as the fear in his eyes, but a bandana is used to cover up half of his face, still showing his position as a threatening youth. Mullerz then says ''Im chasing that down, im killing that, watch'' which introduces the audience into the whole plot of the film. 

The intended audience for this film may be teenagers in knowledge of unprivaliged areas, who are also interested in aliens and conflict.

Bradford Film Festival

Arriving at the Media Museum, i was pleasantly surprised with how modern the building was and how many facilities were available. Firstly, i went and tested out a selection of the games available in the gaming corner which was very colourful and amusing.



Gaming Room.

Gaming Space.

Secondly, i qued to meet the famous ginger twins from the Harry Potter movies, George and Fred Weasley, to my dissapointment, i soon discovered that everybody's favourite gingers, aren't ginger! 



Harry, George, Tom and I with Weasley Twins.



Weasley twins signatures.



Thirdly, I went to Experience TV and experimented with varied cinematography equipment and different backgrounds. I studied different generations of televisions and read off a script, pretending to be a news reporter.

Different generations of Television

Blue screen for different backgrounds.

I then went to the screening of a selected few of the films chosen to be shown at the film festival, i was humoured by many of them, for example the film containing different fruits, which i thought was a very good idea. My favourite film was Lifeguard, it was very funny and had a sarcastic sense to it. My favourite shot throughout the whole viewing was in the music video created by a student at Ilkley Grammar School, of an extreme close up of a young girl's eyes, in black and white. She looks frightenened, and her eyes could tell the story of the whole music video.

When looking around the venue, there were lots of information about various projects from brittish cinema and television, which i found very interesting. There was also a radio cast on one of the floors.

Lastly, i went to a special effects makeup workshop, which was very messy, but alot of fun. I made a gash on my hand using wax and fake blood, which turned out to be very sticky and hard to get off my hand.






                     





Hangover Film Poster

 The first signifier that i found in this poster, is the man on the right has a tooth missing, this may connote that there could have been conflict in the film, he also has a puzzled facial expression which show anchorage of his confusion (about his night in Las Vegas)   The second signifier i have seen is denotation, the text, 'some guys just can't handle vegas' The person who created this denotation has used intertextual references because Las Vegas is famously, or infamously known as a city of sin, energy and humour. The the text says 'cant handle' shows that something may have gone wrong in Las Vegas.
    The final signifier that i have found is how the man on the left is holding a baby, this has a polysemic meaning, the audience could either think that this man has had to bring his own child along on the trip to Vegas, so he may be the sensible one. Or in actual fact the three men found the baby and are trying to return the baby to his mother, on the way, the find many other reasons for clues they were left with on the morning of the night before, for example why the man on the right's tooth is missing, or why the man in the middle has a bloody lip.
    Feminists may argue that there are no women in this poster, that the               film is being biased towards a male audience.