My Vision Of The Opening Sequence

I havent gone in to as much detail as I could of because I just wanted to write how I see the opening playing out Eg. I havent stated every camera shot just the ones that matter to understanding my vision.

The film opens with the sound of a gun shot and some atmospheric music which quietly starts and lingers in the background of the scene, while we are seeing a black screen with our film company logo/name. The audience is unaware of what is happening but the sound would imply that someone has been shot.

The sequence dissolves in to an atmospheric shot of the industrial area and within that shot we see two characters below on a roof top, one with a gun in hand and the other lying on the floor. There is blood splattered on the fans/surroundings nearby. And within this shot the police sirens start in the background adding to the music.

The camera cuts in closer to an over the shoulder shot of the villain with the victim lying on the floor with his eyes open and mouth slowly breathing (emphasis on the white of his eyes as its contrasting to the darkness around him). The villain begins to put his gun away and the voice over starts ‘Shot in cold blood… there was little I could do as this grungy dog peered over me and dominated the scene.’ (Something along the lines of that… I think the voice over should start by setting the scene and then diverge in to the whole story plot- politics, tyranny etc).

The camera changes to a close up of the villain who quietly sneers as he takes a cigarette and lights it with a smile on his face. (Voice over still going on describing the situation of the dirty streets and how thing came to be the way they were).

We cut to a master shot of the villain standing on the wound of his victim as he screams with agony; we change shot to a mid-shot of the villain as he pulls out his gun again and shoots his victim one more time. The camera focuses on the gun firing and the recoil of it and we cut back to the master shot which slowly moves back away from the scene and at this point the villain walks away and we (the camera) follows him down stairs which gives us a chance to do some match on actions.

Meanwhile the camera cuts back to the scene of the man lying on the floor and he has disappeared but there is a blood patch where he has been lying. The camera cuts about the scene and we change the style of editing to a faster pace of cuts which is in sync to dramatic music which has built up over the sequence and finally cuts to the main title sequence (THE STREETS RUN RED) and at the point it comes on to the screen the music cuts out but not totally out, just back to background atmospheric music. The opening fades out and ends.

By Matt