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Tuesday 9th December
Comparisons between openings
From this grid I can see that high key lighting was used in most of the film openings I looked at. This shows although darkness and hiding things are stereotypical of thriller films most used high key lighting for effect.
Although most used high key lighting it was very close and many thriller openings did use low key primarily. I think we need to get the right mix of both to make a successful opening.
The lighting the openings used depended on the effects they wanted to create, ‘Now You See Me’ used high key to emphasise the themes of deception and awe the audience however ‘The Shining’ used high key lighting to make the audience feel nervous and anxious. Both of these are different from Memento however who used high key lighting to confuse the audience. This shows that how we use lighting in our opening will affect it and the effects of it on our audience.
From this grid I can see that the numbers of openings who used a clear location and those who didn’t are equal. Looking at these findings tells me that we should use locations in our opening scene. Out of the openings I looked at two used outside setting, one used inside and two used both. This shows we could use either inside or outside or both for effect.
The location used in the openings depended on what effects the director wanted to create. For example ‘The Shinings’ outside location made the scene even more daunting and creepy suiting the film however this wouldn’t have worked for other openings. If ‘The Number 23’ was outside it wouldn’t make sense to the audience and would make the opening scene much less effective, this could also apply to ‘Se7en’ some of the anxiety created is based on the fact we don’t know where the person is and so having a clear location in that opening scene would have decreased the effects of the viewer.
From this grid I can see that the number of thrillers who used characters and those who did not are the same. Five openings featured no characters in their openings, this was done for effect. Generally this created the same effects; anxiety, tension and in some of them (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Shining) fear.
The openings that did feature characters did so for desired effects.
These effects include;
- Create fear (Se7en)
- Make audience ask questions (Shutter Island, Memento)
- Lull viewer into false sense of security (Layer Cake)
- Feelings of awe and power (Now You See Me)
This shows that characters have an important effect on the opening and the viewers of. All the openings successfully created their desired effects on the audience, looking at this we’ll take into consideration which effects we want the viewer to feel when making decisions about using characters and how many we chose to use.
This grid shows which film openings contain the themes listed in the top boxes. I picked these themes because they were the most popularly used ones in the thriller openings I looked at and also they’re typical themes of thriller films in general.
Mystery was the only theme all the openings contained in their openings; all other themes had at least one film that hadn’t featured in it. This is expected since thriller films are heavily based around mystery, it’s the main convention of thriller films.
The mystery was based around these key questions;
- Who? ‘Shutter Island’ ‘Memento’ ‘The Shining’
- Why? ‘Se7en’ ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’
- What (is happening) ‘The Number 23’ ‘Vertigo’
- What (will happen) ‘Psycho’ ‘Layer Cake’ ‘Now You See Me’
These all make the audience think and try to figure out what’s going on and what will be going on. This means they’re distracted trying to connect everything and won’t notice smaller things that will connect everything for them. This will make them frustrated and anxious. This is something we are definitely going to be doing in our opening to ensure success.
The second and third most popularly used themes were violence and insanity. These themes tie in together since often the two come together in the form of an antagonist. Although the presence of these themes does create anxiety and fear I think the absence of them increases the intensity of the fear and anxiety. In films that didn’t use insanity as a theme ‘Layer Cake’ and ‘The Shining’ don’t use any themes of insanity in the opening, I think these openings create more fear and anxiety than those who didn’t.
The lack of explicit violence or insanity makes the viewer suspicious and on edge because they begin to wonder where it is and wait for it to appear. I think this is much more successful at creating anxiety than using themes of violence and insanity explicitly or even implicitly. However the lack of violence and insane themes don’t guarantee this fear ‘Now You See Me’ shows no insanity or violence but it doesn’t make the viewer feel overly scared or anxious, they instead celebrate at the events they see. This differs from ‘The Shining’ because the lack of violence in that opening is worrying and makes the audience feel fearful.
I think after looking at the themes seen here and comparing the effects created by the themes that we’ll definitely include mystery as a key theme. I think we’ll also want to use the theme of insanity and maybe violence but I think we might focus on some of the less seen themes, in particular death.
This effect is also used in ‘The Shining’ but created by a very bright, saturated blue. I think the blue is more effective in creating this effect however it’s due to the combination of the bright scene and the dark music.
Two of the openings I looked at ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ and ‘Shutter Island’ used both white and coloured text. In both cases the title was a different colour to the rest of the text, this makes the title stand out more and make it look more important (because it is).
Both of the films that used only coloured text used a bright blue colour, I think this is purposely chosen because other colours such as bright green or orange would have made it look garish instead of unnerving and creepy. ‘The Shining’ uses a much more saturated blue than ‘Memento’ I think this is to overbear the viewer, it’s meant to be overwhelming to the viewer to make them anxious. Whereas ‘Memento’ is more subtle and wants the audience to focus more on the images in the scene than considering everything in the scene.
Only one of the openings I looked at used black text. ‘The Number 23’ differed from the rest of the openings in its choice of colour for text. I think this is due to the scene the director was going for, since it’s the only opening that uses a background of paper in its opening scene it wouldn’t be practical to use white text. The colour can also be down to the fact the text is made to look like it was written using a typewriter and typewriters only have black ink. Looking at the openings text I think we should probably use a white font on a dark background because it looks good onscreen and it effective in appearing chilling on its own.
This grid contains the colour of the text featured in the opening scenes of the films I looked at. The majority of the openings used white text; this is mostly used because of the dark background that the text is on. It’s also used to unnerve because of how bright and clean it is, this is essentially the opposite of thriller films.
This grid shows the editing techniques used in each of the openings I looked at.
The number of films that used slow paced editing are the same as those who used fast paced editing. I think this is due to the content of the openings. The ones with slow paced editing are more symbolic and show things with meanings often foreshadowing events of the film. For example ‘Memento’ shows a photo slowly fading away, in the film the main character loses his memory in a short amount of time and uses Polaroid’s to help him remember things. The opening of ‘Shutter Island’ shows many images of places featured in the film, this is foreshadowing events and lettings the audience know what’s going to happen but they don’t understand it yet. This applies to other films that too used slow paced editing.
The openings that used fast paced editing have less symbolic elements and things that the audience can more easily figure out. ‘Psycho’ has nothing plot wise featured in the opening scene, ‘The Number 23’ opening just points out how important the number twenty three is. ‘Se7en’ combines a number of elements that have no meaning; some of the images aren’t explained even after watching the film. The audience are plainly shown everything, they have less to think about and I think this is what the director considers when he puts together the opening scene. I think this is something we should consider when editing our film, how long we show certain cuts for does affect how much the viewer will pay attention.
A lot of the openings I looked at used multiple cut transitions, eight of them using straight cuts. Fades and wipes aren’t used as much as straight cuts, this is because they don’t create a lot of tension and are more often used for other less thrilling effects. Straight cuts are faster and make everything move quicker, they’re more exciting this is especially shown in ‘The Number 23’ and ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ the shots get quicker and it becomes more rushed and exciting, this effect is amplified by the fast paced music in the background. This is opposite to openings that used fades or wipes in the place of straight cuts. ‘Vertigo’ only uses fades and is less anxiety inducing and fear causing because of this, of course it isn’t meant to cause these as much as dis-orientation and confusion within its audience.
I think we need to consider carefully what transitions we use between cuts, we need to think about; the effects we want to make, what will fit in with what we’re doing and the effects of the different kinds of editing we could use. We want to use a range of techniques for various effects but not too many so that it looks like we just tried to squeeze everything into one clip.
This grid is one of two showing multiple ways sound can and is used for effect. From the grid I can see that the majority of openings I looked at used both high pitch and low pitch in their opening scenes. I think this is good because too much of one can get tiring and eventually begin to bore the audience. I think we should use a mix of both to get a good mix of effects and keep the audience interested.
Non-Diegetic sound was used in all of the openings I looked at, this shows it’s definitely important and a key thing for us to include in our opening. I think a lot of effect is based on the use of non-diegetic sound in a scene so this is something we need to consider carefully to make sure we pick music that matches the rest of our clip and creates the effect we want it to.
Diegetic sound was not used nearly as much as non-diegetic, the openings that included diegetic sound were already starting on the plot ‘Layer Cake’ was introducing characters already and so was ‘Now You See Me’ whereas in ‘The Number 23’ and ‘Psycho’ no characters were seen or introduced. I think use of diegetic sound is something we should consider when planning our opening.
Only three of the openings I looked at included vocals in their non-diegetic sound. I think this was due to the message they wanted to get across with the opening scene for example ‘Se7en’ uses one lyric at the end of the clip, this lyric links to what’s happening onscreen at the time. This represents the antagonist; not using words until necessary and only to confuse who he’s talking to. ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ has lyrics throughout the opening scene; however they’re screamed and hard to understand. They sound quite loud and angry, this represents the female character in the film; clouded by anger and hate. I don’t think we’re going to use lyrics in our opening unless we find a very specific song that relates to our opening and what’s happening.
Crescendos were popularly used in the openings with half of the openings I looked at containing them. I think crescendos have to be placed right to be effective, otherwise it’s just noise. ‘Shutter Island’ featured low pitch music throughout the clip until the very end when they reveal the film title; this creates anxiety and fear based around the name. However if they’d put one in the middle it wouldn’t make sense to the audience and the clip wouldn’t come across as good as it does. I think a crescendo in our clip could be a good thing if we place it right and it runs smoothly in the clip.
This grid shows more sound terms and techniques that were or were not used in the film openings I looked at. The majority of the openings I looked at used a track in minor key, this is typical of thriller films since they want their audience to be put on edge and if the music is happy then their audience isn’t likely to be anxious or scared. The two openings that used major key in place of minor ‘Layer Cake’ and ‘Now You See Me’ are the ones in which the openings lull the audience into a false sense of security. This calls for a happier tone of music since they want to audience to feel relaxed and happy so they feel more intensely scared and anxious later.
All of the openings except two included an increase in pace and volume of the music, this was primarily used to shock the viewer. ‘Se7en’ the increase was at the end of the clip to put the audience on edge, ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ did the same putting an increase in volume at the end of the opening for intensity. Others that did this include ‘The Shining’ and ‘Shutter Island’. ‘Now You See Me’ placed their increase close to the end when the trick was revealed however it was shortly followed by a quick decrease in volume when the hooded figure appeared. Looking at this I think volume of the music/effects we add in should be considered, we have to look at what we want the audience to focus on and what we want them to hear better than other things.
A voice over or narration was used in two of the openings I looked at. ‘Now You See Me’ and ‘Layer Cake’ both used narration at the very beginning of their clips. I think this is also for false security in the viewer because it feels like the character is talking to them so they have more of an insight when really they have no insight. I think this could be a good effect if it fits in properly with the point the director is trying to get across. I think this is the main reason it’s not used in more of the openings.
Only one of the openings I looked at used silence. ‘Shutter Island’ used silence at the end of its clip to make the louder sounds more intense and surprising. I think silence is very successful in affecting the viewers and the opinons of them about the clip and I was surprised that more of the openings didn’t use it. Silence is something I’d like to use in our opening for effect; this can only be possible if it fits in properly with the rest of what’s happening in the clip. I think silence if a really effective way of creating feelings within the audience.
For this grid I chose some of the more popular shots and techniques I saw in camerawork. Because there was a large amount of different techniques used I only chose camera shots that were featured in three or more of the openings I analysed.
The most popularly used shots were close ups and extreme close ups, those who didn’t use them were focusing on other aspects of the scene. ‘Psycho’ didn’t have a lot of camerawork featured in it; the opening scene was mostly focused on the titles. ‘The Shining’ was keeping the identity of the driver a mystery and so it mostly used shots from a further distance. Whereas ‘Se7en’ used multiple close ups and extreme close ups to show lots of detail and content but also to keep certain things hidden, like the identity of the person performing the tasks shown in the clip. ‘Memento’ used the same technique to create mystery and hide the identity of the person holding the Polaroid. I think this is something we’ll do to hide the identity of our antagonist.
A few of the openings contained aerial and birds eye shots. Aerial was used more often primarily for looking at the location/setting ‘Now You See Me’ used aerial shots to look at the building that lit up; ‘The Shining’ did a similar thing to show the vast size of the mountain road he was driving on. This is suitable in their openings however it wouldn’t be a practical for other openings to use them. For example an aerial of birds eye view in ‘Memento’ would be pointless because you wouldn’t be able to see the detail of the picture, the same goes for ‘Se7en’ since the person is inside we wouldn’t see anything relevant. I don’t think this will be something we could use since most of our locations are indoors.
Establishing shots were used in a few of the openings. ‘The Shining’ used one at the end to show the hotel; the destination of the driver, this was also used in ‘Layer Cake’ when they arrived at the club. I think this is a good shot to use but I’m not sure we’ll need to use it since we think we’re going to use transitions to tell the viewer when we’re switching location. Three of the openings I looked at used shallow focus/focus pull. I like this camera technique, I think it’s effective and practical if we want to put attention on one part of the frame or scene we’re in. I think this is something that could be useful in our opening.
This grid is compiled of camera angles and movements seen in the opening scenes I looked at. These are in a separate grid because there wasn’t enough room in the first for everything.
The most popularly used movement or angle was panning. Panning was used a lot in the openings I looked at. ‘The Shining’ used a lot of panning to look at the location the car was in. ‘Layer Cake’ used panning for the same thing. ‘Se7en’ used it at the end of the clip to emphasise the characters insanity, and ‘Now You See Me’ used panning to create awe and let the viewer’s marvel at what they’d seen. I think all the openings that used panning did so successfully and it’s a definitely something we could use in our opening.
Zooming was also a common factor in the openings I looked at. Many of them used zooming; all of the clips I looked at used a slow zoom in particular. I think this is to create anxiety and impatience, ‘The Number 23’ used it at the end of their clip to look at the ‘23’ in blood on the paper. ‘The Shining’ used it throughout their clip when following the car. I think it was done successfully and we think this is something we’re going to use at the end of our clip for effect.
Canted angle was used in a few of the openings, mostly to dis-orientate. ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ used lots of short cuts of various things to confuse their audience and so the canted angle fits in with this. ‘The Shining’ also did this when looking at the water to dis-orientate the viewer. ‘Memento’ consisted of one long canted angle shot; this unlike the other openings that used it was to conceal detail. In particular the full image in the characters hand, the angle prevented us from seeing the full image and perhaps making us less clueless about it.
High angle shots were used in a few of the openings I looked at. The majority used this to create awe in the films ‘Now You See Me’ used it for this effect after the male character performed his trick. ‘The Shining’ used it for the same effect; so the audience would marvel, however the audience was awed by the size of the location not a magic trick. However ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ used it to represent the chaos of everything going on, the director chose to use multiple shots, angles and objects of focus to show how hectic the main characters mind is. Only one film I analysed used a low angle shot, ‘Now You See Me’ used a low angle shortly after using a high angle looking at the large building. This was to make the character look insignificant and make us more awed by the fact he pulled it off. I don’t think a low angle shot would have been practical in any of the other film openings, except for ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ which could have easily used a low angle shot and successfully confused their audience even more.
I think looking at what the openings used and which were successful I think there’s definitely a lot of shots, movements and angles we should look at using where they’re suitable and would match the flow of our opening. I’m particularly interested in looking at deep/shallow focus and focus pulling; I think it could be an interesting and effective use of screen time.