The Departed Opening

The Departed as previous opening examples is again by the institute, Warner Bros. Unlike many other examples, The Departed immediately begins with opening titles with only what appears the faint diagetic sound of docks, (referring back to The Dark Knight particularly) and is a black and white title sequence (somewhat the same concept as the actual Inception title sequence opening I have yet to upload).

00:35

The opening clip immediately dives into a two shot of two men fighting – clearly from the quality and control of the clip it is made so to represent past images or a TV / amateur showing, rather than the actual clip itself. It is interesting that the clip begins immediately with violence as none of the others have so far – though it does enlighten literally the idea of the crime thriller. By 00:36, the clip has developed to a long shot to reveal more men joining in, to beat up one of the original men shown. Mise en scene examples also that it is a public, city area as the building behind is made of what appears solid stone and large buildings – appearing from first impression to be of some city street. This relates to the action of the shot, as it reflects upon the class of the men beating the other up as a regional representation as the lower city populace, being violent – being the antagonists.

00:35 – 00:42

There is no diagetic sound from these clips, or any other than the over layered dialogue of what is styled as memento clips or memory clips, to explain the narrative: ‘’I don’t want to be a product of my environment,’’ – this relates directly to the representation of the city lower class being the antagonists and as the clip changes at 00:42 to a ‘cop’ mid shot, it further examples the ideal of what is happening and the point within the voice over lay.

00:42

One of the first things I noticed immediately of this opening sequence was the mid shots of characters. Here, in the frame focus is a black policemen at a mid shot – the camera is drawn to him to create the representation of authority and power because of his race; however it is the camera hold which installs this example. As the shot goes to a point of view shot, to reveal the rest of the street, as soon as it moves from the first police officer, it reveals a second, at again another mid shot at 00:45.  This shot creates again the representation of authority as the focus of the shot is drawn to the police character, though he does not seem as powerful because firstly he is white and is behind the black police man, which could be considered as a large role reversal to the stereotype that is of the white man being more dominant.

Because these characters are policemen (mise en scene) the viewer is lead to believe that they are the protagonists, thus the immediate mid shot draws power and focus to them – this is something I will have to bear in mind, as well as ethincity representation groups, as this is example of how the protagonists are portrayed with more than one race.

The reprsentation of power is much as the shot/reverse low / high angle shots in Inception.

(All the whilst the narrative is over layered.)

‘That is only a way of saying, that we had each other’ is said in the over lay briefly before 00:58-01:01 are good examples of the shot I will show bellow.

01:01

The ‘that we had each other’ literally portrays a sense of community, which is the representation of the black ethinicty and the idealology that black communities within one area is a strong community; that they rely on each other. 00:58 particularly when the mob is running, shows an antagonist snippet of the concept. Again these two shots go back to the immediate regional representation of where these people live; the mise en scene of the city creates an environment that is stereotypically expected to create and show antagonists. However, as the clip develops, it also involves the race representation also.

Around 01:00 is where the incidental music begins also, creating a very 'city landscape' atmopshere which fits in a blues format, to embed itself with the troubles of this particular time and of course the general atmopshere of the city.

01:03

The shot is a crane, establishment shot of the city ‘Boston’ (explained by previous titles in the opening sequence). The nature in the focus of this shot creates the impression similar to a high angle, which embeds a representation of weakness, futility, but on a grander skill – possibly implying that those within the city are nothing in comparison to the city itself. However, this shot also establishes the mise en scene, or the ‘environment’ in which this clip is set and also helps aid the representation of regional class (particularly as factories can be seen; aiding lower classes) and also ethnicity as it has already been explored, the viewer is lead to expect it.

01:13 – 01:34

This shot is a left track shot that follows the shadowed figure crossing through what appears a garage. Because the character is the first to be this close, that appears of the actual clip rather than memento shots, it gives the foreshadowing and suspicion as to who this character is – and also hints towards this character as being the over laying voice as he is the first to be actually shown. Mise en scene, camera work and sound work effectively here to not only create a sense of foreshadowing, but to also create the representation as previously set by the establishment shot, that the character is in some way an antagonist because there is no primary nor side lighting projected upon the character as it tracks (this is interesting as one of our ideas was to have one character in the room in light and the other shadowed such as this). Again the shot opens the representation of the city as it is seen from a lower angle of the track shot; there is also interestingly a black car outside. Immediately the black car projects the sensation of power and authority and key links to the character in motion as they track past; thus reflecting that he has power and authority.

As this shot is shown, the voice over track is still playing and there are a few important parts, three examples, two of which are racist. By highlighting that the voice over is racist (if it is this character) it gives incentive motive for the character to be an antagonist as generally a protagonist does not example slang as this; most importantly it creates the representation of conflicting ethnicity within an city area – again relating back to the establishing shot.

However, as the shot gets lighter as it tracks further to the left and light is projected, it does not make the character appears as bad as an antagonist, but instead has some clear motives, more so when ‘you have to take it’ is expressed.

From here the shot changes through jump editing.

The clip also opens up orginality, as from 01:39 - 01:50 the shot is a point of view shot which tracks the man shown above, until finally falling upon a character at the bar (catching a reverse shot). This shot is good as it examples varity within the clip, and how to create a simple match of introducing the character the camera is closest to.

Most importantly, this shot establishes also the relationship between these two characters through both shot and mise en scene. Firstly the shot shows a great distance between the two characters, and the bar man's head is turned away - yet most importantly it is that they are both wearing blue, but different shades of blue. This suggests that the two are allies in some way, that both are also inteligent, however, because the darkest blue is of the character closest to the camera, it creates the connotation that this said character has more authority over the bar character; the darkeness in shade and tone aids to connotation. Thus creating a great example of mise en scene to show the two characters relation.

01:57 this shot examples why there is such distance between the two, as the shot shows a close up of money - money is an insentive of crime also.

02:00 the character closest to the camera appears from physicall shape to be the character from the left track shot because he is again shadowy, and generally dark, reflecting the antognoist motives.

02:05
Although the narrative would have suggest this shot is focused upon the women behind the bar, the shot is actually focused on the boy wearing a green shot as the rest behind is blurred; creating visual reality, but drawing attention to this character, although he is not being addressed.
Firstly, the women behind the bar is blonde, this relates to what I had briefly watched of SWORDFISH, as he mentions 'bang, the blonde girl gets it in the head' - it always appears that blonde haired women are used in crime or thriller films for either victums or lust; the narrative of The Departed would suggest lust however. Mise en scene is used again as the female character is wearing the same blue coloured shirt as the bar man, suggesting an allience / partnership / work partner as him, as well as some connection with the shadow character exampled.
However, the shot is primarly drawn to the young boy. Because of the nature of the reverse shot, it shows that the man is interested in the boy, thus showing him in the shot. Intersting, though that green connotates ambition and greed (dark green) which foreshadows the events to come within the film to the audience, as well as creating the idea that the young boy has ambition; thus focusing on him.

From this opening squence I have gained again ideas of how to use connotation through mise en scne, and mise en scene generally, as establishement shots present the back drop, it aids to representation of the characters shown - mid shots particularly are used to create the sense of authority rather than just low angle shots.
Two shots seem also important, to show the character relationships and what the audience can expect. Lighting as well is important as it creates a sense of foreshadowing also.