Conventions of a thriller opening

To create a successful thriller opening, many things need to be done in order to grip the viewer and to make sure they do not switch it off. The opening sequence is probably the most important part of the film, as it sets the mood, and gives vague character information so that the audience want to watch and find out more. In opening sequences in films such as inception and green zone, there is a lot of action, and this immediately interests the viewer and grips them into the action. In other films like Se7en and Silence of the lambs, there is a more slow and creepy opening which also keeps the viewer interested as they want to know why the director has chosen this strange opening. Slow openings often seem to mess with the audiences mind a lot more, so it seems like a good choice as the viewer can get very confused and can start thinking of possible scenarios in their head. The character in the opening sequence needs to be quite strange, or a hidden character, which will create tension fot the audience which in turn will make them want to know who this character is. A lot of tension is built at the start which keeps the audience on the edge of their seat

Double Indemnity

Cinematography- The camera is used very efffectively in the opening sequence of Double Indemnity, as the rapid movement of the camera suggests something either not right is going on, or that the person the camera is following follows a very fast paced life. My fouth screenshot is a picture of a stop sign, as we first see a car speeding down the road and he obviously ignores the sign, so we as the audience are thinking why has he ignored it, what kind of rush is he in? The shot which is my first screenshot however, is very slow and it keeps the viewers interested, as all they see is a man hobbling towards the screen, and they cannot see his face, and do not know why he is hobbling. This immediately poses questions, like who is the man? why is he on crutches? and, Why can we see his face? The title on the screen is very bold and stand out in front of the man, which says a lot about the film already, just by calling it Double Indemnity as the audience immediately know that there will be a strange death or accident. The use of the camera continues to be clever throughout the opening sequence, as initially we cannot see the main character's face, we jsut see his big build and what he's wearing. Any facial shots we see are obscured by shadows or objects, which makes it strange for the audience as we do not know who this man is.
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Sound-The sound in the opening sequence is very cleverly used as it is very fast paced, much like the film, high pitched music is used as the car seems to be excaping from something or racing to someone. This is non-diegetic sound and is used deliberately to add tension to the scene for the audience. There is some diegetic sound in the opening sequence too which is of the car skidding and the other cars 'bibbing' this is useful for the opening of the film as we as the audience can tell it is going to be fast paced and action packed. The sound after he has got out of the car is also strange, as it seems to add errieness to the scene without anything actually happening. The music happening on my 5th screenshot is very clever, as th actor seems to be looking at the workers confused abd the music used is very strange aswell, very high pitched and slow, which makes the opening odd.
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Editing- A clever fade is used in the opening sequence, jsut after the cars have skidded, as this sums up the cars journey. One minute he is racing through town nearly crashing into other cars, then the next minute he is pulling up quietly outside what looks like a hotel and the cross fade is used to just cut out the main boring parts of his journey. The editing of the colour is very clever too, as it hides the characters face and adds to the tension as to why is his face hidden. The sound is cleverly put together, as the highest point of tension is accompliced with the the loudest and fastest sound.
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Mise-en-scene-The costume of the main character is very well chosen, as he is a very well turned out business man, and the opening sequence seems to be following him. This is reiterated by the sign just outside his door saying 'insurance' The dark colours used are very clever and appropriate as the character is a very dark and shady figure and the darkness helps to hide his identity to the viewers. The use of the nice fast car at the beginning shows that he may be very rich and have a lot of money. The main characters facial expressions show that possibly he is in some sort of danger or stress.
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The opening sequence suggests that this film is a thriller because of the way it's presented. The use of the dark colours create a nice tension which it leaves it open for the viewers to think of scenarios in their heads. The use of the fast car in the beginning scene portrays that the film will be fast paced and entertaining. the use of shadows to hide the man's face shows that the character may be seen as quite shady and maybe not a conventional upper class person.

Premonition:

Our main character, Damien,has continuous premonitions in his dreams involving specific reference to a symbol. (Right)

As these dreams become increasingly frequent and vivid, Damien becomes fascinated by this symbol and makes it his own business to find out what it means within the real world. The symbol is on advertisements, clothing and other manufactured products and although it seems to go unoticed, Damien realises that people are becoming emotionally affiliated with it. AS well as this, he also faces troubles at home when his girlfriend begins to turn against him.

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Damien's intense research into the symbol produces no deep results and he is kickstarted into physical action when he discovers a tattoo of the symbol on his girlfriends neck while she sleeps thus explaining the way she's been acting.

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The next month Damien spends examining the REM of his girlfriend in order to discover as much information as possible, the name of a man is repeatedly evident. He tries to find the man to no avail and later realises the man only exists in dreams/premonitions. People in the world all around him seem to be becoming brainwashed by the symbol and eventually people are spending 23 hours a day asleep- the only place they can see their master.

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Damien finds out that if he applies pressure to the tattoo on his girflriends neck it allows him to intercept her dream he there interrupts a meeting with the organisation and its followers with the intention to kill the master...

Shooting Schedule

We as a group have devised a very precise timetable which we will need to stick to in order to make our film successful and complete by the deadline. We have all checked our school timetables to see which days we have free periods in order to miss the least amount of school as possible. Our scenes are not being filmed in order, as previous scenes may affect the way that we film later scenes. The weather will also effect our filming, because if the day that we want to film in the park comes, and it's raining heavily, we will have to postpone the filming, otherwise we will be recording in the rain, where the camera will have to be sheltered and we will all get very wet.

Storyboard for Premonition

Our group took a lot of time in preparing and creating our storyboards for our thriller so that our group could visually see our opening sequence panning out in front of us. We also took great detail in colouring in our storyboard, so that we get an idea of our colour scheme, and how our shots will look within the frame. Each individual story board has a shot type, so that when we are filming, we know that we will have a certain range of shots in our opening sequence. Some of our shots in the storyboard have the camera movement box filled in, this is because some shots have no movement, and others we are not sure about the movement yet, and when we film them, we will come to choosing the movement.

Initial ideas

Written By James Sullivan
This is our initial ideas for making an opening to a thriller film. This is where we jotted down rough notes about how we should film our thriller, and also about different ideas and storylines. The idea of having a premonition can help people to relate to the thriller, as premonitions are real, so upon watching the opening sequence, they may believe the story, more so than if we had zombies.

This was the thriller questionnaire we handed out to people to find out what they like and dislike about thriller films.

Casting

Brick Opening Sequence

Title-

Brick was an interesting opening sequence to watch from the viewers point of view, as we were trying to work out what the director was trying to communicate to us. The way the title appears is very fitting for the type of film it is. The very normal, straight forward white writing on the black background makes the title of the film stand out. The title is also a Verb, so this confuses the audience as to why it is named this way, and makes the audience want to watch the film.

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How the setting/location is revealed-

The setting of the sewer is revealed in a very strange way, as the first time we see where they are, we see that there is a girl lying face down in the river. This immediatley poses the question to the audience of how and why is she in the river. Straight after this shot, we see that the boy is also in the river, looking at the girl. At first i thought he had had something to do with as to why she was there, but as i saw the strange confused and sad expression on his face, i realised that maybe he is, during the rest of the film, going to find out why she is there. The next location we see is by the looks of things a school, as we see someone's hand put something in a locker. This shows the audience the age of the actors, and that they are no older than 18. The third location is a strange location chosen, as it seems very isolated and derelict, as nothing seems alive and nothing seems to be there. This is strange for the audience when they see a car go speeding past, and the audience want to automatically know was it a coincidence that the car went past as he was there, or was it planned.

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Costume and props

The way that the bangle is shown on her arm is very important as this perhaps connotes to the audience that she is a school child, as it is a cheap piece of jewellery, as school kids do not have that much money. Also this bangle is a very important prop, as we see it as she is lying in the sewer, then 2 minutes later we see this arm with the bangle again, so we can tell it's the same girl. The costume that the dead girl is in is very well chosen, as she isn't dressed normally like any other day, but she is in a smart dress, shoes and shirt, and we can tell that she was dressed up to go somewhere smart. The clothes that the guy is wearing show that he wasn't out to look for this girl, as he is on what seems like school shoes, casual jeans and a shirt.

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Camera work

A lot of close ups are used on the boys face, to show the expression of how confused he is about the girls death. There is also a very important close up of the bangle on the girls arm, which shows how much importance it has to the opening sequence. My second image is of a high angle shot of the guy, which is showing the low status that he has at this particular moment, and the audience are wondering why he has this low status. Also my first image shows a medium shot of the cigarette on the floor. This straight away tells the audience that the cigarette has great importance to the film, and whatever was on it, obviously this is of great importance to the guy as well, as the way he reacts is a puzzled epxression.

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Titles and companies

The title or company saying 'Focus' is very cleverly portrayed in the opening scene as you can see that this company have great importance to the film as they get a big shot on their own, not a little mention in the corner. Also the company are called 'focus' and this is very cleverly portrayed as the 'o' in the word, is out of focus, so it contrasts the companies name. The colour scheme associated with this company also helps create the mood of the film as they are dull brown colours, contrasting exsquisite blue colours which creates a weird effect on the film.

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How are the characters introduced

The character of the guy is introduced well at the beginning of the opening sequence, and the director is trying to make the audience see him as sitting by the edge of the river staring at the dead body. We also get a lot of close ups of his facial expressions which perhaps show that he is deep in thought and that he is an emotional person. The character of the girl is portrayed strangely, as at first obviously we see her dead, but after that, we see her put a note in the guys locker, and then next shot we see him in a deserted place. This portrays the girl as evil as she, by the looks of things, has set him up.

My first image is a relatively close up of the women's running feet, this is an effective picture as we can see the circumstances that she's in. Because she is bare foot and , out in the middle of nowhere, we can tell she is in trouble and in a bad way, as it is not normal to walk around a dark road bare foot. We also can tell from this picture that she has only a coat on, which maybe suggests poverty and that she is not very wealthy.

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My second image is of a long distance shot of the running women. Her voice really emphasises danger in this picture as we can hear her panting voice, as if she has been running for ages away from something or someone, and her voice also sounds scared, as if something is dangerous out there to get her. If you look closely in the background you can see tiny white lights, and this could be what is chasing her, as she seems to be running away from the light. The white line in the middle of the road seems to be at a weird angle, which suggests that the situation is uneasy, and not everything is in it's usual place or position.

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My third image shows an odd choice in status. The women seems to be standing over the man as if she has the higher status, but when you take into consideration what had happened prior to this part, we would think she would have the lowest status and the man, who has stopped to help her, we'd think he has the highest status. At this point the man is obviously not very happy with her as she nearly caused hi to crash, however she does not apologise or anything she just continues to pant, whereas the man has a rant at her as to why she nearly made him crash. Showing that he's a hero however he let's her in his car. He could be perceived as her 'hero' as he saves her and as his car is white, it can be perceived as his white stallion.

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My fourth image is a beautiful picture of the circumstances. All you can see is the outline of her black silhouette shining in the headlights and this is very effective for a black and white film, as the only 2 colours used are simply, black and white. Again we can see there is something wrong in this picture, as she is off centre and not in the middle of the screen. The car's headlights seem to be the only source of light in the screen shot, and this adds to the queer location she is in. This is a 2 shot as it shows her and the guy in the car. The diegetic sound of the car brakes creates good tension to the scene and adds the only sound besides her panting!

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My fifth image is of the first set of titles that appear. These are the titles with the biggest font and they appear first, so obviously these are the most important names to do with the film. The appear in a bright white light over the black background and they scroll downwards from the top of the screen. The titles appear while you can see the 2 people sitting in the car at the bottom of the screen. Whilst the titles scroll downwards, you can hear the diegetic sound of the radio in the car. The radio adds to reality, and reminds the viewers that the film they are watching is realistic and isn't stupidly far-fetched.

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My sixth image is again of more titles, and these are the very last titles to appear, these again are quite big which suggests the importance of who are what is being said in the credits. The diegetic sound of the radio is again what's being heard by the audience as the titles scroll down the screen.

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My penultimate seventh image is that of the man and the women sitting next to each other in the car. The man has an annoyed but concerned face on which shows that he is caring for the women, but maybe he doesn't want her to know that he's caring. Whereas if you look at her face, she still looks very shaken up and scared, as the event of running all that way bare foot was clearly traumatic for her. This is another nice 2 shot, and is also a mid shot, as it is waste and upwards. Here we see the man's costume. We can clearly see that he is quite well off as he is wearing a suit and we can see he is quite well turned out, and spoken. This contrasts the women who does not seem very classy as she is wearing barely anything and speaks rushed and common.

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My final image shows the trust that this women has put in the man that has just supposedly rescued her. Here we see a close up of the pair holding hands. Not only has this women almost caused this guy to crash his car, she also has asked him to lie to the police which is a crime. Here we see that the man blatantly has a soft spot for this women as not only has he accepted her into his car, but he has lied for her. This scene is charming to watch, as the viewers can almost predict a love a first sight scenario here.

Wallander

My first image is of the title screen and it is a very effective way of portraying the title, because the opening scene we find out that the girl has stabbed someone, and this is obviously a crime, and the clever way the title is portrayed adds to the tension, as you can portray the shape by the man as a blade, and could represent the knife in the previous scene. The colours chosen for this picture suggest that his personality is very concealed as only half of his face is shown and it is in Blue. Maybe the reason half his face is shown is because he may have a split identity or may be not 100% good. The use of the bright Yellow background is very contrasting as it suggests a happy and mellow man.

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For my second image, I have chosen a close up image of the knife in the girls hand. The use of the blood all over her hand is very clever as it portrays even before we know what's happened, what she has done. However, we do not know whether she is the victim or the one perpetrator of the crime. The Mise en scene of this shot shows the costumes used in the film very well. We see from this shot that the girls is dressed in black, which hides her personality and maybe that there is something mysterious about her that we will later find out in the film. Taking into the consideration that the girl is in Jeans shows that maybe it was just an abnormal thing, and she isn't dressed especially appropriate for running away from a crime scene, this shows that maybe the girl isn't normally a bad person, and that it was just a one off.

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My third image is of a tracking shot which is kind of used as an establishing shot to show the whereabouts of the area and where the crime has taken place. From this shot we can see that the area is very open and a crime would be easy to commit out on the hills as nobody is around, and nobody will be able to tell what is going on. Also if the man in the taxi who was stabbed was screaming nobody will be able to hear him, so the crime can continue and the criminals would be able to get away in plenty of time. The use of the lake or sea at the bottom of the picture shows that the area is meant to be peaceful and gentle, however this is contrasted by the sound of he ferocious winds, suggesting that it isn't an ordinary day.

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My fourth image is of a perfect example of the rule of thirds. Here we can see the two girls on either side of the frame, and we can see the car tracks in between them and they veer off to one side, suggesting where the car came from. In between the girls is a very oddly shaped tree which suggests the odd goings on. The girl on the right is the one we see who drops the knife, and due to her red hair and her clothes she is wearing we can tell she is a very outgoing character and possibly very confident. From what we have seen of the girl on the left, we realise that maybe she is innocent in this as from her facial expression we see she is shocked and she is not dressed abnormally and so we can gather that she didn't commit the crime but she was merely just there.

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My fifth image shows again a very nice example of the rule of thirds, with the man in the middle in between 2 police cars which are either side of him. Because he is in the middle we are able to tell how important he is, as he is right in the middle of the investigation. We can also tell how important he is by what he is wearing, for example, he is in his own clothes rather than in uniform, which suggests that he is high up in the ranks so people respect him more and he has more authority about his work place. The man's posture is very straight and high up which also shows he is important.

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My sixth image again shows rule of thirds in a way, because on one side of the frame you have the drivers head, which looks like he is dead, on the right side of the frame you have his taxi license which helps the audience realise that he is a taxi driver, and that he was obviously driving those girls. In the centre of the picture we can see blood on the windscreen which is obviously the drivers as he is lying on the dashboard not moving. If you look closely you can see that a drop of blood is dripping down towards the girls head, which is maybe pointing to the culprit, which contradicts what they are wearing because from what we've seen the girl it is pointing to is the innocent looking one, and maybe the blood stain has an omniscient point of view and can tell it is her.

Fargo opening sequence

Although the opening to Fargo did not really interest me and did not grip me in order to make me watch the film, it did still have some positive aspects to it, which may have made others want to continue viewing. In image one, the way that the sound is used is very clever as the pace and pitch of the music makes it sound heroic as the car trudges up the hill towing another car. This could make the audience straight away think that the person towing the car is a good person, a hero. However, as we already know it's a thriller film, this could completely be contradicted and the driver of the car may be the villain.

My second image shows the title of the film appearing in simple black font on a frosty blue coloured background. This is very effective due to the colour schemes chosen. The colour black is very dark and unknown, and the colour blue suggests a very serious and cynical storyline. Looking at the majority of the pictures however, they are very dark and frosty which reinforces the point of what is being suggested.

The third picture that i have chosen shows a company that has something to do with this film, however my fourth picture is linked in with this aswell. If you look at the third picture it shows another company, however this screen looks completely different. For the first company there is their logo and the background colour has changed, and on the second the background stays the same and there is no logo, this suggests that the first company has maybe done more to help the film than the second, or maybe has invested more money into it, so they get a bigger mention.

The next sreen shot is of very clever camera action, this part shows a pan shot of the car going past, and this poses a question to the audience as to where the car is going. Again the background is a cold blue colour which creates an eerie tension to the audience and the question of where is the car going is reinforced further.

My last screen shot is of a long distance shot of the car, here the music startrs to get very quiet and the pitch changes to a lower pitch, which suggests that the herioc music previously heard for the car has gone and passed, and maybe the audience have realised the mistakes the car has made, or have started to realise that maybe the car is not so heroic, and there is an element of evil in it.