Sci fi title sequence

 GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

When looking into the genre of sci fi I decided to pick the guardians of the galaxy movie directed by James Gunn as it follows key conventions of a sci fi genre film. The move was released in 2014 by Marvel. The scene begins with a non diegetic soundtrack that presents the connotations of a serious/ evil character and atmosphere. This then stops and a diegetic soundtrack then plays (contrapuntal to the expectations of the genre) which completely changed the scenes atmosphere and makes us question what is happening. It then connotes a sense of comedy and gives the audience the impression that the narrative could change at any point, communicating a quick pace/ constantly moving narrative. This opening is located in an a very weird location (stereotypical of the sci fi genre) its rocky, with weird lighting which gives us (audience) an impression that this is an unknown world/ universe/ or planet location. Something that reinforces this is the CGI in which they have used. Within the sci fi genre it is extremely common to see mutants, aliens or extraterrestrial life forms of some sort; and with the CGI they have created small alien looking chameleons, which hugely reinforces the sci fi genre and magical world in which this character might be in.The character and only character which is presented in the opening scene (Chris Pratt) is a young Male who comes across as confident and relaxed. As he is harassed by these smaller aliens he flicks them off as if second nature and normality to him. Which makes us feel as if this world is not new or unknown to him; as an audience we then are engaged to watch more to find out more information on this world. As something that is so known and comfortable to him is so far from our reality, which is a way that sci fi genres tend to hook in their audiences. If we look at why people watch and consume certain medias is normally due to trying to escape their reality, information, education, entertainment and more. Sci fi tends to help audiences escape their realities creating something creative and interesting for audiences to be exposed to. A future narrative of this could be the exposure to this world and the storyline of this male character. We haven't even heard him speak yet; I feel that this was a purposeful and active choice as we don't know anything about him except his fearlessness and carelessness in this type of atmosphere. Further on , from what I have been able to gather is that maybe its him who does come across as so calm and kept together, maybe actually not as calm but scared and lonely and we as an audience might find out the truth of this and his personal story. 

The camera angles that were used were normally high angled establishing shots. This made him seem so much smaller compared to the massive location that he is in. This looking at it deeper could completely juxtapose him as a character; someone who acts so confident is actually so small and weak. Pairing this with the long durations of shots meant that he was completely exposed to the audience and the audience were able to analyze him in a detailed way. Even though he was faced with this small aliens, they were tiny and anyone could probably fight them off. It is no longer impressive after a while. But again this is the first impression that is given, they have successfully targeted a niche audience of sci fi lovers, by completely following the key conventions of the genre and sticking to what is simple yet effective.

The use of pleonastic diegetic sounds emphasize the peculiar sounds that come with certain actions and things he does. It makes us more engaged with the actions and unfamiliar activities. For example there is the use of CGI to create fire out of his shoes towards the end when he is flying from rock to rock. When paired with the pleonastic diegetic sound effect, it creates a hook to audiences as this is not reality. Overall this opening scene has successfully portrayed the sci fi genre as well as engaging and intriguing their targeted audiences through the following of the key conventions.