The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (Part 1) Opening Sequence Theory Research

This is the opening sequence to the Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy . Barthes five narrative codes and Levi-Strauss's binary opposites theories both apply to this sequence.

Barthes five narrative codes:

Enigma Code:

• We want immeadiately to know why the dolphins are singing
• After this the question becomes what are they singing about.
• When we have worked this out there are yet more questions. How is the world going to be destroyed? What dies it have to do with singing dolphins? And why are they flying to space?
• The sudden change from the singing dolphins to Arthur Dent’s house leaves us pondering what the sudden scene change is for and what this country house has to do with the end of the world?
• Our next question is why is Arthur’s house being bulldozed and how will he stop them?
• Finally the arrival of Arthur’s friend prompts many questions not least when Stephen Fry reveals he is in fact not from this planet. Who is he and what does he need to tell Arthur? Why is Arthur significant?

Semiotic Code:

• Rabbits, birds ,fields, birdsong, sunrise all connote countryside.
• Deserted house, caravan outside on dirt track-seems quite lonely, isolated, a bit run down
• Long flapping coat, shopping trolley full of beer and peanuts connotes Arthur's friend as strange and unusual.
• Arthur wearing dressing gown-connotes run down, tired

Symbolic Code:

• Large moon reflecting on river ominously and silently means something big or serious about to happen, big event, danger.

• Flying dolphins-extraterrestrial activities.
• Cup of tea knocked over when bulldozers arrive-end of normality?

Cultural Code:

• Signs of the countryside.
• Builders like beer and peanuts
• People with shopping trolly's are crazy.
• Councils are unreliable with planning permissions etc
• People watching dolphin shows at the zoo-common thing to do
• Drinking tea in the morning-typical English country activity
• Based on the book by Douglas Adams

Action Code:

• Dolphins singing and forecasting end of the world
• Dolphins flying to space
• Builders trying to knock down house
• Arthur trying to stop them
• Intervention of Arthur's friend, stopping the building

Levi-Staruss Binary Opposites:

• Clever dolphins vs Ignorant Humans
• Ocean vs Countryside
• Arthur vs Builders
• Arthur vs Bulldozers
• Arthur ignorance vs Ford's knowledge
• Builders vs Ford
• Peace and tranquility vs Noise and Panic
• Nature vs Machines

When creating our opening sequences, we will draw on these theories to appeal to audiences and create a gripping narrative structure.

Genre Research

To get a clearer idea of what genre is and how to create it, we were given cameras to try and capture "genre shots." This image is depicting the genre of high school comedy.

The shot is a medium long shot which means that the characters stance is clear but also the blue sky and streak of sunlight is obvious behind her.
This creates a positive mise-en-scene which is important for a comedy, as the aim of the image is not to be scary or claustrophic or intense but upbeat, cheery and quirky. The natural light from the bottom left hand side puts the character slightly in shadow which adds to the shadiness of the characters intentions but also  streaks across the screen  and lights the image up which again gives the poster a bubbly and sunny feel.
The model has a confident expression on her face as she stares almost cockily into the camera. Her body language connotes someone sure of themeselves, or someone who has (or at least thinks they have) swagger with the crossed arms and the direct address to the camera.
The character would be the bully character in the film. The low angle makes her character seem dominant and in control and the quirky angle also suits the style of the shot as a comedy genre shot.
The shot is also a very crisp shot which again is straightforward and unchallenging. This is because with comedy images audiences don't want to have to think too hard to work out what the image means or is depicting.

I noticed the blue sky and bright sunlight outside in the quad and wanted to use the benches out there to do something. I decided someone standing on the bench from a low angle against the sky with strong light coming in from the right would be quite a striking image. At first I was going for a superhero type shot but the shot worked much better as a comedy shot especially with the characters pose and expression.

If I could improve this image or do it again I would cut the two buildings from the side and just have plain blue sky and maybey have the character leaning menacingly towards the camera a bit more. I would have tried to achieve these effects but we were quite tight timewise so I only had time for one shot.

This could be useful for our final film as I would quite like to do either an action or a comedy opening.