pulp fiction opening scene
TRANSCRIPT
Emma King-Lewis
PULP FICTION TITLE SEQUENCE
Open shot is two people in a booth within a coff ee shop, which is not what you expect from a thriller based movie
For the fi rst 4.18 minutes of the opening title sequence there is no titles or anything other than the two people in the booth, Only diegetic sounds and there are no special eff ects used
As you are not used to a thriller movie opening in this fashion you are drawn unto it even more as you are captivated, wondering what will happen next
COFFEE SHOP
The soundtrack for the fi lm is by Dick Dale and his Del-tones and the song is called Miserlou which is played when the titles start to come up which is at 4.19
There are no lyrics at all and the pace is extremely fast, which is in contrast to the quite and still scene that proceeded it, waking the audience up
SOUNDTRACK
Instead of the director dazzling you with colors and huge settings he is based it in a simple café/ restaurant with basic camera skills and two very good actors. The choice to go against the grain here is dazzling in itself
The image on the bottom of the slide shows how most of the titles come up which seems to be very old fashioned and similar to an old western fi lm
MISE-EN-SCENE
It is set in a café/ restaurant in America which is very basic and the beauty is in its simplicity
The fact that there is no suspense growing, drags the audience in more as it is not like the normal thriller
LOCATION
The fi rst title is at 4:19 and this is ‘Miramax Films Presents’ and this is the company of the movie that it is made with. This is important as it is also used for advertising.
From 4:19 and onwards there is 2.11 mins where there is no more speech and there is just background music and titles. The next important title is at 4.31 where it come up with who it is fi lmed by which is Jersey Films’ and the director is Quentin Tarantino.
Next is then the title of the fi lm ‘Pulp Fiction’ which scrolls up onto the scene rather than appearing suggesting that it is of the highest importance.
CREDIT SEQUENCE
The actors then follow on after the title of the movie comes up. It starts with John Travolta at 4.46 fi nishing at 5.31 with the last actor as Bruce Willis.
During this the title / sign ‘Pulp Fiction’ starts to fade away, completely disappearing with the last actors name at the end of a 45 second fade, highlighting its great importance to the opening title sequence.
After this it leads onto co-staring actors for 17 seconds.
Again this is highlighting the importance of the actors over the special eff ects, giving the audience an idea of what sort of fi lm it would be.
CREDIT SEQUENCE CONTD.