Furious 7 opening sequence analysis

AnalysisI am going to analyse the opening sequence of Fast and Furious 7, I will be analysing the first set of titles, then the brief transition to the second set of titles and then the title of the film.

The TitlesIn the opening sequence various titles are shown. In Furious 7 the titles in order include a total of 19 cast members, then ‘Casting by’, then ‘Music by’, then ‘Costume designer’ and finally ‘Visual effect supervisor’. In Furious 7 there is a very large variety of important cast members, these including about 6 of them being the main characters, the producers showing this is very important as it gives the audience the insight on who is in the film and with such a large number of important cast members it gives the audience the opportunity to recognise some of these names and possibly know what to expect from them from knowledge of previous work by these actors. With the remainder of the titles, some are quite smaller roles such as ‘music by’ and ‘costume designer’ however I think that this has been purposely because in the film itself costume is very dominant in presenting characters and also the film has many soundtracks and songs therefore these people who worked on the film have been highly credited.

The NarrativeThe Furious 7 opening does in fact set and influence the narrative of the film. For example due to its predecessor the audience will know that the character lying in the hospital bed is in fact the antagonist from it and was defeated and clearly fatally injured, the dialogue used form the conscious character denotes they are family, he is his older brother, and from the predecessor the man in the bed was an antagonist so we expect his older brother to be too.In this shot the character threatens the nurses in the background that if anything happens to his brother he’ll ‘come back looking for’ them, this piece of dialogue backs up the idea that he is going to be the antagonist of the film as this is quite an evil thing to say and it implies that if something was to happen he would most likely hurt the ones responsible.

Here, the audience is shown that in fact there has actually been pure chaos caused for this man to be in that hospital ward. We know this as he so easily and simply strolls back out of the hospital ward with not a concern at all, this all suggests to audience that he forced his way into this hospital and this must be because he is going to be the antagonist of the film.

Typography

For all of the titles in the opening sequence the typography is very significant. For example, the first thing noticeable is the way the title enters the screen, this is because the titles enter the screen in a quick dash, shift like manor and then when exiting the screen they zoom towards the camera to then disappear. This Is a very effective animation because it very much presents the genre of the film, this being an action thriller and a film quite revolved around cars. This animation suits the film very well as this dash of movement of the title is a representation of a car speeding past and this relates very much to the style of film. Also the font of the title is san-serif, it is bold, blocky and has a metallic shine to it, this also reflects the type and genre of the film.

Camerawork, editing, soundCamerawork in the opening sequence to Furious 7 is not too complex yet very effective. The entire opening sequence is actually filmed in one entire long take, the take follows the character of Deckard Shaw from the point speech he gives to his brother to following him through the hospital. After the consistent mid shot of him speaking to his brother the camera is positioned to Shaw’s back following him. This is very effective as this type of camerawork is very unconventional to the thriller genre as most thriller opening sequences involve a variety of shots with many cuts in very quick succession. However, here because the whole first part of the films opening sequence has been filmed in one whole single cut, this meaning little editing was actually used. The purpose of this style of opening is to introduce the audience to this character, and it does this very effectively as it almost shows his travel back out of the hospital through his perspective yet the audience is able to overlook and understand everything around him and this gives the audience the insight on further into detail how and what he did to break into the hospital. It also indicates that this character must be skilled to have got through such strong defence.

Most of the sound in the opening sequence is music , so non diegetic, however diegetic sound is present in the sequence, this being the grenade explosion at the end of the trailer, the crumbling of the hospital towards the end and also the lift bell.

Mise-en-sceneMise-en-scene is vital in this opening sequence. This is because many of the features of mise-en-scene that appear in the opening sequence have an impact on the narrative of the film. Setting Is portrayed for example in the establishing shot of London for audience is automatically informed of where the opening is set, also as we see the man lying in the medical bed with apparatus and then the camera follows Deckard Shaw the audience is informed the building is a hospital. The prop of the machine gun is used very effectively as it tells the audience the character with it has the means to get weapons like this, also the fact he puts the gun on his brother’s chest impacts the narrative as it implies that he will use it when he wakes up. Lighting is presented in the opening also, natural light is used from outside through the hospital windows, also there are broken lights across the building suggesting they were destroyed and causing the enigma of how were they broken.

Costume is used effectively in the opening sequence. Costume is used to classify occupation and shows people in more depth, for example the dead people in the hospital wear SWAT/FBI uniforms, them being dead poses the question of how this one man killed them all. All of the features of mise-en-scene in the opening present the action thriller genre.

Enigmas and points of interestMostly in the beginning of the opening sequence many enigmas for the audience are created. One of these being the question of who the conscious character is. Another major enigma that becomes apparent is when he begins to walk back through the hospital, this is because it is the first time the audience sees the dead bodies and all of the destruction caused, it makes the audience question how he managed to get past all of the military/swat officers and how he killed them all. Another thing that makes the audience question is who is in the black car driving through the desert.

EditingJust at the end of the opening titles of Furious 7 there is the most iconic and obvious piece of editing. This piece of editing is a transition from the camera panning up to the sky to then an upside down shot of a muscle car driving towards the direction of the camera and at the point the car reaches the camera it flips to being level again. This editing is very effective because the first shot here and the second are both clearly in different settings and this is presented very clearly In this piece of editing because the pan into the sky can indicate the sense of movement. It is clearly shown that the second shot is in a different location as there is a huge contrast in the setting, the setting has gone from an urban city environment to a desert like, seemingly uninhabited area. The piece of editing itself can actually tell the audience that these two things are happening at the same time in the world, so this character leaving the hospital after causing the chaos is happening at the same time as this car is driving through the desert.

Main film titleThe actual title of the film is shown right at the very end of the opening sequence, it is shown just after the director title is shown. The muscle car seen earlier speeds down the road and across the shot and behind it leaves the film title. The film title in a blocky, bold, metallic font, as the car drives past the letters of the title appear one by one but in very quick succession due to the speed of the car. All of this reflects the genre of the film because it is in fact about cars.

Conclusion

All of what is featured in the opening sequence to Fast and Furious 7 reflects the overall genre of the film. The film is an action crime thriller, many of the conventions of this genre of film are presented in just the opening. For example, the action genre is presented by the use of props such as guns, which are typical in an action film, also costume such as the military/SWAT team. The crime genre is also presented in this opening, for example the idea that this character has forced his way into the hospital due to him obviously not legally being allowed, he has obviously injured and killed these people.