section 2: Research into examples of thriller opening scenes

We watched a few of the following openings to thrillers and analysed them.

RED EYE
Narrative/Structure:
The film is based on a man and his daughter and a wallet has been stolen. It is at a demestic home. You see this one women in a photo straight away which signifies she is going to be one of the main characters. The photo of the parents show relationships. The film has three strands of the story. at home, at an inustrial work then a citie. The man in the film throws the credit cards away which clarifys at this point the film is not about money. The girl is shown again just to show she is very important.

Thriller codes and conventions:
The music is a typical thriller investigationg style. It is also a typical mysteray wondering what is gonna happen? The initials shown on the wallet makes the audience think who is JR? The false ID makes us think that people are pretending to be different people and lies and decieveds. When the building is shown it makes us think what is the building? The mystery element is you only see hands at the start and not the faces to make the characters enonemous. There is aggresive and rushing behaviour when he opens the envelope It makes us think who is the man on the ID? There is typical henchman working. The box shown is an inigment and secret it makes us ask questions.

Camerawork:
Extreme closeups of photos to show they are important. Extreme closeups of objects such as the wallet because is shows it will be a big part of the film. There are alot of close ups and extreme close ups because many thrillers have them. Close track in of the wallet and keys to draw our attention. There is also a tracking shot of the stuff being but into the van/car. There is a dissolve shot to the third strand of the story. there is a closeup of the photo pf the building. Pan shot and point of view shots on the photos of individuals this is very jerky and can show ban film work. There is extreme closeups on photos again to emphasise characters are very important. Closeupson envelope being ripped open. Extreme close up on the wallet again to explain who is JR? Tracking shot to the action of opening the stuff. Then there is a low angle establishing shot of the lux atlantic to show what is gonna happen next in this hotel.

Mice en scene:
Props: wallet to show importance and the tension of the initials. The women in the photo is young, pretty, educational and clever. she plays hockey this for shadows what is going to happen in the film and it also shows she is also buff and can stick up for herself and is a sporty girl aswel as a girly girl. the photo of the parents makes it feel like a safe place to be.. it is an ordinary day very demesitc and normal. based in florida which could be important. Blue prints are shown whih are plans for building.. a penthouse on a lower level floor. Inspector improved the sea food this means it could be to do with fish and business. The wallet turns up again and florida pops up again to show importance. We know from the clip they are not here for the fish they are disrespectfull to it it is all about the box inside the fish.

Sound:
Music builds up throughout to build tension makes it very mysterious. The music becomes more fast in tempo to show something is going to happen. It opens up with the sound of an airoplane in the opening graphics. Typical psychological heart beating music.. the sound mirrors the action. The music comes to an end the man bangs and twice the wind comes in an it is non diegetic. The ripping noise of the envelope is emphasied. Diagetic sound of the keys and a creaking door, thrill scene to create excitment sounds builds to a cresendo When the wallet is stolen there is a big bang of sound and fast music. The it changes to very musical funky type music like mission impossible. The music gets louder when the box comes into it to show importance and suspence

Editing: Very fast shots. Slow editing with dissovles. Long edits for important parts, When the sound comes in it becomes quicker. the editing picks up speed on the photos then slows down on the box scene.

Graphics: Black with no background to show danger with very bold writing. Red eye title is in red to show connotations of death, blood, anger and maybe love. The writing goes backwards to show it is moving in the distance. Black and white as oppositions such as good and evil. Purity and bad. there is no background to make it simple. some titles are over the action. it goes in order of produced, screen play and directed by is always right at the end of the graphics.

STATE OF PLAY
Narrative/Structure:
This thriller is a political thriller all about crime. The victim see's something he should of not seen. It has a very clear beginning, middle and end. The end to this clip as a hint of a cliffhanger and suspence. This is because when the pizza man is shot he is still alive when the killer runs away. It has three aspects to the film. Equalibriam - Everthing is good. Destruction - Chaos. Resolution - it calms down again.

Thriller codes and conventions:
The chaser remains unseen untill the last few seconds on the clip. This is to create the typical thriller and make the audience ask questions such as: Whos is the man? Why is he running? Why did he kill him? Who is the killer? it creates mystery and suspence and makes you want to know more about the film. The brief case makes you want to know why he as it and what it is it aswell. The two characters are not in the same shots to sow differences and how un close they are.

Camera work :
There is an establishing shot of the citie to show where everything is going to happen and take place. There is a two shot of the characters at the beginning to show a relationship. Hand held camera technique is used to make us feel like we are involved and are running with him. There is an extreme closeup of the man who is still allive to show this could be a problem later in the film. There are many tracking shots, pan and tilt shots of characters. There are many still shots to show focus. Steadi cam is used to express we are in the shot following him. There is a forward tracking shot of his face to show he is still alive. The is a whipping pan shot following the man running. There are many low angle and high angle shots, like a bird watching him to make us feel the man is in trouble. The camera is also very jerky to represent the danger he is in. Closeups start to come in to show more personal emotions. The men are in different shots each time they are shown to show differences. The camera follows the fun to show the power of weapons. There is a point of view shot looking at the brief case to show importance. The killer runs out of the shot and we stay in the shot with the victim.

Mice en scene:
Very dark dull lighting which connotes danger and death. The dark clothing represents bad characters. When it becomes clear it is in Washington citie it shows it is an urban thriller and very political. The night scene shows something bad is going to happen. "bad people come out at night" The weather sets the tone of the film. It is raining and very gloomy which means something bad or depressing will happen. Old people to show they are vunreable and fragile. There is a lot of naturalistic action. When the smokes comes out of his mouth this could express he is a beast in anger. When they go through the china store the saying comes in mind " Bull in a china store" In the dark alley way it is very dirty and scarey which shows political views: Power, poverty, wealth, good and evil. The man is very frantic.. he is running for his life. He jumps off a very high ledge to show he is clumsy and in extreme danger. His bad teeth represent drugs, alcohol that he is in the wrong end of society. The briefcase can express the man could be a buisness man.

Sound:
It opens with sounds of the citie, traffic and sirens and helicopters. The sound of the bullet is loud to express importance. enenemous sound. The sound of thunder and rain to express something bad is going to happen which is diegetic sound. His panting is heard to show personal and that he is desperate for his life and like he is breathing his last breath. The music intenses. There is a very loud thud sound when the man is shot which sounds like a drum to show impact. Non diegetic sound comes in over the top of the diegetic sound to make it more enonemous. The music then builds un to a cresendo. The sound of the bike falling down when he gets shot is to express the sadness and heartbreak of the situation. It then ends with the sound of rain in the puddles as it fades out of the sequence.

Editing:
Very long takes and slow editing untill the chase scene happens then the edits and shots beome very fast. It does not cross cut even though it is a chase scene between the chase and the chaser. The cuts are well done. Throughout the clip it becomes slow then speedy and then slow again.

Graphics:
A logo is shown to show a classy name of a company. The colour scheme is blue writing which signfys coldness, calmness and nuteral. Then white and red writing comes in which is to express the American flag to show nationallity and political. Minemal graphics are used and thr action is shown in the background of the graphics.

STRANGERS ON A TRAIN
Narrative/Structure:
Two trangers meet on a train. Bruno imposes himself on Guy the famous tennis player. He suggests to create the perfect murder by swopping murders with no motive By the end of the sequence Bruno takes Guy seriously and Guy takes it as a joke and dismisses him. This is then left with a cliffhanger. The film is based on fate and destiny.

Thriller codes and conventions:
The characters are unidentifyed for a long time in the clip to create mystery and meaning.

Camerawork:
They are going in opposite and different directions. Through camera work it shows they are going to meet theamatricly. There are many two shots of both characters to show they have similar backgrounds but a very different characters with different personalities.

Mice en scene:
There are many low level shots to show that the characters are enonemous and to create mystery. He gets into a taxi to be enonemous again because we dont know who he is and everybody gets into taxi's. The costume and Brunos shoes show his character to be very exentric. Guys shoes are very black and dull shows an ordinary normal dull character. The shoes represent the playful music. When the train is shown on the track it make us think about the track of life which is a metaphore about the journey of life and which track you are going to choose in your life. It can also represent you can not go back in time because you can not go back on a train. makes us think of cross roads. Bruno's tie shows he is a mummys boy and it is an idetity thing "I am Bruno" very psychotic.

Sound:
It begins with old fashioned imposing loud music it is not creapy so it is a non typical thriller music It is very epic music. Music becomes very jolly like tom & jerry music very cartoon like and it does not fit with the genre. Very sexy music is played when Guy is shown. Creepy music is played when Bruno's feet are shown. The music signifies they have met and that something is going to happen. dialogue " I do admire you do things" This shows that Bruno admires murderers.

Editing:
There is cross cutting between scenes. There is a two shot reverse shot to show the two different people. they were seperate and then come together in a two shot

Graphics:
The colour scheme is obviouslt black and white. The font is very large and bold and it mixture of different types of font. The last title always says directed by.... then the film begins.

We were then asked to pick two thriller films ourselves and analyse the opening scenes to both of them. The films i have chosen to analyse myself are The Bourne Ultimatum with Matt Damon as Jason Bourne and the film....

Thriller analysis: Saw
Narrative Structure: The film opens with a close up shot of a man unconcious. This automatically shows us that he is going to be a main character. He seems to be submerged in water, and then he wakes up and throws himself out of it. He catches the chain on his foot as he falls out causing the plug to come out and the water be flushed away. He falls out of the bath, and when he realises that he is chained up he begins to shout for help. A mystery voice starts talking to him from the darkness and they have a conversation. The last shot of the opening is when the lights start to come on.

Thriller codes and conventions: Saw is full of enigma codes like who is he? why is he there? who is behind it all? and in the opening who does the unknown voice belong to? These create mystery and intrigue the audience. In the opening there is also only one character shown which creates a mystery in itself as no other characters seem to be involved, leaving them completely annonymous.

Camerawork: The first shot in the film is an exteme close up of Adam. Then the shots flick between close up shots of him, and medium shots of the blue item panning over his face. Then there is a shot of him spluttering as he gasps for air and a close up of the plug again as the water starts to go down. The camera focuses back on the man again but then shows the small blue item going down the drain which makes us think that it is significant as it is shown so much in the opening sequence. This creates a sense of mystery, and gets the audience thinking of what it could be. After the thing has gone down the drain, the camera just focuses on the man, which shows his importance in the film. In the next part of the opening the camera just continues to follow the man until right at the very end when the lights come on when it tracks backwards and then forwards into his face again. This is to show his look of surprise and his face because the lights are harsh and glaring and we can see that they are hurting his eyes.

Mise-en-scene: The first shot is of the main character. The setting is dark which has connotations of being scary and when 'bad' things happen. The next thing to come into shot is a small blue thing going over the mans face. It is unclear what it is but straightaway it obvious that it is going to be important. It shows it swimming around on the water and then there is a close up shot of the mans face. Next, he jumps up and pulls the chain out and the thing goes down the drain. He tries to climb out of the bath but ends up falling out. He follows the chain on his leg and finds that he is tied to a drainpipe and thats when he starts to shout for help. An unknown voice answers him, which creates mystery as they are annonymous, and they have a conversation until the mystery person finds out how to turn the lights on. The last shot of the opening is a close up shot of the man squinting like he is in pain because the lights are too bright.
Sound: The first sound that we hear is the diegetic sound of water dripping. This foreshadows before we see the first shot that it will have water in it. At the start of the opening there is lots of diegetic sound and when the blue thing is sucked down the plug the sound is emphasised, again indicating that it was something very important. The non diegetic sound starts to slowly get louder after he gets out of the bath, and it is creepy and iconic for a thriller. Then the sound switches again to being mostly diegetic, we hear him shouting for help and then the dialogue that goes on between him and the unknown character, who we found out is Jack. The last sound that we hear in the opening is the clicking as the lights switch on.

Editing: The first shot of the man is short, and then the shot of the blue thing scanning over him last around 4/5 seconds but after that the editing gets very fast with each shot being just 1/2 seconds each. This could reflect the speed in which it all happened. After he has woken up and got out of the bath the shots get longer and the editing gets much slower.

Graphics: All of the writing is in blue which has connotations of being cold, and calculating reflecting the film. In the room there is a theme of black and blue which shows the cold calculating nature of it along with the black which symbolises evil and death. The titles are seperate from the shots, there isn't any overlapping. However the first shot of the man unconcious is between the titles and the Saw logo.

Thriller analysis: Silence of the lambs
Narrative structure: The opening starts with a shot of a tree and then a woman comes running into shot. This shows us that she is going to be a main character as she is the first one introduced. She begins to run through the forest, stopping to climb over a net, which makes us think she is in the army or police and then a man comes and tells he that she is wanted in someone's office. She then runs off and disappears into a building.
Thriller codes and conventions: This opening creates a lot of mystery as it doesn't give many clues about the story of the film. It makes lots of enigma codes for the audience such as who is she? why is she so important?. This makes the audience want to carry on watching because we have no idea about what is to happen later on.

Camerawork: The first shot in the opening is of the top of a tree and then tracks downwards to see the rest of the forest. This creates tension as the audience wonder why we are there and forests have bad connotations. A medium shot is used as the woman runs up towards the camera showing more of the forest and fog. There is then a close up of the womans face and then the camera continues to follow her as she starts running, using a variety of shots. Shots of her from behind, her feet, etc and other angles make the audience feel that we must see her in detail and almost gives us a sense that we are following her every move. As she climbs over the net, the camera pans around, again giving the impression we are watching everything that she does carefully. Then the man runs into the shot and exchanges some dialogue with the woman. The camera then shows a extreme close up of the mans face as he watches the woman run off into the building. This shows us that maybe him or the implications of what he has just told her could be very important. We then follow the woman again as she runs into the building.

Mise-en-scene: The first shot of the tree and the forest makes the beginning very mysterious. The woman runs in and we follow her as she starts to run through the forest and over the net. The man runs in with a yellow vest on, implying maybe he is in a uniform of some sort, and he also calls her by her last name which also implies that she is in the army or the police along with the net. She runs off and then there is a shot of the top of the tree with the signs 'hurt' 'agony' 'pain' 'love it' 'pride' down in. This again could be to do with the army or police or could be foreshadowing what will happen later on in the film.

Sound: At the beginning the music starts off pleasant but has an edge to it and then it starts to build up and get faster as she starts to run. There is diegetic sounds of her breathing heavily and then someone shouting her, using her last name. They exchange dialogue in which she calls him 'sir' backing up she is in the army or police. Overall, in this opening there is mainly the non-diegetic sound of music.

Editing: At the start of the opening there is very long shots, for example 15 seconds. This picks up speed as she starts to run, and there is lots of shots in quick succession. As she gets to the net it slows down again and until the end the shots and editing are relatively slow.

Graphics: The titles in 'Silence of the lambs' are all black and white following the iconic symbollism of good and evil. Unlike some of the film i have looked at, all of the titles overlap the rest of the opening. They font used is big and bold, and also very minimal.