The Godfather

Audiences and Institutions

  • Title: The Godfather
  • Director: Francis Ford Coppola
  • Release Date: 24th March 1972
  • Certificate: 18
  • Awards: 33 wins & 19 nominations.
  • Genres: Crime, Drama, Thriller
  • Production Company: Alfran Productions
  • Distribution Company: Paramount Pictures
  • Total Gross: $133,698,921
  • Target Audience: Older teenagers but mainly adults.
  • Advertisement: Cinema preview trailers and posters.

Titles

  • What titles come first and why?

We firstly have the production company’s name and the word “presents.” This enhances and promotes the company’s popularity and their importance to the film as the audience may already be familiar with some other films they distributed and worked with. We do not see any other titles other than the distribution company name and the film title.

  • What font, style and colours are used?

The font is very stylised and old fashioned. This reflects the time zone of the film (40’s-50). The colours used are just black and white. This illustrates the dramatic and serious tone of the film and the reverse out technique of the white writing on the black background makes the words stand out to the viewer. Especially, the title of the film, which comes up after the distribution company title, as it is in bold.

  • What is the size of the font? Where is the text placed in the shot, why?

All the font is shown in a large size but the title is especially large as it is emphasising the logo and the title to the audience to make it more memorable and recognisable after they’ve seen the film.

Order of titles

 

  1. Paramount, A VIACOM COMPANY.
  2. *Trumpet music*
  3. Paramount Pictures Presents.
  4. Mario Puzo’s The Godfather
  5. *Narrative*

 

  • What effects or transitions are used? Why?

There aren’t really any key special effects used in this short opening of the film but there are some fading transitions used when each title appears and as the first close up shot of the film comes up as well.

Micro Analysis

Camera Shots

  • Close up of man who is speaking.
  • The camera slowly tracks out as he tells his story.
  • Over the shoulder shot of Don’s character as we see his hand.
  • Shot-reverse-shot of the two men talking.
  • Two shot of the two men talking.
  • Long shot of man standing at desk to establish the location.

Mise en scene

  • Dark lighting in the room.
  • All costumes are tuxedos, upper class.
  • Very long uses of dialogue, almost as if they are individual monologues.
  • The use of a small location with one character sitting down and the rest standing shows the power that the one character has over the others.
  • The dialogue sets the genre and the tone of the film as they are talking about crime and murder that have troubled their lives and they are planning what to do about it and how to deal with their troubles.

Sound

  • The opening titles have a distinctive instrumental trumpet in the background which attracts the audience’s attention instantly.
  • The dialogue in the room is very quiet and we hear almost no diegetic sound. This gives the scene a tense and intriguing atmosphere.
  • We hear a slight bit of music as “Don” lets out the other man to symbolise the isolation of the room from the rest of the world.

Editing

  • There are three fades used in the titles and in the first shot of the man speaking.
  • A few cuts used between the two men to show who is speaking and the different uses of dialogue.
  • The little use of editing makes the scene much more intriguing and tense as it adds to the slow-paced and quiet atmosphere of the sequence.

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