Motion Graphic in Film - Opening Sequence Analysis

Miss peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is a movie directed by Tim Burton released in 2016, based on a best selling book of the same name by Ransom Riggs.

In short, the movie is about how a grandchildren discovers his childhood stories told by his grandfather about children with special abilities (which they refer to as 'peculiars'), the place where they keep themselves safe (or 'loop' as in that place, the time and day are on loop forever, which making them unable to age) as well monsters that consume peculiars' eye (refers to as 'Hollowgasts') are all true and not just some stories to entertain him as a kid.

The opening sequence, composing of 2 minutes of photo collages with some photo with dates written on it along with shots of articles and news paper cuttings in a gloomy and mysterious style which makes the opening able to convey the mood of the whole film.

the movie plays around a lot with smoke. It naturally convey the sense of mystery, as well as the presents of smoke in the film itself such as one character has the ability to turn anything it touches into ice (that creates icy smoke), one character has the ability to start fire, and Miss Peregrine's character can be seen smoking pipes throughout the film.

Apart from the characters, the environment of Cairnholm, a fictional island located in Wales also appears misty throughout the movie and when the main character walks through a cave surrounded with smoke.

Through the dated photograph and dates written on the map, it tell us the different timeline ranging from 1902 to 2016. This implicitly tells us on time travelling presents in this film. As such, the loop that the main character visited is stuck on the 3rd of September 1943 while the current year is in 2016.

In one scene, a clock can be seen turning backward. It can be understood that the film (as what has been mentioned) uses time travel as one of the element as watch or clock turning backward can universally can be recognized as 'turning back the time' in films. 

Going back to the origin of the story, the book which this movie is based on were developed through collections of vintage photographs available in the author's possession. Although the amount of the photographs presented in the movie is not as much as it is in the book, the opening sequence shows us what the viewers need to know about the universe, both through the photograph as well as the article cuttings.

The wrecked patterns gives you both mysterious aura, as well as to show how old the materials being used are. But in this scene particularly, it shows a picture frame glass breaking which (personally for me) introduces us to the antagonist of the film, befriended with the physical of the character shown as having white eyes.

Speaking of mysterious, there is a scene in which words are being covered in black ink to hide the information beneath it, which supports the style of the opening sequence as being 'mysterious'.

In term of transitions, there are two scenes in which a bird's wings flap and cover a half of the screen. Birds are among the main influence of the story, in which in the title itself, a peregrine, a species of bird is being used, also a bird that Miss Peregrine can transform into. One transition shows the bird turning into smoke, which can be depicted by Miss Peregrine's habit of smoking pipe.

Finally at the end of the opening sequence, marks on the map shows the different timeline, from 2016 against the one dated 3rd September 1943, the date when the loop is being created and will stuck on the same day forever. This tells us that 2016 and 1943 are so close to each other that we can go back in time or go towards the future defying the laws of time.

As the opening sequence ended, the scene abruptly change to a relaxing, peaceful shot of a beach in Florida, which can be said that some tempo within the movie will change in a fast motion, from a happy scene to a disastrous one.

Moving on from the visual of the film, the soundtrack being used, composed by Mike Higham and Matthew Margeson successfully adds feel to the theme and mood of the opening sequence.

And that ladies and gentlemen, wraps up my analysis of the opening sequence for Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, a movie directed by Tim Burton that was released in 2016.