Research(Film title opening) Despicable Me

Despicable me

(Cartoon)

The opening scene is of a minion, which are shown frequently in the film, bringing on the studio logo “Illumination entertainment”. The colour of the logo is white; white can represent innocence which shows that the minions are only small and innocent, even though they work for an evil man. As the minion is bringing the logo onto the screen, he trips up which shows us the film may have some funny parts, so is more likely to be a comedy.

 The opening credits then start, the first thing that appears on the screen is the name of the film, Despicable Me. Inside of the writing Despicable Me is the outline of the main character, Gru. The colour of the writing is red; this signifies that there is an element of danger about Gru, so we can guess he is an evil character in this film. The same song plays constantly in the background, which is Despicable Me, the song has a dark element to it, as the singer has a low voice, which has a slow tempo to it.

 The film then starts in Egypt. It shows a group of tourists, gathering round to see the pyramids. One child from the tourist group parts away from his parents and runs up to the pyramids. He sees a section of the pyramids sectioned off, and starts to run towards it. As he is running, music starts to play which has a quick pace to it, so we sense that there is an element of danger about what this boy is going to do. He runs up a plank of wood, which leads up to the pyramids, but with a small gap in between. He falls off the wood, straight into the pyramids.

This is where the scene goes quiet and has various close up shots of people faces watching as he falls and their expressions. We hear the sound of him falling, but don’t see him. The sound of him falling is emphasised to sound a lot more dramatic as they want the viewers to know how dangerous the act he has just done is.

We then hear a loud bang, which is the little boy falling into the pyramids. The scene then has close up shots of tourists reactions who are around, so we sense something is not right. The camera then flips round to show that the pyramids are there no more, and in fact are deflated on the ground. Sound then starts up again of people panicking and running around, the music playing is a lot faster now, as some action has occurred.

The scene is then changed to people sat at home, flicking through TV channels. Each Channel is showing a news broadcast in Egypt, on how the pyramids have mysteriously disappeared. Enigmas are then created here, as viewers want to know, who could have done this crime.

This is only created for a short amount of time though as the scene then changes to a close up shot of a man driving in his car, we don’t realise who this man is until the camera slowly zooms out, and we see that it is Gru. The lighting then changes to low key as he is a dark and evil person. Another Enigma is created here, as viewers now want to know, how he has stolen the pyramids. The song despicable me then starts to play again as Gru starts to walk around.

A point of view shot is used here, as we see everything that he would see. There is no talking during this scene, only the song despicable me playing in the background, which is known as non-diegetic sound as it wouldn’t be heard in the film. All actions that Gru does in this scene, just show how evil he is and what he is capable of. He is wearing all black clothes. Black is a mysterious colour, which can be associated with fear and the unknown, as we don’t know just how much he is capable of. It usually has a negative connotation to it. Black is considered to show the strength and authority he has over people as most people, shown in the scene avoid him, when seen.