Welcome to the blog OliRic Production's Richard Mclachlan, charting the evolution of the opening to the new feature film Acts of Repulsion, jointly produced with Oli Preston, click here to view his youtube account. You'll be able to see the final cut on my youtube channel, click here to view my youtube account, as well as various short videos and podcasts right here on this blog! Enjoy, and please feel free to comment/add suggestions!



Friday 31 December 2010

RM - Deconstruction of I Am Legend

I Am Legend (Francis Lawrence, 2007)
Budget: $150,000,000
US Takings: $256,386,216
UK Takings: £25,348,532
There are plans of making a prequel.
Warner Bros. Pictures
Village Roadshow Pictures
Weed Road Pictures
Overbook Entertainment
Radio or television sports program whilst the company titles are being shown
56 seconds till first shot – which is watching a TV, centered
Informing audience what’s happening in the news (verisimilitude)
Interview is shot like a tradition news interview (focuses on the interviewer and interviewee when speaking)
News story insight of what’s the film about
New story – Cancer cure found?
Black screen
Anchorage of time (3 years after the cure has been found)
several establishing shots
City deserted?
City is New York – anchored by the first establishing showing the skyline
Audience can only hear wildlife
Birds eye view shot – something appears at the bottom of the screen. Car? (Audience can hear a car engine)
Close-up of sniper being picked up, camera pans with it to show audience main character. Hunter?
Shot-to-shot of him and his companion – a dog. Best mans friend?
Different ranges of shots use featuring close ups, mid-long, two, point of view, over the shoulder, match on action, extreme long to close up to long, panning, and tracking.
Poster saying “God Still Loves Us” Reference?
Deer jumps over the bonnet of the car – makes audience jumps
Use of same types of shot again but at a quicker pace and with deer and the car chasing them.  Reference to past history?
Panning and tracking shots of car power sliding.
Several over the shoulder shots of looking out of the windscreen, close ups of tyres and reaction shots of the main characters reactions
Several group shots of deer running with each shot focusing on the main character’s car.
Several point of view shots and group shots of deer running.
Use of over the shoulder and side shots when main character aims to shoot one followed by a over the shoulder shot (over the main characters shoulder) maybe a point of view shot taken from the dog Camera shaky – handheld? Bumps in the road – verisimilitude?
Frames shot with two police cars focusing on main characters car hand-brake turning
Centered shot of main character’s car which pans up to reveal road block, the shot is just of buildings and cars deserted
Weird noise coming down the road, which has a road block
Reaction shot of the main characters followed by the dog barking twice – something down there? – Something going to happen now or in the near future of the film
Jump cut – shows time has moved on
High shot/two shot pans up and behind the two main characters
Centered mid-shot of main character
Close-up of dog
Side mid-close up shot of main character holding a sniper (centered), when he looks down the scope (verisimilitude) camera changes to show a deer walking around a corner.
Camera tracks the two main characters who are tracking the deer
Use of a hand-held camera – camera shaky – something else out there, something following them
Close up and over the shoulder still using a hand-held camera
Mid-shot of deer grazing with the main character in the background hiding behind a car, a lioness jumps from off-screen into the shot and attacks the deer, the camera pans across. This is followed by a reaction shot of each main character (both are close ups)
After this there are several shots using over the shoulder from over the main character’s shoulder watching the lioness, some of these shots pan to reveal a lion and its cub. Followed by close up of the main character’s reaction.
There is then the use of a side mid-shot where a watch alarm sets off followed by a close up of the watch. After this shot there is an over the shoulder shot but the main character turns around to show his reaction followed by a over the shoulder shot of the sun.
Has the sun got something to do with New York and why it’s deserted? What happens at night?
This is followed by a over the shoulder – close up – over the shoulder  between the lion family and the reaction of the main character
The shot then is a long shot of the two companions walking away, the shot pans up to show the audience the buildings in New York.
This is followed by the opening title: I AM LEGEND
The opening sequence is 7 minutes and 54 seconds long


No comments:

Post a Comment

Please ensure comments are appropriate.