Thriller Conventions

Quick cuts and different camera movements and angles
Music that gives tension
Lighting- Shadows, mirrors
Hear and see the point of view of the killer
Told a story with a use of flashbacks
Fast paced
Frequent action
Includes many sub genres
Dramatic rendering of psychological, social, familiar and political tensions
Overlap with mystery stories
The identity of the villain or murder is always known just not uncovered
Crimes that must be prevented are on a greater scale, mass murder, terrorism, assassination, or the overthrow of governments

Target audience

My film opening is going to be aimed at the more mature generation so from teenagers onwards. I have picked this age boundary because i feel that the content in my opening will not benefit from younger child watching. My opening is a thriller so it would be harder for younger children to understand what is going on as it contains a lot of unanswerable questions and is complex in the way that it has been created with time shifts from the past to the present. Also, some scenes in my opening contain viloence and is not appropriate for anyone younger than at least 15. I feel that the older genration will appreciate the opening more because they will have a better understanding for what is going on and therfore can enjoy it.

Initial Ideas (possible idea)

Shot # 1: Black screen, titles appear, sound of police sirens and walkie talkies
Shot # 2: Man walking through door
Shot # 3: Cut to victim tied up in a chair with bag on his head
Shot # 4: Cuts to back of first man, over shoulder shot of victim and man
Shot # 5: Start of 360 degree pan of the room
Shot # 6: Cuts to first flashback, black and white, man hands victim bag containing unknown content
Shot # 7: Continuing of 360 degree pan of man in chair
Shot # 8: Cut to second flashback of victim hearing the door being knocked
Shot # 9: Dissolve back to 360 degree pan of the victim
Shot # 10: Cut to third flashback of man being captured by two men. Cloth is put over face to show being drugged.
Shot # 11: Dissolve back to 360 degree pan of victim
Shot # 12: Cut to fourth flashback of victim being thrown into boot of car. point of view shot of victim looking up at two men. Hazy view due to drugs
Shot # 13: Dissolves back to 360 degree pan of victim
Shot # 14: Cut to final flashback of man walking through door from the beginning of the opening. Black and white flashback turns into colour to merge the past with the present
Shot # 15: Dissolves back to 360 degree pan and finishes at victims face in bag. Man then begins to take bag off.
Shot # 16: cut to inside the victims bag. Bag begins to lift off face but as soon as it reaches eye level it cuts back to the man pulling bag off from outside
Shot # 17: Extreme close-up of victims eye. Graphic match is used here and zooms out to see victim lying in bed. Present turns to the past again

The Usual Suspects Opening Sequence

The Usual Suspects Opening Sequence

Mise-En-Scene
· Starts with black screen, gives air of mystery
· Company appears on the right hand side of screen
· Production company then appears, company is put first because of importance
· Black screen then turns into rippling water. Reflection from light sets the time of day.
· Director then appears on the screen followed by the title of the film
· Actors names then appear
· Peoples names are in bold whereas there job is not
· Rippling water is continuous throughout the opening sequence
· Titles go down in order of importance so the least important people are the last to appear
· Screen goes black again
· At this point we don’t know the significance of the water or the reflections
· “San Pedro, California-Last Night” appears, setting the time and place of the film
· Matches being lit, suggests violence due to fire
· Matches light up the black screen


Camera Shots, Angles And Movement
· Pan of rippling water
· Rippling water shot is looped over and over again
· Close-up of man striking multiple matches
· Pan up to see man lighting cigarette
·


Editing
· Opening shot is one long cut




Sound
· Music fades into the opening sequence
· Starts off quietly and gradually gets louder
· Calm piece of music
· Use of string instruments, gives eerie presence
· Wind instruments backs this theory
· Typical thriller opening music
· Faint sound of percussion in background but isn’t main focus of track
· Music is quite sinister
· Music has a thick texture, built up in layers to give more full effect
· Gradually gets louder throughout

Se7en Opening Sequence

Se7en opening sequence

Mise-En-Scene
Old messy looking book, gives creepy feel
Open book suggests it being read or written in
Hand in background, blurred out to add to mystery
Title appears bottom right corner, out of the way of the focus of the shot
Font is different to company shown at beginning. Creepy “child-like” writing used to give eerie effect
Two hands separated by red line, which could suggest blood
Hands are broken so could show pain and torture
Hands have no real significance but are there just to make us think and to disorientate us
Again, font is placed out of the way of the main focus of the shot to avoid distraction
Mysterious hand turning metal object with some sort of material in other hand, audience has no idea what this could be so it confuses them
Another mysterious object is being used, still have no clue what film is about
In next shot we find out that mysterious object is in fact a blade case, this is revealed by blade being taken out of case and flashed across the screen
Black screen reappears, possibly does this to show importance of names that appear
Subliminal message appears on screen, too fast to notice what it says
Blade appears again shows importance, this time its inflicting pain on person who is holding it. Fingers are in bad state, suggesting suffering by man holding blade
Object being dunked into water, possibly tea bag but unsure at this point because of how short the cut is
Black screen with film name appears in big bold letters showing importance
Recurring theme of book with writing in it, suggesting planning for something
Red lighting could represent blood even though by the looks of it is developing a photo.
Film being cut backs up theory of photos being developed
Pictures, being stuck into what appears to be a journal shows something is being planned
Man gives himself paper-cut shoes he isn’t afraid of pain
Drop of blood makes audience cringe
Man using marker pen to scribble out boys face suggests a possible vendetta against someone?
Long pieces of text, too fast to read so audience cant get their heads around what’s going on
Strange pictures of how people died, shows violence is a main theme within the film
Possible other books aligned against each other. Shows organisation, shows its not his first time in making one of these books, suggests he is planning something big
Hair sample being but underneath person in picture, suggests he’s possibly killed that person and took hair sample from him. Possible keepsake?
Man cutting the word god out of a dollar bill suggests religion within the film

Camera shots, angles and movements
Starts with close-up of book, don’t know what’s happening
Focus on book
Aerial shot of hands to show whole picture
Shadow casting over hand picture shows movement in shot and pulls us away from picture
Extreme close up of metallic object, because of how close camera is to the object we cannot make out what the object is
Another extreme close-up of another unidentified object
Extreme close up of same object but focus is drawn away by blade flashing across screen
Continual occurrence of extreme close-ups to show intensity



Editing
Long cut at start of title sequence
Cut to black screen, represents darkness and disorientation, don’t quite know what’s happening
Short cuts begin to appear to keep the audience on their feet and disorientated
Continual short shots to keep disorientation
Cut to black screen again
Three really short cuts of same object, aims to show what the mans intention of blade is
Montage of shots of book put together to show what’s going on
Shots begin to get faster and tension builds as more pieces of paper are being added to the book/journal




Sound
Music starts non digetic
Begins quiet ambient sounding
Starts with a powerful sound, immediately sets eerie mood
Digetic sound of possibly door creaking in background. We see this from shadow
Same music is looped but has other tracks playing over the top
Sound of blade case opening almost cringe worthy
Lots of warped sounds within opening gives the disorientating feeling
Repetition of door creaking
Sound of man scraping finger along paper, adds to the impact of what he is doing. Without the sound wouldn’t be the same
Music begins to get faster, building up tension
Music is in time with the cuts used
Music sounds like it gets louder towards the end
We begin to hear words but are put behind the track so they sound muffled and unclear
At the end of opening we hear the words “you got me closer to god”. Signifies the end of track and goes well with image on screen.

Casino Royale Opening Sequence

Mise-En-Scene

• starts with scene of bathroom
• white walls contrast against man dressed in black
• gun lying on floor infront of man
• we dont know who the figure in black is as his back is turned
• man picks gun from floor
• traditional james bond start
• bullet flies acroos screen
• screen is black and white, only colour is blood which drips from top of screen
• use of simple animation for title sequence
• clubs and spades suggest card game withing the film
• titles in the centere of the screen show importance of the people involved
• hearts and diamonds appear back up card game thoery
• recurring theme of card suites
• background of titles could possibly be back of deck of cards
• main character holding gun, shows action in film
• picture of jack on left side of screen backs up card thoery
• multiple guns show film is about violence and action
• two figures, black and red, red is clearly villain and red is the hero (bond)
• fight scene upon back of cards
• when punched, red figure turns into deck of cards
• target going over queen suggests love interest within the film
• targets turn into roulette wheels showing casino theme
• green segment of roulette wheel draws us in and we see 007 printed across the wheel
• constant violence shows death is important within the film
• Bond running between pillars shows typical spy movie
• cards slicing bond then him recovering suggests he is invincible
• target shoot two holes in card to make 007
• typing on screen shows brief intro to film
• flying cardss turn into bank notes showing money is important in the film

Camera Angles, Shots and Movement

• establishing shot of bathroom
• long shot of man
• medium shot of man laying on floor
• long shot of james bond
• zooms out when bullet is shot
• pan of scenery throughout titles
• close up of gun being loaded
• close up of gun shooting bullet
• long shot of multiple guns shooting

Editing

• jump cut to man on floor
• short shots at start
• animated title sequence
• use of card suites give kaleidoscope effect
• long cuts of title sequence
• graphic match of 007 from card to 007 on screen
• bond turns from animation to real life back to animation

Sound

• ambient sound of water falling
• man shouts abruptly
• film theme song starts, non digetic music
• big band music, typical james bond music
• changes to more mellow sounding music