Analysis of Opening Sequence

Pain and Gain

The movie I have decided to analyse its opening sequence is Pain

and Gain. In my coursework I have been asked to create an
opening sequence, so me and my group have created a large
variety of ideas and have come to the conclusion that we would
want to create a thriller piece, therefore leading me to analyse the
opening scene of Pain and Gain as it relates to our opening
sequence.

Pain and Gain is a movie that was created in 2013 and is based on a
true story of three men Mark Wahlberg who plays the character of
Daniel Lugo, Dwayne Johnson who plays Paul Doyle and lastly
Anthony Mackie who plays Adrian Doorbal. The story is about a trio
of body builders who engage in a series of kidnappings and
extortion.

The scene opens with an establishing shot of a man exercising and

groaning whilst doing this a slow increase of non-diegetic music
volume is appearing in the scene. We can also see in the scene the
sky that is very blue which can

connote a hot and

humid day also further connoting summertime. After it cuts to a
Point Of View shot of him carrying on the exercise but soon after still

in a Point Of Views shot he looks

behind him and sees a group of police cars driving, at the sight of
these police cars he screams F**k and quickly jump of the
exercising wall.
We can see a sense of urgency as it switches to a medium shot of
him not even taking the ladder down but jumping off the wall and
running and grabbing his jacket, they do this to maybe create a
sense of the character being in trouble. As he is carries on running
from roof top to roof top he comes to a complete halt and a medium
shot of him then cuts to a road where again he sees more police
cars arriving and a distinct shocked look on his face this creates
another idea to the viewers of again he is in trouble.

This then cuts to a Tracking Shot

of him scurrying rapidly through his balcony of his building then
further cuts to a slow motion shot of armed police and text at the
bottom of the shot saying June 17th 1995
 the effect of
this could be that it is leading up to a big climax and a high level of
threat later on in the opening sequence. Another cut occurs to a
long shot of Daniel Lugo the Antagonist jumping of the balcony into

a garbage skip. And we are then

shown him running in slow motion with very worried and scared look
at his face, whilst this is occurring there is non diegetic music in the
background with no other sounds which create a so called lonely
effect as well as a complete focus on the character running.

This suddenly
cuts to a green background with white text reading the title of the
movie Pain and Gain followed by a loud banging sound.
 Then another very slow motion
shot of the man running again carrying on that scared and worried
look, then in the background with use of a voice over the man is
saying, My name is Daniel Lugo and I believe in fitness.

This was possibly implemented to

help the viewers understand what the movie is main idea is about
which is fitness. As this carries on the slow motion comes to a
complete halt and then a diegetic sound of a police car is heard then
it is back into slow motion as he is hit by the police car, then once
again the slow motion stops when he crashing into the windshield of

the police car and then the music

stops and it fades out into black.