FilmOpeningEG3; The Matrix

the official poster

The Matrix

Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski, 1999

• Warner Bros.;Village Roadshow Pictures;Groucho II Film Partnership;Silver Pictures (prod.)

Budget: $630m; UK Box Office:$646,184

RottenTomatoes.com; 87% ; IMDB 8.7 ; Roger Ebert 3*

SUMMARY/IDEAS I MIGHT USE:
Edited idents to go with the genre of my film opening. E.g colour effect change on original idents, change of font and overall style of text. A reocurring theme to enhance the genre/style of the film, e.g certain colours used throughout, font style or soundtrack.

SYNOPSIS:
Sci-fi film with modern technology computer hacking.
Trinity is conducting a transaction in opening scene, there is a police raid which search the building and find her.

IDENTS/TITLES:

Edited Idents, Green and black theme

Two idents are used, both of which have been edited with a green colour over them/a green and black theme which goes with the sci-fi genre of the film. This then coinsides with the following titles/opening scene of green codes being typed out on a computer as someone hacking the system. This is effective and a simple way of getting across to the audience of the genre of the film before the titles have even begun. Also this theme can easily be put into the film throughout in a number of ways, eg. writing, colour of clothing.

Green and black codes on title screen

MISE-EN-SCENE:

  After the idents in the titles/first opening scene it shows green and black computer coding being typed on a screen and this is repeated for about 25 seconds with computer and machine noises in the background. Straight away this gives away the sci-fi theme of the film and may possibly be used again throughout the film for added reinforcement of this re-ocurring theme of computer hacking.  The next scene is a grim, dark mise-en-scene with a few characters and police authority being introduced. It is a very Dark setting, using the police flashlights to show key events and actions going on around a deralict building. The lights are then shone onto a mysterious, female character alone in room, which gives us the impression she is the main character and is clearly the reason behind this police raid.

Deralict building, grim mise-en-scene

police light on female character being introduced

REPRESENTATIONS:

Clothing; Suits and ties, All black clothing, Tight leather, long coats, dark sunglasses, police uniform;- all these types of clothing may represent authority,mystery and give a sinister look.  
Age; Middle-aged men and women, this could represent some sort of action involved throughout with young, fit characters. 
Gender; The few main characters seem to be male-(the two main men in black suits and sunglasses), however the action seems to revolve around a main female character who is hacking some sort of computer system. The main attention of the opening scene is around introducing her and what it is she has done to cause this disturbance.

Female character introduced,
leather clothing

male character's clothing, black, dark

clothing, characters of authority

SOUNDTRACK:

Audio bridge: Non-diegetic computer sounds, typing, into diegetic dialogue of police, with non-diegetic music over the top. Slow, drawn out sounds followed by sharp dramatic percussions. Dramatic, on edge, creates tension and theme of action.