Film Openings

I have looked at some openings of different genres of films so that I can see how they differ and decide what titles would look appropriate on our thriller film.

Forrest Gump (1994)
Directed by- Robert Zemeckis
Genre- Comedy, Drama and Romance

IMDB short description of Forrest Gump- “Forrest Gump, while not intelligent, has accidentally been present at many historic moments, but his true love, Jenny, eludes him”

The opening of this film shows a white feather falling from the sky, the camera follows the feather as it is falling, this would have been done to show the audience the location of the film. The music used is that of a soft classical piano, the tempo of the song reflects the speed that the feather is falling. Also, the titles that overlay the image is in a classical traditional font. The feather then almost drops onto the shoulder of a respectable business man making you think he is the main character, however, it doesn’t and it blows over to a shot of a man sitting on a bench (Forrest Gump). The shot is of his dirty trainers, although he is wearing a suit, this makes the audience confused as to what type of character the man is. It then pans down to a shot of him putting the feather in a suitcase, the mise-en-scene shows he is also holding chocolates with a bow on them, this is a convention of the romance genre.

The Notebook

Directed by- Nick Cassavetes
Genre- Drama, Romance and War

IMDB short description of The Notebook- “A poor and passionate young man falls in love with a rich young woman and gives her a sense of freedom. They soon are separated by their social differences.”

The Notebook starts with an establishing shot of a picturesque lake with the sun rising, the light from the sun makes the lake a warm shade of orange. The music over the top is a very light classical piano. The size of the titles are very small and they are in the bottom left corner, I believe they may have been put in this position so that it doesn’t cover the emotive picture of the lake. The font matches the music as it is traditional and classical, they both match the conventions of a Romance. It then zooms into a shot of the silhouette of a man rowing a boat on the lake, this is when the title ‘The Notebook’ appears on the screen. A few more different shots of the man rowing appear, all of these lasting about ten seconds each, this length of shot would have been chosen to make the audience feel the emotion. The next shot is of white birds flying across the screen, the colour of the birds would symbollise the purity of the film. Then, an over the shoulder shot shows a blonde haired lady watching the lake and the birds, it then cuts to a shot of her where you see she is an old lady. The facial expressions of the lady show that she is very emotional, this opening is chosen because it represents the genre of the movie and the heartbreak of the characters.

Psycho (1960)
Directed by- Alfred Hitchcock
Genre- Horror, Mystery and Thriller

IMDB short description of Psycho- "A young woman steals $40,000 from her employer's client, and subsequently encounters a young motel proprietor too long under the domination of his mother."

Unfortunatley, I am unable to embed the video of the titles of Psycho so heres the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tek8QmKRODw

The opening titles of this film are very effective as they give off an edgy feeling, which lets the viewer know they are going to be watching a very edgy film. The music that is used has an almost pulsating rhythm to it, this would have been used so that the viewers heart started to match this rhythm and from the very beginning of the film make them believe they are already scared. The graphics used in the titles also give this effect to the viewer as they are very harsh and in sync with the panicky rhythm of the music.

Conventions of a Thriller

After researching thrillers and watching the clips below I have discovered that there are many conventions of a successful thriller. They are the following:

• Villains are usually male (although recently this gets challenged a lot)
• Females are the victims.
• A male hero.
• Setting is either a place where the events that happen during the movie should not be happening e.g. a suburban street or a secluded setting.
• Colour conventions (black=evil, white=innocence/victim, red=blood/danger)
• Music has a chilling/tense feel to it.
• Stalkers.
• The fear of unknown.
• Props used are typically a gun or a knife.
• Fast editing to build up tension.
• Often, the titles don’t appear over the top of the film, but before.
• Chiaroscuro light and low key lighting.
• Medium close ups and extreme close ups are used to create tension.
• Shadows.
• A chase scene.

Thriller Research

A thriller is a genre of literature, film and television that uses tension, suspense and excitement as the key elements. For my media project I will be looking at and analysing existing thrillers to help my group to be able to make our own.
Some of the subgenres of thrillers are crime, mystery and psychological thrillers, also political and paranoid thrillers have become more popular since the assassination of President Kennedy. Other subgenres of thrillers include conspiracy, erotica, legal, rape and revenge and supernatural. Most thrillers are formed using one of those groupings however some link with other genres like horror, spy, science fiction, action and adventure.
I am now going to analyse some thriller films so that I can identify the conventions that are used to create a realistic thriller film.

Paranormal Activity 2
Directed by- Tod Williams
Genre- Horror, Mystery and Thriller

IMDB short description of Paranormal Activity 2- “After experiencing what they think are a series of "break-ins", a family sets up security cameras around their home, only to realize that the events unfolding before them are more sinister than they seem.”



After some unusual experiences going on in their house a terrified family decided to have CCTV cameras installed so they can see what it is that is happening and to get things back to normal. When the CCTV cameras are installed the happenings get more intense and more often. The clip starts with a black screen flickering, this is a good edit as it starts to set the mood of the clip. The sound then begins with loud thuds (like footsteps), this is used as it makes you feel on edge. Suddenly, the picture comes onto the screen of a man who appears to have been thrown at the camera, this is accompanied by a loud bang, it is very effective as it makes you jump and very scared for what is coming next. It then happens again but with a ladies face. This trailer is very successful as it thrills you and makes you scared, whilst still making you want to watch the film.
　　
Inception
Directed by- Christopher Nolan
Genre - Action, Crime, Mystery and Thriller

IMDB short description of Inception- “In a world where technology exists to enter the human mind through dream invasion, a highly skilled thief is given a final chance at redemption which involves executing his toughest job to date: Inception.”



At the start of the clip the screen is black, the picture and music start at the same time with a very harsh sound, they do this to get you interested and create suspense. The background music throughout the clip almost makes your heart skip beats and the dialogue used makes you want to watch more to discover what the plot is about. The very harsh sound from the beginning of the clip is then repeated again three times as the picture fades into the name of the film.

Jaws (1975)
Directed by- Steven Spielberg
Genre- Thriller

IMDB short description of Jaws- “When a gigantic great white shark begins to menace the small island community of Amity, a police chief, a marine scientist and grizzled fisherman set out to stop it.”



The clip starts what appears to be underwater, a voice over man is speaking but in the background you can clearly hear the famous Jaws theme tune. This theme tune is very effective as it builds up the tension as the tempo gets quicker, as if something is getting closer to you. The remainder of the clip shows you the main events of the film without giving a lot away, it is not that good because of the technology that would have been used at the time it was made. Overall, it is the music that makes the film of Jaws a success within the Thriller genre.

Choosing a Genre

We have been given another task to make a two minute opening for a film, to be able to create this film we are going to have to choose what genre would be best to do and then research and plan it. After some consideration our group have chosen to do a Thriller.
We have chosen this genre for many reasons, the main reason being that it is going to be the easiest film to make in the environment we are in, due to equipment and budget. To make a different genre of film, for example Sci-Fi it would cost alot more as we would need special effects.
The reason we decided against a Comedy is because it would be very hard to make the script humorous, and to find actors who would be able to play a funny role. This leads on to why we decided against the genre of Romance, it would be difficult to get actors/actresses that would be willing to do a kissing scene, which is an imporant convention of this genre.
Therefore, we feel our decision to make a thriller seems to be the most achievable, although we do now need to be careful about what sub-genres we are going to use as we want to make our film to the best standard we possibly can.
Next, I am going to be researching existing thrillers, their sub-genres and conventions.

Preliminary Task

For our preliminary task we were asked to do a short film that included a match-on-action shot, a shot-reverse-shot & at least a couple of lines of dialogue. We felt that our film was quite good for our first try and the audience feedback provided us with some positives and negatives points. Our audience said that our framing was good yet our sound could have been improved by integrating it with the initial soundtrack that we produced.  The amount of dialogue we used was also a strong point that our audience picked up on; yet our match on action could have been improved when Lewis and Dean run through the door, this error could have been fixed in editing and we shall take this into consideration for future tasks. I feel that producing this has gave us some of the basic skills we need to make our films in the future better.