Dialogue in film openings
Friday, December 04, 2015Dialogue is written or spoken language exchanged between two or more people. Despite dialogue being used in the majority of films today, it is not a necessity within the opening 2 minutes of a feature film. Music and narration on their own can provide an effective opening, and many films have been produced that contain no dialogue whatsoever. This suggests that dialogue is not always needed to express a storyline or character's emotions, but it helps to engage with the film and discover more about a character.
Examples of film openings where dialogue is not used:
Comedy: The Graduate
Horror: Insidious
Action: Shutter island
Drama: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
Romance: The Notebook
The
positive effects of non-dialogue in the examples above, is that the openings
include various and different shots to maintain the audience's attention. Some
of these openings, such as Insidious, include motional activity, which helps to
keep the audience's appeal and convinces them to discover what happens next.
Others, such as The notebook has aerial/establishing shots that provide a
relaxed atmosphere. On the other hand, this can be a negative, as many people
judge the activity within a film based on its opening scene. Long and relaxed
shots with no dialogue or even narration can loose the viewer's interest.
Examples of film openings where dialogue has been used:
Comedy:
Ferris Bueller's day off
Horror: The Decent
Action:
Iron Man
Drama:
The Help
Romance: Notting Hill
The
positive effects of dialogue in the examples above, are that the storyline and
characters are automatically introduced. By these 5 examples, the audience is
able to have a clear view what the film may be about, who the main characters
are, and what they are like. Dialogue is also a very positive dimension of
these openings as they instantly attract the audience to focus on the content,
and so they understand the characters and the plot from the beginning to the
end. Another positive effect of dialogue is that it provides a sense of
genre, through the language and tone of the characters' voices - for instance,
there is screaming in the opening sequence of Carrie. There are no obvious
negatives effects of dialogue in the openings, apart from it drives
the atmosphere of the setting away. Aerial/establishing shots are effective in
film openings to give the audience a sense of the scenery, but the camera
focuses more on characters when dialogue is being exchanged. An example of this
is 'The Help' and 'In your Eyes' opening scene.
What issues do you think you would face in your own coursework by using/not using dialogue?
Personally, I do not think that I would face many issues if I used dialogue in my own coursework. However, writing a dialogue, or narration, may take time to perfect. It may be challenging to write a dialogue that fits within a certain time frame whilst addressing a particular message. To make sure that certain characters say the right things, and perfecting grammar/tenses may also be time consuming. Furthermore, using dialogue creates more work for the actors who have to remember the lines. It also takes more time during the filming process if they muck up on a line.
If my own coursework doesn't have dialogue, these issues/possibilities would not occur. However, it may be more challenging to film a good quality clip if dialogue was not included. This increases the chance of the audience finding my coursework boring to watch, and less engaging. Having dialogue in my coursework may improve my overall mark.
What issues do you think you would face in your own coursework by using/not using dialogue?
Personally, I do not think that I would face many issues if I used dialogue in my own coursework. However, writing a dialogue, or narration, may take time to perfect. It may be challenging to write a dialogue that fits within a certain time frame whilst addressing a particular message. To make sure that certain characters say the right things, and perfecting grammar/tenses may also be time consuming. Furthermore, using dialogue creates more work for the actors who have to remember the lines. It also takes more time during the filming process if they muck up on a line.
If my own coursework doesn't have dialogue, these issues/possibilities would not occur. However, it may be more challenging to film a good quality clip if dialogue was not included. This increases the chance of the audience finding my coursework boring to watch, and less engaging. Having dialogue in my coursework may improve my overall mark.
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