Script - Father's Son

Diary Entry #1

Dear Moderator,
        The research into constructing film is almost completed and now I am going to work on my opening sequence research, which will include the ideas of my opening sequence and the planning.  I am going to write a script, which I will hopefully follow when filming it for real and also talking about the mise-en-scene and also the camera shots I will include in my work. I am going to give you a clear outline of my opening sequence, which will be posted in the next 4-5 blogs.

Comparison of 3 Films of my Genre

For my initial idea, I have decided to compare 3 well-known opening sequences of films that are related to the same genre as my opening sequence I am planning to construct. I am going to compare their similarities and differences and explore the techniques used in media, such as the use of camera, sound, mise-en-scene, use of titles, the function, the themes and finally the narrative/storylines of the opening sequence. These ideas will hopefully help me a bit further for creating my opening sequence. For each film, I am going to analyse each film and note down as many features as I possibly can, which gives me more thoughts about my own construction.

'The Boy in the Striped Pajamas' is a historical-drama film.

Use of Camera - The opening shot is a close-up shot of the 'Nazi Germany' flag, as shown by the swastika shown at the start. The setting of the film is introduced with an establishing shot of a major city in Germany.
Editing - Mainly continuity editing, especially cross-cutting, which cuts from the kids playing planes in the street to the housewives busy working around the house.
Use of sound - Classical music, relating back to the setting of the historical drama; 1940's. It creates a clear atmosphere of the type of film.
Mise-en-scene - The cars look old-fashioned, showing that this film is set back in time. The costume of the protagonist (waistcoat) represents the rich side. There is also a woman wearing a black dress, with white leather coat to show importance.
Narrative/typical storylines - Based on the war, due to the fact that the German army are evacuating the residents out of the city.
Themes - World War II, considering the German army, as part of the storyline.
Use of Titles - The titles are 'Fade-in' and there is no transition when it disappears. It just goes straight away. There is emphasis on the above-the-line talent and the films name, as it's titles stay on the screen longer, showing importance. The above-the-line talent titles finishes when the setting is introduced.
The Function - Introduce the setting of the scene and to also refer back to the time, when WWII happened.
There is no plot to the film just yet, which creates an effect, which allows us to follow the film and find out what the film is about.

'Forrest Gump' is an epic romantic comedy-drama film.

Use of Camera - The opening sequence uses a panning shot throughout to follow the feather on it's route across the city. The setting of the film is once again introduced with an establishing shot. The opening sequence ends with a close-up of the protagonist looking at the feather.
Editing - Only occurs at the end with a match on action when the protagonist goes to get on the bus, but fades out.
Use of Sound - Gentle classical music which goes well with the flowing feather. It gives a clear atmosphere of the kind of film it is.
Mise-en-scene - The feather comes from a dove; a dove is recognized around the world as a symbol for love and peace; therefore relating to the simple yet loving nature of Forrest.
Narrative/typical storylines - The feather can also symbolize how you go through life, as this film is based on Forrest Gump reviewing his history of events throughout his life.
Themes - Deals with special needs as the character has a low IQ rate. The film expresses to people with special needs that they can achieve their goals in life.
Use of Titles - The titles are 'Fade-in' and 'Fade-out'. However, the titles stay on the same length as each other, suggesting that the cast of the film are all important in the making of the film.
The Function - Introduces the setting of the scene. It also creates affect with the fade-out at the end, as the viewer wants to find out what happens next in the film. It also introduces the protagonist of the film.

'Billy Elliot' is a drama film. This is the only film out of the 3 I have used in this task that does not have a hybrid genre.

Use of Camera - It starts off with a point-of-view shot to focus on what the boy is doing (putting the vinyl and the scratcher onto the vinyl player). It moves on to a close-up shot, then a long shot to show the boy repeatedly jumping in the air. It then cuts into a panning shot to show the boy making breakfast, which then cuts to a mid-shot and over-the shoulder shot to show his emotion and what he is looking at. Once again, it goes back to the panning shot to follow the boy running to find his nan, which follows with a mid-shot to show the boy helping the granny home. Finally, there is an establishing shot of the police with shields, as the time of the film goes back to the 'Miners Strike in 1984-85'

Editing - Continuity Editing such as a match on action (when the boy jumping on the bed goes from a close-up, to mid-shot, to long shot and when the boy runs out of the door to find his missing nan) and a shot/reverse shot (when the boy looks across his nan's bedroom to find she is not there). 

Use of Sound - The song played is 'Cosmic Dancer' by T-Rex, with the lyrics giving us the idea of what the film is about.

Mise-en-scene - The shields of the riot police; used in the event of the Miners Strike. The boy's father and his older brother are coal miners out on strike.

Narrative/typical storylines - It is a tale of a young boy who turns from Boxing to Ballet. It also explores the issues of class and gender, though it resolves them only partially.

Themes - The theme of this film is the idea of realising your potential and not letting yourself be intimidate or held back by limitations relating to social labels.

Use of Titles - The titles of the film last slightly longer than the other titles used e.g. the distribution titles. This is done to show importance of the title. The title are 'Fade-in' and 'Fade-out'.

The Function - There is no plot to the film as yet, but it engages the viewer to find out what is going to actually happen, which makes the opening sequence very effective. The function is also to identify the time of the film, relating back to the riot police. It also introduces the main character of the film. 

From this research, I now know the key conventions of a drama film, which includes.

• Many of the drama films have hybrid features, which shows that by this, drama films could be more effective.
• The music played for each film gives an idea on the type of film and maybe the theme.
• Drama films have fade-in/fade-out titles and also they have different durations for each titles to show some have more importance than others.
• The function of drama films are plotless, so it creates an effect to the audience to think about what will happen next.

Film Structure - My Film

MY FILM STRUCTURE:  FATHER'S SON

Act 1 - Introduces the main character (a young autistic man called Joshua) and a clue to the part of the story.    
He reviews his family tree to discover he has a relative who he's never seen: his father. He opens his box of personal stuff, which lies underneath the family tree and finds a blank envelope addressed to him with no stamp. He opens the envelope and finds that it is from his unseen father. I will then use Ellipsis (...) to cut from the man sitting in the chair to him putting on his coat ready to search for his father. This reduces time e.g. 30 minutes in real life, reduced to 3 seconds in the construction. Finally, he walks out the door and down the road towards his awaited destination. This is the catalytic moment for the first act, as this is preceded by the next course of the story.


Act 2 - The confrontation throughout copes with the idea of travel and also with the idea of depression, homelessness and psychological problems. He travels by plane to get to his fathers hometown, but is cut short due to a turbulent dilemma after the plane was extremely low on fuel. The passengers, including Joshua are escorted out of the plane to the departure lounge. However, Josh suddenly realizes that his wallet is left on the plane, leaving him devastated when he can't travel via a different plane to his destination. This left Josh without any money whatsoever, so he had to travel by foot and live without food, water or shelter. The confrontation continues when Josh has a mental breakdown and starts to look for company. Finally, he finds a big, white van with one of it's back doors open, so he jumps in to get a glimpse of hope towards reaching his father. This becomes the catalytic moment for the second act, when finally, he arrives at "journey's end".


Act 3 -  The resolution of the plot is when Josh contacts his dad by phone to meet him at a particular place. He waits anxiously at a park bench to witness his father for the 1st time in living memory. In the distance, a man arrives, with a similar look to Josh, asking him about his identity. Josh reveals himself and then they start to get to know each other. Josh convinces his father to move back to Weston-super-Mare so he can spend a lot more time with him. The story ends with a famous quote, before the credits roll, saying:
“No love is greater than that of a father for his son.” 
This quote is taken from 'Dan Brown' from the book, 'Angels & Demons'.

Film Structure - Film 2

TITANIC:

Act 1 -  The beginning of the film shows one of the protagonists of the film: Rose Dawson Calvert at the age of 100 (Gloria Stuart). A team of treasure hunters goes to explore the wreck of the Titanic, searching for a valuable diamond necklace called 'Heart of the Ocean'. Instead, they find a sketch of a nude woman wearing it, dating April 14th 1912, the day when Titanic struck the iceberg. Rose Dawson Calvert claims that she is the woman in the picture, so she goes to visit the crew. When asked if she knows the whereabouts of the necklace, Rose recalls her time aboard the Titanic. As she tells her story, she has flashbacks of her time on the Titanic, which shows a younger Rose Dawson Calvert, played by Kate Winslet, boarding the Titanic. During her time, she meets a keen artist called Jack Dawson, who stops her from jumping off the ship's stern. Jack and Rose starts to develop a tentative friendship, which turns into love. As daylight came to an end, they go to Rose's stateroom, where she asks Jack to draw her nude. Afterwards, they evade Cal's bodyguard, who catches Jack inside her stateroom and makes love inside a car in the ship's cargo hold. As they go back upstairs to the outside, they witness that the Titanic collides with an iceberg, which causes a big hole at the end of the ship. This is the catalytic moment of Act 1.

Act 2 - The main part of the film is when the Titanic starts to sink lower and lower into the sea. All of the passengers are encouraged to put their lifebelts on, to help them keep afloat when in the water. The women and children are sent to different smaller boats where they can get away from the disaster and feel safe. As the Titanic sinks more, it breaks in half, causing one side of the boat to fall back in place on to the sea. However, the ship then becomes vertical and starts to go down to the bottom of the sea, with the passengers following. This is the catalytic moment of Act 2. 

Act 3 - The film concludes when Jack dies and Rose tries to get to safety, when whistling a small boat that goes past her. This follows by the return of the older Rose. With her story now complete, Rose goes along the stern to the crew's ship. There she takes out the diamond and throws it into the sea. Wile asleep in her bed, the photos on her dresser are a visual chronicle that she lived a free life, as inspired by Jack. Finally, the young Rose is reunited with Jack, applauded and congratulated by those who perished on the ship.

Film Structure - Film 1

The film structure I will use for my research in to films is the 'Three-act structure'. It is a model used in writing and evaluating modern storytelling, which divides a screenplay into 3 parts: the setup, the confrontation and the resolution.

The diagram above gives the idea about what the 3 acts consist of and when they happen.

Act 1 (Setup) - introduces the main characters and sets up the conflict that is the story of the film. The end of the act shows something significant that happens, which changes the courses of the story.

Act 2 (Confrontation) - explores the consequences of the catalytic moment. It asks the questions 'What  happens?', 'What complications arise?', 'How does it affect the characters?' and 'What are the possible outcomes?'.

Act 3 (Resolution) - resolves the story and tells us the outcome. It must tie-up all the loose ends and should ensure that we understand what the story is about.


I will research 2 films and I will include my own structure for my own film The first film I will research is the 2005 thriller film 'Flightplan'  

FLIGHTPLAN:

This film tells the story of a middle-aged woman, who goes on holiday to New York with her 6 year old daughter. However, the child goes missing somehow and the protagonist goes on a hunt around the airplane to find the missing girl.

Here is the storyline: 

Act 1 - The beginning of the film introduces the main characters of the film: Kyle Pratt (Jodie Foster) and her daughter Julia Pratt (Marlene Lawston). This tells the rest of the act by where they are set. It sets at a train station, then Kyle's house and then finally at the airport. The protagonists then board the plane, with the daughter sitting next to the window. Then comes the catalytic moment when Kyle and Julia falls asleep; Kyle then wakes up and finds out that Julia had gone missing. This is the plot point of the story, which changes the atmosphere rapidly.

Act 2 - The main part of the film is when Kyle goes in search for her missing daughter, who had disappeared without a trace.

Kyle suddenly panics more and more, as the cabin crew doesn't believe her about what she is trying to tell them about her mussing daughter. This follows by a scene of bloody violence, which is the catalytic moment of this act. This is the longest moment of the film, lasting about an hour. This makes the viewer think what will the outcome be and will she find her daughter. Will it all be resolved?

Act 3 - The film concludes when Kyle finds her daughter unconscious at the front of the plane. She carries her out and are taken away in a van for safety. Finally, the film ends with Julia saying 'Are we there yet?' referring to the holiday. 

Audience Research 4/4

4) Marketing Strategy

For this task, I am going to research different marketing strategies for a film/films with the same genre as me and find out what elements to include when marketing my film. I am going to list as many types of marketing strategies, which match the genre of my film and the age range/gender, of course, it's 45-54 year old women. 
        I have decided to look at the film 'Jane Eyre' because it is targeted mostly to the 45-54 year olds, according to the 'BFI Statistical Yearbook' and comes under the genre of drama.

Posters and Reviews:

Posters, such as this one above ^, are one of several techniques used to market the film to the public.
These posters can be spread in a lot of places, such as on a billboard, at bus stops, magazines and also outside of a cinema; the more places shown, the more interest it gives to the general public. Big budget films need a lot of posters in many places to give a lot more of the public an interest to go and see this film. If they are everywhere, people would go and see that film to see why the film is so good and populated by the viewer. This is a good idea for my target audience, as a drama film is becoming very popular.
     Film criticism can also determine whether the target audience want to watch the film or not. The examples of the reviews in the poster above ^ are rated 4/5 stars, which makes the film worthy to watch. It also shows the critics opinion of the film, which also encourages the target audience to watch the film and enjoy it.

Audience Research 3/4

3) Distributor for my film?

In the Prezi presentation above, I have showed and discussed my ideal distribution company which could distribute my film and fit perfectly with my kind of film. For this presentation, I have decided to choose 'Lionsgate Films' because they are a successful independent film company and they have released a wide-range of films and genres. Despite not working with any of the 'BIG 6' film companies worldwide, they still achieve their goals of making a profit from their releases.

Audience Research 2/4

2) Target Audience

For this task, I asked 3 participants a series of questions to help us determine what type of audience would be best for my drama film. I asked these people to give their views:

Sandra, Head Staff of Student Support
Doug, Physics Teacher
Dave, Student Support Worker in Art and A Levels.

The questions were as followed:


1) What kind of things do you expect to see in a drama film?

Sandra: 'I expect to see a good storyline, as well as a happy ending. It should be gripping, so that the viewers will get in to the film.'

Doug: 'I expect the film to be realistic to the viewer and could maybe contain some 'accurate science' which would interest me a lot more.'

Dave: 'I expect a lot of tension, as well as the use of powerful music to set the tone of the film.'




2) What do you think the target audience for this genre is?

Sandra: 'I would say around 20+, I wouldn't think kids would get in to this.'

Doug: 'To me, I would say mainly adults. I would also say university students; I would say they would get in to it.'

Dave: 'Adults. Drama films are usually shown at the 'watershed' time, so more viewers can be drawn in.'




3) What would encourage you to go and see a drama film?

Sandra: 'To me, it's the location of the place of the viewing. I don't like to travel too far away, just to see a film. The story from the advert shown could draw me in as well.'

Doug: 'The story and the content. It must have that interesting feel to it. It could maybe be a story based on a book or a true story.'

Dave: 'I agree with Doug, the story and the content of the film.'




4) What is your favourite drama film and why?

Sandra: 'I like more of the classic drama films, such as Pride and Prejudice because it has an interesting storyline, which can easily draw the viewer in to watching the film and giving it good feedback.'

Doug: 'I don't watch any drama films, but I watch a lot of drama sequels such as 'Sherlock' and 'A Touch of Frost'. I like them because they are full of suspense and content, which makes them effective to watch.'

Dave: 'I like TV shows as well. I find the films a bit boring. My favourite is 'Silent Witness' because it's fantastic. The storyline is just truly amazing!'



From this research, I have noticed that Sandra for the last question gave a clear answer, unlike the other two, showing that women are more likely to watch romantic drama films, whereas men prefer to watch 'crime dramas' or 'fictional dramas'. 

Audience Research 1/4

1) What films/genres are similar to yours?!  Who would be the audience to your film?

Audience Profile:

Amanda is a 51 year old able-bodied, British woman residing in Inverness, Scotland. She is the manager of a local hair & beauty business in Inverness, and in her spare time, she likes to read broadsheet newspapers, such as 'The Guardian' and occasionally 'The Sunday Times' and also she likes  to visit her relatives and work friends. Amanda is particularly interested in the drama/family adventure genre due to her love for her big family and her life through soaps and romantic novels. 

I have produced this audience profile to give a clear idea to the readers of the type of audience for my film/genre. By researching this, I have found that 45-54 year olds are the most likely age group to watch my film because they have a preference for films that contain emotion, love and romance. An example of this is 'Dear John'. The age group could show that they are the least likely to attend a cinema screening, so this kind of audience is unique for this kind of film/genre.

The yearbook shows that the AB social group are most likely to go to the cinema to watch my genre of film. As shown in the yearbook, there are no drama films situated in the DE social group, they are most likely to watch action/thriller films such as 'Fast & Furious 5'. 

The breakdown of genre by gender shows that women are most likely to watch my genre of film, so it does not appeal a lot to the men, who are more interested in action/thriller films, for an example, in 'Jane Ayre', it shows that an astonishing 86% of the audience going to see that film are women, as well as 'One Day' which draws in 81% of women. From this evidence, Amanda fits nicely into the category of a business women, who earns a lot of money and enjoys reading novels, based on the idea of drama.

Despite the film being aimed at the older generation of women, the BBFC would give this film a '12' film classification because the type of film wouldn't appeal a lot to the younger generation and also it may contain some strong language and moderate violence, which a mother wouldn't let their kids watch.     

My 25 Word Treatment/Challenge

'A young man travels miles to find his long-lost father that he has never witnessed. He struggles with obstacles along his unexpected journey'.

From my post of initial ideas, I understand that I had to come up with a 25 word treatment to discuss the summary of my feature film. I came up with this idea above. I've decided to come up with this because my film is a drama/adventure film and so I needed something like this to match my idea of a film. This film is supposed to be a moving, but happy movie about the young man finding his dad still alive, but has never seen him before (He left his mother before the birth). He experiences a lot of problems throughout his journey, including travelling on his own, lack of money to stay in a hotel and finding a wrong identity. This should make the audience feel like wanting to help the man to become a lot more confident about finding his dad. When he struggles in certain situations, they want him to overcome his struggles and fight for his goals, achievements and rewards. 
           

For my idea of an opening sequence, the beginning of the film will show the man reading a letter sent from his long-lost father, telling him about the location of his home. Examples of camera shots I will use to construct my film include a shot/reverse shot (showing the man's face and then the writing on the letter to show that he is reading the letter), close-up (when showing the man's face), the point-of-view shot/over-the-shoulder shot (To show the character looking at the letter) and the long shot (To show a side-view of the man's body, whilst sitting down). These ideas have been inspired by the 2010 film 'Dear John', which tells the story of a man who reconsiders himself to join the US Army. The relationship of the couple carries on through sending letters to each other and replying back.

Ideal Genre of My Opening Sequence

My hybrid project will be a specific type of genre. For this project, I have decided to choose the genre of drama because it proves to be a big hit in cinemas and are designed to help capture the audiences feelings and minds about this kind of film.

To be more specific, I have chosen to include a unique feature of drama, which are shown in very few films in the world and that is the subject of a"long lost relative". These kind of films are directed towards the older generation because they are the most likely to watch drama films, as teenagers and kids could find these films boring or rubbish.

I got this idea from the ITV1 show "Long Lost Family" where someone tries to track down their long lost relatives and meet them for the first time in so many years or maybe even the first time ever.

"Hi I am looking for the relatives of Magdalena De Kock, who left South Africa when she was young to come work in Namibia. She was the youngest. Her family was from Cape Town, Paarl. She had 9 brothers and 1 sister. Names of brothers Jan, Pieter, Niklaas. Madgalena was born in 1930 Paarl."

A quote  from Ancestry.com. 

This is an example of a letter, being sent to 'Ancestry.com' to try and find their long lost relatives. This could be an idea for my introduction to my opening sequence; this could grab the audience by telling this story to the audience by camera and editing.

One structure for my title sequence could be a family tree. For each stem, I could include the basic information for the film e.g. the title, the above-the-line talent and the director etc. This relates to the idea of family and the way it structures out e.g. the higher the family tree, the more relatives you remember.

Another structure for my title sequence could be a photo album. Each photo could show a picture of the actor and his name below it. This is very effective for the audience, as they can easily recognise the above-the-line talent before the film actually begins.

Moodboard:

ICONOGRAPHY:

The images above are visual representations of my genre choice (Drama/Romantic) and typical images that relate to that particular genre, including colour schemes (Love connotes Red) and mise-en-scene (Letters and a family photo album).

These images inspire the idea of family because they are related to the subject e.g. the 3 films/TV Programmes associated with the idea of family (Mrs Doubtfire, Nanny McPhee and The Simpsons).

There are a couple of ideas, using this mood board, which I could use in my opening sequence and what can follow on throughout the whole film.

Idea 1 - The idea of a child finding out a family secret of which his parents have kept for a long time. This evolves in to a family argument, which ends up with the child heartbroken, who notices that he has never seen the relative being kept a secret. The relative could be violent, on drugs or an alcoholic. He finally meets him at the end of the film.

Idea 2 - The idea of a teenager or an adult trying to track down the relative using e-mail or letters to get to him/her. He/She goes away to where he lives to track him, where at the end, they meet. This is a sign of a good family relationship.

Idea 3 - The idea that a long lost relative comes back to the family and causes trouble e.g. like in a soap opera, Derek Branning comes back to the Square and causes a stir between Max and Tanya etc. This ends with an apology and the family start to get on like they did before he came back.


These ideas are very useful to look at, when deciding the synopsis of my film opening sequence because I have several choices to what best suits my film.    

'This is England' - Art-of-the-title Sequence Analysis



In class, we were given a task to find an opening sequence from the website 'artofthetitle.com' and to write on our blogs about the opening sequence we chose. Nowadays, the title sequence plays a major role in the film industry, for the creation and final product of making a film. The title sequence can tell you what that particular film is going to be about. The editors use ideas and maybe drawings to pick out how to structure the opening sequence of the film. They can be very unique to their idea and may show a lot of interest to the viewers when they go and watch that film.
      For this task, I have decided to write about 'This is England' because it is one of my all-time favourite films and it was the only film, listed on art-of-the-title, for which I have seen. The title is very unique in my opinion and also this is an independant film, which shows even though that the film had a small amount of budget, it is very effective.

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 In this film, the opening titles appears after Roland Rat speaks in to the microphone and also when the music (genre of ska) starts about 5 seconds in to the opening sequence. This could suggest that the opening sequence grabs the audience by going back in time to the 80's, where Roland Rat was most successful.
   The opening sequence also shows memorable people and events of the 1980's, like the creation of
'Space Invaders', Margaret Thatcher and also the wedding of Princess Diana and Prince Charles in 1981. This shows that the film is set in the 1980's due to its selected videos of past events in the decade (The film, in specific, was set in the year 1983) No matter how much violence or conflict was involved in the 1980's e.g.The Minors Strike 1984-85, the film brings back nostalgic memories to mainly adults, who have lived through the 1980's and witnessed these events.
   The film is about a group of skinheads (as shown in Shot 6 and 9) proud of being British, who meet a 12 year old boy under a bridge. They feel sympathy for the boy, after he had a fight with a schoolboy named Harvey and the gang invite him to join his group. Skinheads are a subculture that originated among working-class youths in London in the 1960s. They listened to Ska, which from the opening sequence, the genre of music was played during the events of the 1980's.
   The movie was on a low budget, which means that they did not have a big amount of money to create an effective film. Because of this, they have kept the title sequence very simple, but however, very effective. It runs smoothly with the visuals, creating this effective, which drew me in to watching this fantastic film. I love the fact they did this, as they used this opening sequence to flow in to the film sufficiently and the way they did this made me think that this is one of the best films I have ever seen.

Timeline - Opening Titles

(Sorry about the quality)

Timeline Order:

0:05 - 'Film4 and the UK Film Council Present'  
    Music Starts '54-46 That's My Number' by Toots & The Mayhals.

0:10 - 'In association with EM Media and Screen Yorkshire'

0:15 - 'A Warp Film Production'

0:20 - 'In association with Big Arty Productions'

0:22 - 'A Shane Meadows Film'

0:33 - 'THIS IS ENGLAND'

0:41 - 'Thomas Turgoose'
    Start of Above-the-line talent

0:47 - 'Stephen Graham'

0:53 - 'Jo Hartley'
1:02 - 'Andrew Shim, Vicky McClure'
1:09 - 'Joe Gilgun, Rosamund Hanson'
1:25 - 'Andrew Ellis, Perry Benson, George Newton'
1:32 - 'Frank Harper, Jack O'Connell, Kriss Dosanjn'
1:39 - 'Kieran Hardcastle, Chanel Cresswell, Danielle Watson'
1:45 - 'Sophie Ellerby, Hannah Walters, Michael Socha'
    End of Above-the-line talent
2:01 - 'Script Supervisor - Diarmid Scrimshaw', 'Casting - Louise Meadows, Des Hamilton', 'Hair          and Make-up Supervisor - Donald McInnes'.  
    Start of Below-the-line talent
2:09 - 'Costume Designer - Jo Thompson', 'Make-up and Hair Designer - Catherine Scoble', 'Production Designer - Mark Leese'.
2:17 - 'Music Supervisor - John Boughtwood', 'Original Music - Ludovico Einaudi'
2:28 - 'Director of Photography - Danny Cohen'
2:38 - 'Editor - Chris Wyatt'
2:46 - 'Line Producer - Julia Valentine', 'Co-producer - Louise Meadows'
2:53 - 'Executive Producers - Tessa Ross, Peter Carlton, Paul Trijbits'
3:07 - 'Produced by Mark Herbert'
3:17 - 'Written and Directed by Shane Meadows'  
    End of Below-the-line talent 
          Fade of Music

The title sequence lasts approximately 3 minutes and 29 seconds.


From my timeline of 'This is England', I noticed that the title sequence went at different speeds between each transition of the opening sequence. I noticed that at the end of the list of 'above-the-line talents', the gap between the previous and the next title is 16 seconds, compared to the normal 8 seconds, suggesting the change between each role. This also happened near the end when the 'Produced by' title appeared 14 seconds after the 'Executive Producers' title, suggesting that the 'Produced by' title is a more important role. 

The music played ('54-46 That's My Number' by Toots and the Mayhals) begins as the first title appears 5 seconds in to the opening sequence. It starts off slow and then as the 'THIS IS ENGLAND' title appears, the music starts to kick in and the beat goes faster. '54-46 That's My Number' is a song from the genre of SKA and it relates to this opening sequence because of the characters of the film, which are mainly of the 'Skinhead' subculture and SKA is what the subculture listen to and enjoy the most. As the last title comes in, the music starts to fade and so does the picture, telling us that it is the end of the opening sequence.

The first titles of the opening sequence are the distributors from independent film companies, as this film is known as an 'independent film'. The distributors are 'Film4', 'UK Film Council', 'EM Media', 'Screen Yorkshire', 'Warp Films' and 'Big Arty Productions'. None of these are from the 'BIG 6'. 

Following on from the production titles are the above-the-line talent. These include the actors who play the main characters of the film including 'Thomas Turgoose', 'Stephen Graham' and 'Jo Hartley'. These actors are listed each on their own in a title, as they are the most important. The rest of the above-the-line talent are listed in twos or threes, to show low importance. After the above-the line talent, comes the below-the-line talent, starting with the least important roles in the film, such as the costume designer and the director of photography. This follows by the most important roles in the film: the director, the writer and the producer.