Analysis of 'The Italian Job' Opening Sequence

'The Italian Job' written by Troy Kennedy Martin and directed by Peter Collinson in 1969 is a classic British crime caper film. It starts out with an establishing shot of the Italian alps following a 'Lamborghini Miura' making it way through the mountain range. At this point the music begins,'On Days Like These' by Matt Monro, this gives the start of the film a relaxed light hearted feeling that you would expect from the caper. A number of different shots are designed to show of the land scape adding to the atmosphere drawing the audience into the film. This allows time for the credits to be shown. The writing looks almost hand written which is also an aspect which shows its soft side. As the car heads towards a tunnel the music fades out and you hear the car racing through the tunnel, with a screech of the tires an explosion takes place dragging the audience out of its relaxed state and boosting their interest of the new situation. The camera switches to the other side of the tunnel where we see men and a truck back out of the tunnel telling us this was a deliberate act to get ride of the character in the Lamborghini. this is the point were the story actually begins with the truck pushing the car of the cliff and dramatic music accompanying the action as the reef rolls down the cliff after him. We have established the location in the sun of Italy, the use of sound has changed as the visual image has. the audience is now eager to see how the rest of the film pans out.

Analysis Of Opening Sequence

As part of our A.S Media project we were required to analyze two opening sequences. As our film is going to be a crime caper I choose to analysis the 1963 classic film "The Pink Panther" as this was one of the first original crime caper movies.

The film begins with when the pink panther diamond was first made. It opens with a young girl been given the pink panther as a gift, from who we assume is her father. The camera then pans forward into the diamond as it is being tied round her neck. The audience is then thrust into this cartoon world where literally a pink panther is shown on the screen. This character is shown inconspicuously moving across screen. Jazz music begins to emphasize the secret nature of the character as he tries to escape from a 'Inspector Clouseau'.

Full Synopsis Of Our Film

To save their families a team of crooks, headed by Damingo Flake, must steal a priceless painting worth £3,000,000. Set in modern day London the painting is set to be the most valuable piece of art the Tate has ever seen. With the heist successful the team realize that Johan Whit stole the wrong painting and that they really come away with one worth £300. Its up to the veteran con artist Roberto Coupe to sell the dud for more than its worth. But Johan is convinced that the ex criminal is out to take the cash.

The elaborate plan takes the youngster Alan Hutter out of his depth, but he soon finds his feet amongst the run of the mill criminals. But neither Alan or Damingo believe Johan and his bid to prove to the group that Roberto is a crook, puts the group in jeopardy. Meanwhile the attempts of a former cop to foil the team results in complications for Hutter.

The team are lead around the world by the mysterious Coupe. Selling the painting takes them to Millwall, Monte Carlo, Italy, The Bahamas and Paris. The buyers are more crooked than the team and they face an uphill task to survive in the underbelly of the crime world.

With Johan driving Damingo up the wall, and money running out its a race against time to get the painting out and the cash in. Can the grifters get what they desperately need to save their families?

Production Logo Research & Ideas

Part of the overall objective is to design and create our own production company logo. We sketched out a few ideas to start of with, and they can be seen below. They were very quick sketches, and the purpose was to quickly come up with ideas of what it would look like. All designs include text and read, 'R2-54 Productions'. This will obviously not be the final name and the overall design will be more professional, but the sketches display brief ideas of the shape and, to an extent, the design of the logo. The final design will most probably be in colour, and the text will be generated on a computer and have a fresher, cleaner look.

This is the first idea for the design. It is quite a recognisable logo. The 'film reel' design will allow the viewers to relate it to a film, therefore making it obvious that this is what we have set out to do. The text is centre-aligned, giving the clean look. Apart from the text, there is nothing else within the logo, meaning it is not busy and is easy for the viewer to take in.

This design is also simple, yet the 3d effect gives it a more complex feel. I saw a similar design on the Internet, but decided to simplify it, in order to make it easier to understand as the one that i found had a more complex design and was altogether too 'busy' for what we intend to use it for.



This is the most simple design idea of them all. It is a square, with rounded corners and the text once again centre-aligned. We intend to opt for a simple and 'clutter-free' logo, as to hopefully give the whole production a clean appearance.

As we have chosen a British crime caper as our genre of film, we will most probably create a logo which relates to this genre; including conventions which will help to achieve the desired feel of the production.

Analysis of Logos

New Line Cinema logo and Warner brothers pictures are both from the time Warner Company. New Line Cinema are in charge of making the film and will continue to produce merchandise to increase profits. This logo has the classic image of the film reel to relate to what it does, allowing everyone to understand what the company represents. The dark background with light behind the main image draws your focus to the centre followed by the titles, this is how the visual hierarchy has been set up to draw your gaze. the only other information is that their part of the Time Warner Company.

Warner brother pictures in a sub division within the time Warner Company. This is known world wide as the trade mark of Warner brothers, the logo its self has clouds in the background giving it its own structure within any commercial branding it is linked to. The gold and blue work together to create an image that is recognised and connotes trust for parents. The image fills the screen leaving no room for anything to take your eye.

Columbia Pictures from Sony Pictures Entertainment, is almost the opposite to the Time Warner Company. The logo is full, it contains a cloud background but is dark as if at sun set taking your attention up the statue towards the shining light in the centre of the word Columbia, the logo was originally created in 1924 and through out the years has slowly changed to what we see today. The logo has only changed to keep modern but keeping it originality so it can still be recognized by an older audience and acts as a symbol for a respectable company. It suggest Columbia are involved with serious films.

Universal Studios is a film making company from Hollywood it is one of the longest running film production companies. It has generally been the same image since 1912 with the image of the globe and the word universal around it. this is sometimes adapted to the film the film that has been created for instance for 'E.T- Extra Terrestrial', it was shown backwards moving away from the earth towards space.

The Decision

Our choice consisted of:
1. A supernatural thriller with a strong female lead.
2. A British social realist drama.
3. An adventure story for younger audiences.
4. A teenage romantic comedy.
5. A crime caper with an ensemble cast

As none of our group members were female, it would have been difficult to involve someone else in our project in order to have a strong female lead. We also feel we wouldn't enjoy making this opening and couldn't use our talents to create a high quality film opening sequence.

The British social realist drama was one of the options we narrowed these five down to, however again we thought it was not right as it would be to deep and not allow us to express ourselves.

An adventure story for younger audience was another maybe, but we decided it would be unfeasible to shoot a young child, (a convention of a lead character we thought was common)

A teenage romantic comedy was also ruled out because we don't have a female in the group. We were not so enthusiastic on an all male romantic comedy as we felt it would be easier to have a girl in the group for this.

Finally a crime caper. As a group we couldn't find anything wrong with this idea. It didn't need to have a female in the cast and also didn't need young children or old people to fit its genre. We believe this was the easiest option for a group of our nature.

Opening Sequence Analysis - 'Goldeneye'

The opening sequence we have chosen is Martin Campbell's 'Goldeneye' based on Ian Flemings character James Bond.

The scene starts with the recognizable white circle crossing the middle of the picture accompanied by music that is now famous for building tension, action and the start of a Bond film. James Bond then turns and shoots at the screen, this is followed by a blood effect which drops from the top of the screen. This shows his class but also his ruthlessness. You have now been introduced to the main character so the music fades away and the film begins.

'Goldeneye' begins with an establishing shot of a plane flying over a damn, the music has changed to a deeper, softer, mysterious tone as you try to understand whats happening. Notice how the camera zooms into the damn and not follow the plane, now the audience know its the damn that's going to be the focus, not the plane. The camera follows the aircraft in and begins having long shots of Bond running across the damn with the background music slowly increasing in volume and tone. At this point the music dies away and we are left with the main character standing on the edge of the structure as he jumps we hear the wind whistling past him and tells the audience this is a dangerous act. At the end of this part, it is established that Bond is unlike any other man, he is a spy, who has gadgets at his disposal. This will tell the audience he is some form of secret agent.

On entering the building a close up of Bond's eyes is the most the audience has seen of his face and shows his calm and focus. His dark clothes are seen as military and stealthy. The audience see a man in the toilet and then from bird's eye view you see Bond take off the grate. From then you know Bond is about to attack. The man is seen reading a newspaper, which tells the audience he is unaware of the imminent attack. We see the other man in the toilet leave the room, which tells the audience the man on the john is alone. Then comes the first dialogue. This makes a change from the music which preceded it.

After this, we see Bond move out through a door with his weapon in hand and ready to fight ,the silencer indicates he still hasn't been found. Once again the Bond theme kicks in as the pace of the film picks up. He now begins to look around the area checking where he is and needs to go with quick movements and sharp camera work. He encounters the barrel of a gun with someone speaking Russian. However this turns out to be his colleague and both continue the mission together, this increases tension but turns to relief as they know each other.