We’ve seen film editor Jacob T. Swinney juxtapose the first and last shot of a movie before. Now he’s back again, comparing how 70 more movies open and close. Obviously there may be some vague-ish spoilers in some of the closing shots and a few of the scenes in this cut are NSFW but it’s really interesting just to see how movies start and wrap up their stories, visually.
After numerous requests, I finally decided to create a sequel to “First and Final Frames”. Part II plays the opening and closing shots of 70 films side-by-side. Like the first video, some of the opening shots are strikingly similar to the final shots, while others are vastly different—both serving a purpose in communicating various themes. The side-by-side comparison can communicate an entire story, but also allows us to develop new theories about a given film. So once again, what can we learn from examining the first and final frames of a film?
