Guardians of the Galaxy vol.2 and Stranger than Fiction opening title sequence analysis

 Guardians of the Galaxy vol.2

Directed by: James Gunn

Starring: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista

Production company: Marvel Studios

Distributed by: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Release date: 05.05.2017 (USA)

Link to the opening title sequence:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UUIC4wC4WU&t=1s

The opening title sequence begins with the long shot establishing the location and the main action of the movie. The audience is thrown into the fictional, fantasy world of the Guardians of the Galaxy straight away, where tiny, vulnerable Groot - one of the main characters - is positioned in the lower angle of the frame. While he turns on the upbeat, cheerful music on the speakers, which is a diegetic sound, we can see the chaotic fight of the mystical creatures at the blurry background. As the percussion starts playing, the film title appears in the shot, occupying most of the space and catching our attention on the metallic golden and blue neon colours it is drawn with.

Even in the first 14 seconds, the audience is fascinated by the diversity of the colour and tone palette used in the shot in order to emphasise the futurism, prevailing in the theme of this movie. Freeze frame and a rotating tracking shot are used to change the angle of observation, introduce us to all the dimensions of the planet the characters are on and imply the fun, happiness portrayed in this scene. The sound is contrapuntal in the opening title sequence, as the soundtrack Groot is dancing to can be described as uplifting and positive, while the action at the background - tense and violent (we are observing an intergalactic war). The whole scene is an extra long take, with the shot duration being equal to the duration of the whole opening title sequence. Hence, the camera is freely moving around with tracking shots, rotations, pans, tilts, close-ups and long shots applied throughout the action. The director introduces us to the main characters by making them appear at the background, fighting in the war while the little wooden hero is dancing in the middle of the shot. All of them are trying to protect him screaming "Groot!" (- Chris Pratt) and asking him to hide or run away, but this character seems unbothered, dancing to the fun music he just turned on. 

This way we see that this team of Guardians of the Galaxy have warm relationships, they care for each other and try to keep each other safe. And even though we even observe Groot almost falling down a cliff in a tracking aerial shot, the music in combination with diegetic sound effects of the weapons, screams, roars of the magical creatures entertain us, make us want to dance and erase all the worries we might feel towards the characters. 

The action reaches its climax, when we hear some sort of opera singing in the background, observe the chaos happening during the war on this planet through fast paced tracking shots of Groot riding some mystical rat and hear the constant diegetic sounds of muffled screams, explosions etc. The neon titles keep appearing in the frame throughout the sequence, matching the atmosphere and the fantasy theme of the film. The scene comes closer to an end as the camera literally hits Groot, making him fall down, but then instantly stand up and start dancing again. This technique makes the audience feel themselves as the part of the action and the "one extra long shot" (in terms of duration) applied emphasises the continuity of the events, not allowing us to even blink while observing the dramatic action.

The finale of the opening title sequence is a long shot on the floor level, where one of the characters breaks Groot's speakers with his body, making the music stop and the tiny wooden hero - become mad, angry and annoyed really fast. This adds to the comical tone, that can be sensed throughout the whole scene. Overall, the audience clearly understands that the genre of this film is fantasy and comedy, gets introduced to the main characters - the Guardians of the Galaxy themselves and fills up with the positive spirit,  joy and entertainment. 

"Stranger than Fiction" 

Directed by: Marc Forster

Starring: Will Ferrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman 

Production company: Columbia Pictures, Mandate Pictures

Distributed by: Sony Pictures Releasing

Release date: 10.11.2006

Link to the opening title sequence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX4h1eP8bf4

The opening title sequence begins with a fast paced tracking long shot, that captures the Earth from the Space and then moves towards the location of the action. As the camera is "flying" through the atmosphere and sky, we can hear a variety of ambient sounds being applied: alarm, clock, car beeping, crowd noises, wind. As we are approaching the window, leading to the bedroom of the main character, a voice-over, which is a synchronous sound, can be heard.

The woman's monologue is introducing the audience to the main character, telling us about the significance of his persona in this story. The following teeth brushing scene, starting with a POV shot (from inside the mouth) plays an important role in setting the personality of the protagonist and the main themes of the movie. The audience observes Harold brushing his teeth in fast cut close-ups and mid shots, captured from different angles. Moreover, split screen technique is applied in order to imply the duration of this process.

The numbers (the amount of teeth, the times Harold brushes them in a certain direction) appear parallel to the objects in the shot, therefore they seem to be captured during the filming process rather than added during the editing process. Mirror mid shots and long shots are used to depict the character dressing up for work and the titles appearing on screen go parallel with the voice-over providing extra details, numbers and statistics. We realise Harold might be OCD, as he follows a strict system when completing such common activities like brushing teeth or putting clothes on.

The whole scene is accompanied by rhythmic piano chord sequence, keeping all the action fast-paced and upbeat. Long tracking and slow motion close-up shots guide us through the process of Harold being on his way to work. We can constantly hear the phrase "12 years" while the voice-over is describing Harold, which makes us think that something life-changing happened to him this period of time ago. More to that, his digital hand watches are being referred to multiple times during the sequence, which implies their significance to Harold and makes us think they will play an important role in this story. In one of the over-the shoulder shots in the office the protagonist gets asked what "89 times 1417" is, to which he confidently and instantly replies "126 000 113". Now the viewers might start thinking Harold is some sort of a genius or a math - obsessed male. A lot of ambient sounds, like the office chatting noise, as well as diegetic sound effects, like the watches alarm (which is weirdly exaggerated=pleonastic) are applied in the sequence. This makes us feel like Harold keeps everything around him under control and pays a lot of attention to details.

As the main character walks back home and the voice over implies that he "lives in solitude", the music becomes jumpy and even childish, turning into a contrapuntal sound. We feel like the director is making fun of the protagonist, implying that his difficult character and OCD made him lonely and he ended up being a loser. The wristwatch is being captured in a close-up again and the vice-over text makes us think it might be magical: "On Wednesday Harold's wristwatch changed". Finally, in the mirror mid-shot we observe the non-diegetic voice-over turn into a diegetic sound, heard by the main character.

As he is brushing his teeth, he stops, making the woman talking at the background stutter. "You just said Harold is counting brushstrokes, but how do you know I'm counting brushstrokes?" says the main character, talking to the voice-over at the finale of the opening title sequence. The audience is hinted that the movie's genre is fantasy, as we realised the wristwatch is magical and the weird protagonist can now hear the voice-over.

Overall, the main character, as well as his background, occupation and weirdly systematic habits were introduced to the audience, which leaves us with a rough idea about the plot that is going to be developed later. We are intrigued by the combination of relatively normal world Harold lives in and the magical things that have just started happening to him.