Research
In lesson we looked at film openings made by the previous year; I analysed three openings to how to see examples of some ideas for our openings. This was helpful as it gave me some idea where to start with our films; here are the following openings I analysed:
The Prodigal SonThis opening was about a boy returning back to a home and then having flashbacks of his past; this was clearly shown through the narrative. This opening appealed to me because of the well thought through mise en scene; here this group has took into consideration where to film making the opening look very professional. I also liked the effects used when the boy has flashbacks; this is effective as they also changed the soundtrack to a more slow pace song making the audience sympathise with the character. This group also used a close up camera shot of the boys eyes; this is effective as it makes the opening even more intense and moving to the audience. This opening is also good as they have thought about a Production and Distribution Company well suited to the genre of their film; BBC Films, this movie is British unlike the other openings which seem to be Hollywood Films therefore this seems well suited to this Production Company. However this opening could improve on the lighting quality at the beginning as the boy is coming out of the car the lighting looks too overexposed, washing out the background and setting. As well as that, I think more of a range of camera angles would make the opening more interesting.
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AssassinationThis opening is based on a action/spy film about a assassination of the Prime Minister; this is shown effectively at the beginning with the lay out of pictures and writing of leaders;a panning camera movement is used to show the different pictures, this looks stylish and makes the opening unique from others. The setting of the opening was also well planned; it is based in a Hotel room where most Spys would stay; making the opening seem more realistic to a Spy Genre Film. The voice over at the beginning is also effective as it tells a story to the audience drawing in their attention and wanting to see what happens next, this is followed by a soundtrack used on top, this helps build up tension in the opening. An over the shoulder shot is also used; this shows the group thought about a range of camera angles. They also edited the clip so they could show a news report; this looks as if they did this by using the Green Room, this is good as it makes the opening look more realistic. This group also took into consideration of the Production Company; Universal as this is a Hollywood Film. After watching this opening I realised the lighting is important and the camera quality is important to make your opening look as professional as possible, as in some parts of this opening the camera work was shaky.
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Out of the openings we looked at this opening stood out to me the most because of the range of camera angles being used. This opening fell under the genre of Action/Thriller as the opening included an assasinator, by including killings and murders made the genre of the film comine with thriller making the opening a hybrid. I took screenshots of the camera angles which stood out to me; in the clip a point of view shot is used, this appealed to my group as it makes the opening mysterious and helps build up a storyline- who could the person be with the money? The camera movement also stood out to me, in the opening panning is being used to show the girl applying lipstick; the composistion of the girl makes only her lips visible creating more suspicion. This close up of her face appealed to our group as it wanted us to carry on watching to find out who the girl is. I also took into account the production company they chose for their opening: Paramount Pictures which is a huge Hollywood Film Company. Therefore this film was made to fit into a high budget; making the movie fit well with other big Hollywood action/thriller films. For our opening we have to be aware of what Production Company would suit our genre the best.
Genre
As a group we decided on the genre Psychological thriller- this is a specific sub-genre of the broad ranged thriller with heavy focus on the unstable emotional states of characters, in combination with mystery and thriller. However, it often includes elements from the mystery and drama genre, along with the typical traits of the thriller genre. In addition to drama and mystery, many psychological thrillers contain elements of the horror genre, particularly psychological horror. As part of our research we googled Top 15 Physchological Thrillers on IMDb; these following films are some of the Top 15 which have been sucessful in Hollywood.
Openings
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I chose to analyse the opening of Identity as it fell under the Psychological Thriller genre; I thought this would help give us ideas for our final piece. As we are specifically looking at openings, in this clip I analysed the first 2 minutes, which were the opening credits. In the opening of Identity it starts with a slow voice over; this voice is deep and low making the opening extremely intense, following this, the pace of the opening is also very slow. As the clip goes on the voice over becomes more aggressive, this dramatises the voice making it more intense.The pace then changes when a sound effect of a tape recorder is used; this speeds up the clip, this is effective as it goes from slow pace to fast pace drawing the audiences attention and giving them a shock value. It then carries on in a slow pace, here your able to take in the mise- en scene which a lot of thought has been put into, for example the lighting in the clip is so dim creating a eery atmosphere, the props also used such as the drawings of people and them being crossed out suggests death is involved in this film. Other props such as the images of dead people are also effective as they show blood and gore this fits well within the Psychological Thriller genre as it is meant to scare people. The sound effects in the clip have been used effectively, for example a camera flash is used, this speeds up the pace of the clip and keeps the audience alert, it's almost as if it's showing us snapshots of the storyline. The shots used in this clip are mainly close ups; the extreme close ups shows glimpses of the props, this creates a mysterious feel as you are unaware of the surroundings. This appealed to our group as we want to create suspense in our opening to fit well within the genre, using close ups would help create this. A point of view shot is also used, this is effective as you are unable to see who is writing, the full identity of the person is not shown; this creates suspense as the audience want to carry on watching to see who it is, we liked the idea of keeping someone anonymous in our opening to keep the audience interested. This opening appealed to me because of the lighting; I like how it is very dark so you are able to see only a bit of the man, this keeps him hidden from the audience so you are unaware of who he is. I also like how the opening is very slow pace, as if it is building up to the drama of the film. In our opening I would like to create the same by making my opening slow, here they used a voice over to emphasise the slowness, however I would like to experiment using soundtracks and sound effects. The close ups of the props also appealed to me as it makes the opening extremely mysterious, as well as that flashes from the lightning created a dramatic atmosphere, this is effective as lightning is meant to be some people fears, therefore it keeps the audience alert. After watching this clip it has helped me identify the conventions of a Psychological Thriller; these will help me for my opening, I would like to create a similar style to this opening.
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We then analysed Seven and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Both these movies were directed by David Fincher, he is particularly known for his dark and stylish films, this appealed most to our group. Other movies directed by David Fincher include; Fight Club, Zodiac, Alien 3, The Game and Panic Room. Most of his work falls under the thriller genre, making his style most appealing to our group, unlike other openings, David Fincher builds up his openings slow and dramaically creating big tension in what is going to happen next; this style is followed in Seven and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
Se7enSeven is an American physchological thriller directed by David Fincher. It starred two well known American actors Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt. The storyline involves two detectives David Mills (Brad Pitt) and William Somerset (Morgan Freeman) who become deeply involved in the case of a serial killer who maliciously planned murders linked with the seven deadly sins; gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, pride, lust, and envy; this storyline appealed to me as we are looking at a certain type of thriller movie, therefore this opening fitted in perfectly as it is based on a serial killer planning murders linked with the seven deadly sins, this inspires us to create a opening involving a serial killer. This opening has heavily influenced ours as we are inspired by the idea of planning killings in the opening with close up shots making it seem mysterious and scary.
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In the opening of Seven it starts with dramatic non-diagetic music to build up the tension of what is going to happen next, this is effective as it creates an intense atmosphere, to add to this sounds effects are also used on top; for example the creek of the doors are used to create a creepy atmosphere. As each scene cuts the bass of the soundtrack drops making each cut seem even more dramatic; the cuts are quite fast pace making the tension of the opening build up. The scenes cut to one scene of a mans hand and then a plain black screen with credits; this is effective as its as if your getting a sneak peek of what's going on; this builds the audiences interest making them want to see what is going to happen next. Slow dissolve transitions are also used to show victims faces; this creates an intense mood making the pace of the video slow down. The lighting used in the opening is dark it is like a dark deep brown in some scenes connoting the colour of dry blood; with the odd spark of light from the font, an effect has been used to make the writing flash and blur; this is a typical convention of a physiological thriller as dark lighting is used to create a scary mood. The special effects used on top of the dark lighting are effective; for example white flashes have been used; this creates a shock effect. Flashes of red have also been used; this connotes blood/danger and death which are all linked in with the thriller genre. In some scenes extra writing has been added on top making the opening look quite quirky; this is added to flash and blur; as the actions of the man behind us are quite slow this works well as the flashes creates a fast pace action in the opening. Each camera shot is an extreme close up from an anonymous mans point of view; the props used are threatening which suits the genre; for example blades, needles, scissors and tweezers are all being used, this suggests they are used for murder. The close ups also show the dirty hands suggesting he has a guilty conscious, the fact you can not see the mans face draws the audiences attention in making us want to carry on watching to find out what he is doing. The close ups also show victims faces being circled and crossed out, this is effective as it suggests that something is going to happen to them; therefore audiences want to carry on watching. In the last scene of the opening the word 'god' is cut out, this fits in with the physchological thriller as it makes you think about the actions and power of the man; suggesting he thinks he is God. Similar to Identity, this opening appeals to me because of the close ups; I like how everything is from the point of view from someone making it seem very mysterious, the lighting and special effects also appeal to me because they make the opening interesting and creates a very intense impact.
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The Girl With The Dragon TattooThe Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a 2011 American psychological thriller film. Based on the Swedish novel, the film adaptation was directed by David Fincher and written by Steven Zaillan.The film stars well known British actor Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara and tells the story of a journalist (Craig) investigation to find out what happened to a woman from a wealthy family who disappeared 40 years before. He works with the help of computer hacker (Mara). This story line appealed to me because in a similar way to Seven the storyline is based on an investigation; this has inspired our group to make our opening an investigation on this Serial Killer.
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In the opening of The Girl With Dragon Tattoo it starts with the sound of a dramatic beat building up this is effective as it creates an intense mood, as each beat drops special effects have been used to show flashes of credits in a similar way to Seven; this seems to be a repetitive style of David Fincher. In the foreground credits are shown across the frame and in the background close up shots of objects are being flashed; this is effective as it interests the audience in what these objects could be. These are slightly lit making the detail of the objects stand out. A macro shot of water is also used, this is effective as the closeness of his shots make his opening mysterious. The lighting in the opening is extremely dark this follows the conventions of a thriller film; it is almost like a glossy black; making the movie look contemporary due to the fact it is a high budget film in Hollywood. The soundtrack then builds up into a faster pace; making the opening more fast pace as if something is going to happen. Special effects have been used several times in this opening; including the black liquid- a close up shot is used to show black liquid running into a keyboard, and then running out of a woman's mouth. It is a reoccurring effect used in the opening suggesting it is dangerous and powerful, this follows the conventions of people being in danger in psychological thrillers. A bird eye view shot is used to show two people; this is used to make them look inferiors as the black liquid is used as a special effect that is taking control of them. CGI has also been used to show an image of a skull this connotes death. An eagle is also lit up by fire making it look very powerful, the fire suggests danger; these all follow the conventions of a thriller. The shots move fast pace with effects added on top for example wires were added, this keeps the continuity in the opening. Skulls and faces have all been manipulated by effects to make them look glossy and surreal, the shot of a skull has been manipulated to look as if it is alive and growing. In one shot a persons face has been manipulated to look glossy black, this is effective as it looks almost ghost-like against a black background this fits into one of the conventions of a thriller. An effect has then been added on top to make the face flash, this is effective as it makes the pace of the opening speed up creating tension and to scare the audience. This opening appealed to me once again because of the close up shots being used, I would like to use the similar style of the beginning in my opening. I also liked how the opening was surreal making it extremely appealing to the eye and wanting you to carry on watching, however this would be difficult to attempt to do as this is a high budget Hollywood Film and most of the opening is made up of various special effects.
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We then looked at more openings made by previous years, however this time we looked at openings with a similar genre to ours. The following opening falls under the genre Psychological Thriller therefore we looked at this as inspiration for our own opening:
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In this opening it starts with showing the production company; New Line Cinema, this production company seems popular within this genre as Seven also was produced by them. The sound effects used in the beginning of the opening are dramatic drawing the audience in, they sound eery and almost mechanical as if there slicing into something, this fits in well with the storyline of the opening; the pace of the music then slows down, this builds up suspense in the first 20 seconds. In a similar way to our group this opening seems inspired by the movie seven, the panning shot of the body across the table suggests this, this shot is interesting as it slowly reveals a young boy who looks as if he is about to be sliced open; the make up used on his body is effective as it shows where he's going to be operated and how he's been bruised and wounded suggesting he is in danger. The opening then flashes to documents of the human body, here this group has thought about their props, for example laptops, scissors, documents and knifes; the added effect of the blur make the opening seem surreal. A birds eye view shot is used to show the unconscious man; this is effective as it disorientates the viewers, making the opening more interesting. The location set in the Science lab sets the atmosphere of it being a real operating area; the props also used create this atmosphere. An extreme close up is used so you can see the blood on the body; this is effective as it creates a gore element to the opening. This has helped for our opening as we like the idea of shooting in a science laboratory in school, we also liked the slow soundtrack in the background of the clip as it helps build up the suspense and the slow panning shots.
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Similar Films
Although we looked at previous openings such as Seven and Identity which influenced our opening, we also looked at other films to help influence the storyline of our film; we looked at the following: The Human Centipede.
The Human Centipede
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The Human Centipede is a 2010 Dutch horror film written, directed, and co-produced by Tom Six; the film tells the story of a German doctor who kidnaps three tourists and joins them surgically, mouth to anus, forming a "human centipede." It stars Dieter Laser as the antagonist villain: Dr. Heiter. Our group was inspired by the idea of having a mad scientist as our main character in our opening; throughout the film he is shown doing disturbing experiments on these humans; we liked the idea of humans being the vulnerable victims in our opening, in this film two girls are shown as victims; stereotypically girls are seen as more vulnerable therefore we thought we would include a girl as a victim. The character Dr.Heiter is shown wearing a lab coat and working in scrubs to define him as a Scientist his aim is to create his fantasy using humans, in our film our Scientist has an obsession with collecting human organs and blood, in our opening we need to take into consideration what our Scientist should wear to look the part. Dr.Heiter is portrayed as an elderly man who lives alone, throughout the film we learn he is disturbed and mentally ill, this is the type of character we want our Scientist to portray as it will disturb audiences which is what we are trying to achieve in a Psychological Thriller. On the left is the trailer of the film, as we were researching the storyline to help create ours.
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Camera Shots
After analysing the mise en scene, sound, editing and camera shots in several films we looked at specific shots we would like to replicate in our opening to create a similar atmosphere:
Over The Shoulder Shot |
This over the shoulder shot is taken from Identity, this stood out to our group as throughout our opening we want to keep our antagonist being the 'mad scientist' identity hidden to create mystery. This shot reveals a bit of his identity being his hands; this could help build up the tension in the opening. We also like this shot as the lighting is dark on one side, hiding the back of his head and the only light is revealing the documents, in our opening we would like to keep the lighting very dark with only a spot of light to show certain objects. We thought this would help build up suspense in our opening as it acts as if it's revealing snippets of the storyline; the props being the documents are also effective as it reveals parts of the storyline, in our opening we would like documents with scientific data and information to show the audience what our film is going to be about. |
Close Up |
This close up shot is taken from the film Seven; this shot stood out to our group as it is so close to the object you have to think twice about what it is. We thought this created mystery in the opening. Throughout Seven close up shots of various objects are shown, this could disorientate the viewer as they are looking at objects in a new perspective; this could interest the audience even more. We thought in our opening we could show close up shots of different Science Equipment; we thought this would be effective as it reveals parts of the storyline. Once again this object is very darkly lit making the object seem even more mysterious; in our opening we want to also make the lighting very dark with only a bit of lighting to reveal some of our props. |
Extreme Close Up |
This extreme close up is taken from the film Identity; this shot stood out to us because of the words zoomed in on the screen. We thought this would be a good idea for our opening to show zoomed up words linked to our storyline, this could reveal to the audience what is going to happen in the film, we could do this by showing documents about the human body and then zooming onto specific words to show the scientists research; this could also show he is intelligent. We also like the blurred effect around the edges of the screen, this draws our attention to a main word. The blurred effect also makes the shot look quite surreal, making the audience have to focus on what the words are saying. For our opening we liked this idea, as we wanted to keep the audience interested throughout our opening; as the pace is going to be quite slow we wanted to keep our audience alert. |
Production and Distribution Companies
To fund and market our film we looked at several Production and Distribution Companies. I looked at Production and Distribution Companies that had been involved with some popular Psychological Thrillers; we thought this would give us an idea of which company would suit best for our opening. The companies we looked at were mainly big Hollywood Companies as we were set out to produce a Hollywood Blockbuster. We thought by looking at companies that have already produced Psychological Thrillers would help draw in a familiar audience and be ideal for our opening.
New Line CinemaSeven was produced by New Line Cinema ; this is an American independant film studio founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne, in 1996 it was merged with sister company Warner Brothers; this powerful Hollywood company allowed a big budget for the film at 33 million. This movie was targeted at an international audience; at the age group 18+ due to the murders, special effects and well known actors. New Line Cinema grew to become one of Hollywood's major film studios, due to the hit Lord of The Rings Film Triology that brought commercial success to the studio. New Line was responsible for genre films and cult classics such as Dark City, The Mask and Dumb & Dumber, the Final Destination series, and the Nightmare on Elm Street series. This company stood out to me as it is known to produce horrors/thrillers; as well as Nightmare On Elm Street and Final Destination it also produced Jason X, The Butterfly Effect and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, these movies all fall under horror/thriller/psychological therefore we thought it would suit our opening.
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Outcome: New Line Cinema & Sony Pictures Entertainment
After our research we decided on using New Line Cinema as our production company as it produces several films similar to our genre and Sony Pictures as our Distribution company.