28 Days Later And Edward Scissorhands Pre Title Sequence Analysis

• Straight from the start the sound indicates to the audience that the film with have a light touch at the beginning but can rapidly change at any point and catch you off guard. This communicates to the audience that the even when there is light music playing, it does not necessarily mean that they are safe.
• The typography used is very plain white lettering that to me does not have any effect or meaning apart from it is in capitals which could suggest laboratory writing of some kind.
• The first sign of visuals that we are shown is of a monkey with what look to be mind testing cables coming out of its head, this suggests to the audience that they are monitoring something within the monkeys mind.
• The monkey is tied down which suggests to the audience that there is a valid reason for not letting him walk around and be free. The monkey is also being forced to watch what looks to be vandalism to on many screens which could be the reason that he is tied down as there could be some hint between these two things.
• The light sound track at the beginning of this sequence soon changes when we are shown the title of the movie, this suggests that the title is bad or is feared in some kind of way.
• The typography for the title changes slightly as when the heave music kicks in over the light music, a burst of red goes through the title of the film. This could suggest that there will be blood involved within this film, it also could indicate that something is being injected with blood or just injected with a toxin of some kind. This could be linked back to the monkey in the previous scene who is tied up. The injection of the colour red into the title suggests that there will be blood involved within this film and that this is an aspect for which the audience can expect.
• From this point onwards the typography of the titles are now splattered with blood stains throughout the rest of this pre title sequence, this could suggest to the audience that throughout this 28 days that passes, there is a lot of blood shed within that period of time.
• The visuals start to communicate more to the audience towards the end of the title sequence as we are shown through CCTV cameras the violence and fighting going between people which suggests to the audience that this is expected to happen in the film.
• Once again the visuals are used to communicate meaning to the audience as we see a man walking alone along empty streets in London. Anyone who has been to London or knows of this city will know that London is never that empty so this suggests to the audience that there is something wrong and that something isn’t right. It also communicates to the audience a little of what they are to expect within the film as a man walks alone with no one to be seen. This creates an enigma amongst the audience which is, ‘where are all of the people who are supposed to be here?’
• The blood stains on the typography look like the ones as if someone has been brutally killed and then dragged across a white flaw. This suggests to the audience that there will be killing involved within this film.
• The music used throughout the second half of this sequence is a very hardcore piece of music with heavy drums and electric guitar.
• Towards the end of the pre title sequence we are shown a monkey going wild in a see through cage. This could be the monkey from earlier as he is the audience now establish why he was chained up. But as you can see in the monkey’s eyes, something isn’t right as it tries to brake itself free out of its cage.

In-conclusion, the pre title sequence of 28 days later has been made to communicate the fact that the film is a epidemic horror and that the audience are to expect fast paced editing and a lot of blood used during this film, also the audience are to expect scenes within the film that will catch them off guard and make them jump. All of these things have been communicated to the audience through the sound, visuals and typography. The sound has communicated the fact that there will be scenes that catch the audience off guard as the light music in the begin soon changes when we are shown the title as the light music is cut straight to heavy drums and electric guitar music. The visuals throughout this scene have contribute to the communication to the audience by the way it has shown the violence through CCTV as well as the monkey shot at the beginning and end of the scene, this creates a sense of fear amongst the audience as now they don’t know what to expect as they’ve seen the look in the monkey’s eyes and if this has spread to humans, then what are they going to be like. Finally the typography through the second half of this scene has been used to communicate to the audience that there will be plenty of blood used in this film and that is one of the main things that the audience will see.

• First shot is of the film company, the films companies usual logo has been edited in some way to show that it is snowing this could communicate to the audience that there will be a time when its snowing in the film and that it might play a key part.
• Typography straight from the start is long, white, capital lettering. The long part of the lettering with its sharp edges look significant to me and could be significant to the audience as well as it could suggest that this film may be raggedy in some way.
•  The visuals communicate meaning to the audience in some of the first shots by the way the door is opened for us, this indicates to the audience that this is a very important door in the film. It may not be the door itself but the building it belongs to perhaps.
• Behind this door we are shown pure darkness and then the film title shows in original typography. The film title is ‘Edward Scissorhands’ this may sound like a name to the audience which could indicate that this man or boy or child could live behind this door and could live in the dark.
• The typography once again creates meaning for the audience as this time it has a transition used on it to make it move in a certain way. The title of the film looks like its making a crocodile’s mouth movement or even more significant a scissor movement to suggest to the audience that within this film there will be some sort of reference to the scissors that will be linked with the man or boy called Edward.
• As the scene progresses we are shown more of what is behind the door and the audience are then able to establish a setting that may feature within the film. The inside of the building is old and dusty which shows that not many people go there and that the last time a person was there, wasn’t any time soon.
• As the visuals move us up the steps of this building the audience is shown a dark room that we cannot see the inside of. This can communicate to the audience that low key lighting may be used in the film and it will mostly be used when in this setting.
• The visuals once again create meaning for the audience as we are shown what seems to be the making of a robot, but what is even more significant is the fact we get shown scissors which have been a key symbol that keeps cropping up throughout this pre title sequence that the audience can now establish is something important to the film.
• As the title sequence goes on we are shown more and more of these robots being made, which indicates to the audience that this setting may have once been a factory.
• Another key symbol has been used in this pre title sequence towards then end as we are shown what look to be a pair of artificial hands. The title designer would not have just thrown this in there if it did not mean anything to the film, so this communicates to the audience that the artificial pair of hands shown in the title sequence are a key signifier when it comes to this film.
• Just at the end of the title sequence we are shown a character and snow begins to fall once again just like it did at the beginning, the final shot is of a building on a hill. I think that all of these visuals can be linked together, as you could interpret this by saying that the snow over the character we are shown could suggest that he made this snow happen or has something to do with it, you could also say that house on the hill is linked with the door at the beginning of this pre title sequence and that we as the audience have been shown the inside of this house.
• The soundtrack used in this pre title sequence is very light music, the sort of music that you would associate with a church around Christmas time, the sort of thing that would be sung by a choir if you was to go in there. This communicates to the audience that the film will have a very light touch about it with regards to the narrative but also that it may be set around Christmas time at one point in the film.

In-conclusion the whole meaning that the pre title designer has tried to get across to the audience is that a link between the house, the man at the end of the sequence, the scissors and the snow will all be established within the film and that all of the audiences questions that they have will be answered, but in time. A lot of key symbols have been used throughout this sequence to get the audience involved with asking questions such as ‘why has the scissors just been randomly put there? What significance does that have?’ these are the questions that the pre title designer wanted the audience to have as then he knows that he has had an effect on what we expect the movie to be like. The audience know that there will be a house/castle setting used as they have seen it in the title sequence and the audience expect to see low key lighting used within that house, but what the audience can’t work out is what is the link between all the things above and how do they piece together.