Planning: Good fellas film opening analysis

Link to the opening = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8pQJOeTkFs

Film name: Goodfellas
Year it came out: 1990
Director: Martin Scorsese
Production company: Warner bros
Distribution company: Warner bros
Budget: $25,000,000
Gross: $46,836,394
Rated: R
Awards won: Best actor in a supporting role

Title
The opening starts with Warner bros flying into the shot like a car would as the titles are representing the movement of a car as the sound played over them is the noise of a car zooming across a road. Warner bros are shown first in the titles as the titles are putting the information in order of importance and of course Warner bros are the most important company and then it descends in importance. The first actor to be shown in the titles is Robert de Niro as he is a hugely famous actor and because of his status he is put first in the cast list. The cast list just like at the start goes down in importance. The title then shows some information to the audience to tell them its based on a true story.

Camera/sound/editing
As the titles end an establishing shot is shown to show the audience where the location is set and as the car sweeps across the road with the diagetic ambience of the open road and sound of the car engine roaring the camera pans around the car. The camera cuts to inside the car with a close up of the main characters. The diagetic ambience plays throughout the scene as the actors look around confused as to what they can hear. The banging noise is most likely diagetic as it sounds like its coming directly from the scene. It then cuts to the car still and them walking out to the boot of the car to investigate showing a long shot of them. It then cuts to a shot of the car with the camera zooming in increasing the tension and mystery of what is in the boot. The camera cuts to three gangsters and zooms in as they prepare their weapons and the camera pans to the gangster with the key as he approaches the car. The scene cuts to the guy opening the car boot still zooming in slowly. There is no sound apart from the ambience and the car thudding which raises tension and makes the audience anticipate a shock. As he opens the boot the camera cuts to the gangster with a huge knife and stabs the man in the bot repeatedly with non diagetic stabbing noises cutting to another character showing his reaction. Then it cuts to the same character firing a gun with non diagetic gunfire sounds to add emphasis to the action. As the gangster begins to shut the boot a voiceover of his voice is played over the scene (non diagetic). As the camera zooms in for a close up of the gangster a very jolly score is played over the top. As the titles fly in just like the start, the soundtrack keeps on playing and the title of the film is introduced.

Atmosphere/Narrative/location
The audience are given an immediate time setting as the car shown in the first scene is a classic American car immediately setting up the time this was roughly set. As the scene progresses it becomes more and more evident that this is set in the not too distant past in America due to mise en scene. The costumes are very formal and not too long ago were made but due to the characters features such as haircuts it becomes clear this was set before 2000. The location makes it difficult to tell when this is set and where it is set apart from the fact that the side of the road they are driving on is on the right so it is clearly not set in places with left hand driving , such as Britain and Australia. Also due to the car being driven and the accents they are talking in strongly suggests it is set in America. Their accents also suggest a very stereotypical gangster. The atmosphere seems quite violent and it seems that that will continue throughout the film.

Target audience
The target audience for this film would be around 18 to around 30 as this film is clearly meant for mature audiences who like action and gore. Also fans of gangster movies who like mainly thrillers and action. Another audience could be fans of Robert de niro as he is a huge actor who has a lot of fans that would want to watch this movie because he stars in it.