Naomi's Five Thriller Opening

The Ghost By Roman Polanski

Camera Work-

·      Begins with establishing shot. Shows the surrounding it’s at a harbour.

·      There’s along shot and you can see people standing there in front of the cars but you cannot see their faces this creates mystery and panic.

·      There are then two long establishing shots of the seaside and a man (assuming he is dead) in the water.  This is a completely different setting, which confuses the audience and makes them ask questions.

·      There is then a two shot of two men at a bar talking to one another. You can tell their in a bar by the framing if the shot but not to much is given away to the audience about who these people are. These guys are having a casual conversation when we have just seen two previous scenes, which are bazaar. The audience is confused and knows nothing in the first opening two minutes – Ristricted Narrative

Editing-

·      You see the cars moving around one car there’s not many cuts so the audiences attention is focused on this one car that’s not moving

Sound -

·      Non-diagetic sound the music playing is very sinister

·      There are extreme sound effects when the car alarm goes off, it’s over all the other sounds, which makes it significant, and it automatically brings a sense of panic. The audience ask questions, their curious as to what is going on.

·      There’s no dialogue until third setting so when they begin talking as soon as we cut to this scene the audience is shocked and bewildered.

Mise En Scene-

·      Urban location lots of cars it’s very public this makes things seem realistic adds to the creepy theme. There is a contrast in the settings that are in the first 2 minutes.

·      Beach setting its isolated adds mystery.

·      Distraught colour. Dark low key light gives a sense of enigma

·      It’s raining. Rain is associated with bad/sad things. Pathetic fallacy. Its foreshadowing that something bad Is going to happen

Theme and Atmosphere-

·      Enigma: the audience isn’t given any information about whom anyone is which creates mystery.

·      Confusion the audience are thrown into 3 completely different and irrelevant scenes.

·      Danger

Touch Of Evil By Orson Wells

Camera Work-

·      It begins with a close up of someone’s hands holding a bomb and setting the timer. You cannot see their face restricted view it views only a certain aspect of this person, which creates an enigma code. The audience’s attention is brought to this object and questions are raised about what is going on and the identity of the person who is setting the timer on the bomb.

·      You see the person put the bomb in the boot. The audience is omniscient they know all where as the characters do not. This builds tension because you are just thinking how long until it goes off!

·      Overhead shot of the car, the camera pans over a building and follows the car. This keeps the audiences focus on the car adding to their apprehension and tension

·      Pull out shot as the car stops at traffic lights (tracking shot) this enables the viewer to see more of the setting and then more anxiety is caused when the car drives towards the camera.

·      The camera is tracking the car and the couple.  The camera is linking the car and the couple together.

·      Theirs a fast cut and zoom on the explosion of the car, which intensifies what’s happened.

·      Although the audience are omniscient as they see someone place the bomb in the boot of the care there is also Restricted Narrative as some elements of the story such as why this has happened? Why did someone put a bomb in the car? The audience are not sure of. This is not presented in the opening sequence to create intrigued.

·      Causality (cause ad effect) the event with the person placing the bomb in the boot leads to the other events that follow, which processes the narrative in chronological order

Editing-

·      Cinéma vérité. Single long tracking shot. There are no cuts. It’s incredible its one continuous shot with no edits it give a sense of realism. It keeps the viewers train of thought without any distractions. Keep their full concentration.

Mise En Scene-

·      Setting busy urban streets

·      The lighting is dark and shadowy to add to the dark theme

·      Protagonists: the detective is shown, as he is the main character and the hero in the opening sequence. His clothes show he is smart sophisticated he is known and liked by other characters, which tell the audience is a protagonist.

Sound

·      When the car gets closer the music playing in the car becomes louder. This emphasises that the couple are becoming closer to the car, which creates a threat and panic because we know there is a bomb in the boot of the car.

·      The bongos are like a bomb ticking.

·      There is a mixed of non diagetic and diagetic sounds this adds to realism and theatre feel of the opening sequence

Themes and Atmosphere-

·      Suspense 

·      The theme here is crime and passion we see its crime as the detective involved and the death of the people in car is shows passion








h

The Disappearance of Alice Creed

Camera Work-

·      There’s long shots and close ups. Quick shots.

·      There’s shots of the door at when they enter the room and leave the room to signify they’ve finished.

·      The camera work in the room infers that they know each other. And what they’re doing is planned. Everything they do, there movements are synchronised with each other. It shows what there doing is planned.

·      There are lots of shots of objects, which make the audience question their use. And what they’re going to be used for!

·      Observation shots. The shots are very steady enable us to have great focuses.

·      Initial shots- moving slowly to suggest spying which implies these people are not doing what they’re meant to be doing gives an effect of “eves dropping”

·      Close ups used a lot on props

Editing-

·      Shallow Depth Of Field when the two men are buying things in the shop like the saw, drill, rope this draws the audiences attention to these and emphasises the importance of these objects.

·      Fast cuts between close ups and long shots between the cars and then the car park to establish that they’re in a care park and give a sense that their doing something sinister before the characters are even seen.

Mise En Scene-

·      There is a few different settings to create confusion

·      There’s a variety of exterior settings such as urban and rural (shop and wood). Rural is an isolated location. Even when they are in the urban settings such as the shops, car park etc there is no other characters.

·      Props used are associated with danger and threat e.g. drill saws this makes the audiences ask questions thinking and wondering what these props are going to be used for.

Sound-

·      There’s no dialogue between the two characters. There’s lack of communication between them, shows they know each other very well – they don’t need to communicate. Adds to the idea that what there doing is planned.

·      The music sound pace is fast to go with the movement of the cuts, and then changes tempo when the camera moves setting to the room. The music then becomes very sinister and creates a creepy mood.

·      There is non-diagetic sound as there is a sound track.

Theme and Atmosphere

·      Suspense

·      Danger

·      Passion in the killing 

The Revolver By Guy Richie

Camera Work-

·      Medium shot with one person and two people walking either side. Because the guy in the middle is in the frame and the other two are not completely the audiences attention is brought to this character. You only see the back of them which creates enigma.

·      There’s a shot just of the feet walking and again the one in the middles feet is the only one that’s completely in the frame

·      There’s close up shots of prison doors opening and shutting to signify this person is out

·      Medium Shot of a police officer standing at a door and when it opens the guy who has been anonymous his face is now revealed. Having a shot of the door opening gives the audience suspense as they are waiting to see the mans identity.

·      There is a low angle shot looking up at the top of a building and the camera tilts down without any edits to the two main standing outside the building this establishes where they are an the position of these two people

·      Extreme long shot of the two men when the camera moves down

·      It then zooms in on them to create a two shot

Editing-

·      Cross cutting editing to bring the group of people in the car and the two people standing outside the casino together

·      Manipulation of time it jumps to two years later.

·      There’s cuts between certain shots of people walking e.g. there feet there upper body and black screens with memos on them this makes the audience read the memos which are relevant to the story, having the momos on the screen in-between shots adds to the enigma of this opening sequence and making the audience read keeps their attention and indicated that they need to concentrate.

Sound-

·      Off screen sound you here keys rattling and doors shutting when the screen is black. The audience can here these sounds but cant see what’s going on at this point this creates questions from the audience and curiosity. You then hear footsteps before you see characters. 

·      Music begins which is

·      Voice over narration

Mise En Scene-

·      When the guy walks out of the prison it is raining heavily and the use of rain and lights make it hard to see his face, which adds to the mystery.

·      The lighting is low key adding to the dark theme.

·      The clothes the two guys are wearing outside the casino shows they have high status this is emphasised by that the audience can see other people in the back ground but the colours of their suits are all black which indicates to the audience that these characters are significant as the clothes their wearing are brown and grey.

Theme and Atmosphere-

·      Enigma

·      Suspense 

The Untouchables By Bian De Palma

Camera Work-

·      It opens with an over-head shot or birds eye view this shows the mans position and gives the audience a clear idea of his power and status because of this shot. This over the head shot pans down to fit the character more in the frame without any cuts or edits. This gives a realistic effect, as it is a true story in the sense of the prohibition in 1930. The fact there’s no edits for the first 20 seconds or so enables the audience to focus on him.

·      There is a lot of medium close up of the main character in this scene, which enables the audience to focus on this character a lot and try to understand him and realise what the film is trying to communicate to the audience about him.

Editing-

·      The use of long takes is important because it establishes the storyline and helps the audience to connect with the character in this scene.

Mise En Scene-

·      The colours in the room are rich colours which suggest power It also suggests antagonists with the way he approaches the man when he cuts his face.  This is emphasised through colours as Robert Di Nero is wearing a white top with white shaving gel and the man shaving him also has a white top on and when the blood appears it is such contrast. The blood is emphasised through the colours.

·      The facial expression on the actor shows when he has accidently cut Robert Di Nero’s face he is in complete horror and shock this tell the audience that this guy expects to be punished and is waiting for him to shout. As he doesn’t because of the people around him, it infers to the audience that this man is deceiving and not to be trusted (antagonist)

·      At the beginning his face is being hidden by a white cloth this builds suspense because there’s all these people around this one man therefore enigma is created.

·      The setting is in one room

·      Natural lighting

Sound-

·      Diagetic sound adds to the realism

Themes and Atmosphere-

·      Crime

·      Immorality

For our Thriller opening sequence I would love to do a long shot with no cuts or edits like in Touch Of Evil. But I understand this would be a very hard process and we would probably not have the equipment to do that such as a tripod with wheels so you can track and pan a whole scene. However I also like the way The Disappearance Of Alice Creed is edited with the tight framed shots of objects to create enigma etc – this would be a good idea for the opening of our thriller. I would quite like to create a theme of mystery and suspense in the opening sequence also do something interesting in the story line to make our audience shocked.