Opening Sequence Analysis of the Italian Job

For my opening sequence I analysed the title sequence of the Italian Job (2003 version).

http://tvshack.net/movies/The_Italian_Job__2003_/

Some details about the film:
The film was directed by - F. Gary Gray
Ensemble Cast of - Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Edward Norton, Seth Green, Jason Statha, Mos Def, Franky Go and Donald Sutherland.
Brief Narrative Description: This film is about an organised crime gang who plan and implement stealing millions of dollars worth of gold from the Italian mafia. The start of the film focuses mainly on this. Then a scene in the Alps turns the whole storyline upside down. During the Alps one of the organised crime gang turns out to be very selfish and have his own agenda. He takes the gold from the other members by force, using his own gang, and then kills the member who cracked into the safe. This leaves the other members extremely angry so, teamed up with the safe crackers daughter, plan to get even at the man who stole their money.

Description fo title sequence: This title sequence relies heavily on editing and camerawork to produce certain effects. The sequence starts off with a small horizontal gold line across the screen. This expands to fill half of the screen with an extreme long shot of Venice. The start of some percussional track is heard and overlays the whole sequence. The scene then cuts to a point of view shot of someone on a boat which is moving slowly through Venice. This appears in a small window of the screen. We then see different bars move across the screen revealing a map. This cuts to a shot of a boat with an over laid shot of the map. This technique of using bars and small windows to display images of a map and Venice continues throughout the opening sequence.

Analysis of title sequence: This sequence gives many references to the beginning of the narrative. The map that we see throughout the sequence seems to have various stickers and string added to it. At a glance the audience can't quite understand what the stickers say but they can focus on the times. This reveals to the audience that a crime is being very precisely planned. But although the title sequence seems to give away the whole narratve, it actually gives away a very small part of it, because this sub-narrative leads onto a much bigger and complex plot.

The camerawork in this scene is very clever in the way that it uses many different shots. During the title sequence we see midshots of travelling down the rivers of Venice, close-ups of the plan and close to midshots of Mark Wahlberg's Silhouette. But the camera also doesn't stay still. Every shot has a panning motion that moves across the map, to the side of Venice and up to reveal the silhouette of Mark Wahlberg. The shots of the map vary a lot as they show different angles of the map, with each revealing a little more about the sub-narrative.

The editing of this scene really helps to add subtleties to the camerawork. It does this by using small windows, horizontal bars and vertical bars. This makes the text less readable on the map but still allow the times to be clearly shown. The bars are also used as masks to only show the actual footage through the bar, almost like the audience are looking through a whole in the wall at the map. The pace of the editing changes depending on the speed of the percussional sound track. This combined with the panning and swirling of the shots of the map make it seem like the audience ar getting a sneak peak of the plan that its going into action. The titles themselves are positioned in normally dead areas of the scene or next to the bars/windows in the scene. This means that they aren't quite as noticeable as if they were covering the footage, which adds to the sense that not everything is going to be as it meets the eye.

While on the boat there is a relaxed atmosphere because the music is slower and quieter than on other parts of the scene. But there is also an anxious atmosphere due to the fact that the boat is moving along the rivers of venice by the unpopular channels through the buildings and staying in the shade, which isn't the normal path that people would take.

The staging of Mark Wahlberg is also very clever because the scene mainly has him in silhouette form making it harder for the user to identify it is him to start with. This makes us think he is a criminal by the way that he tries to keep himself disguised. But when he emerges from the gloomy shadows of the room by moving over to look at the final part of the map which is in a lighter area. We see a pleased look on his face as he looks at what he has accomplished. This then makes the audience identify with him more.

The percussional piece of sound that overlays the whole scene plays an important role. While the camera is showing the boat ride, the music has a more sinister and slower atmosphere to it, which tells the audience that something is going to happen and the characters are taking a risk because the camera is from the point of view of one of the characters. Then while we see Mark Wahlberg and the map the music speeds up creating a more tense atmosphere with elements that the character is trying to get this done quickly but also make sure that he hasn't missed anything.

So in conclusion, this sequence uses three micro elements of sound, editing and camerawork to portray hints and clues of the narrative.

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Jon