Comparing two film openings

Silence of the lambs

Sound: The non-diagetic sound is slow background music which helps build tension. The diagetic sound includes the woman's footsteps as she runs, the diagetic sound continues as she walks throught the building

Mise-en-scene: The woman is wearing a casual/sport sweatshirt which shows that the situation is nothing special at first sight. The setting is a dull, forrest filled with obstacles. There are men in suits which suggests that she is in some sort of institute as the building seems very formal

Narrative: A woman is running through a forrest in a fast tempo fashion and an FBI officer is there and provides her with some information. The enhances the viewers expectation that this will be some sort of undercover mission or a personal quest for someone.

Camera shots: A longshot is used with a tracker so that we can follow her movements. A low angled shot is used as the woman moves towards the shot and it swivles round as she then begins to run away from the camera into the distant. A tracking shot is then used as the woman continues to run. As she goes through obstacles the camera pans around her. When she meets the FBI officer a close up is used to show his facial expression for more dramatic effect.
Aim: The aim of the sequence is to produce some enigma as the viewer does not initially know why the woman is running which poses the question has she done something wrong? This enhances the mystique of the characters
 
Adulthood
 

 
Camera shots: There is a use of  blurred shots to outline the flashbacks from the previous movie this establishses the mood of the film. there are establishing shots of the club of people dancing and there are uses of close ups of different characters showing the different moods and use of spliced shots shows different stages of what the clubbers are doing.
 
Narative: this follows the story of life in West london for troubled youths. Opening sequence shows 3 young "ghetto youths" as they rob and fight to establish themselves on the street they show a lot of violent behaviour which sets the narrative expectation that this film will have a lot of violence and conflict.
 
Sound: the sound has a transition as the soundtrack starts off non-diagetic as a song is getting played during the establishing shot of the cars driving past, but as the the camera focuses on chrarcters the music becomes diageticas it can be heard in the club as when the characters begin to talk the music can still be heard.
 
Mise-en-scene: the Characters are wearing stereo typical clothing which is hoodies and "low batty" jeans as they are at a rave and the setting is of that of club as the storyline revolves around the typical life of teenagers living in the rough parts of london.
 
Aim: the aim of this opening sequence is to introduce the new characters as this is a sequal so the old characters are not present so the opening scene poses the enigma of who the new characters are and why they are doing the things they are. This opening scene also shows the return of Sam from the previous movie and shows his prison sentence being finished which shows his new attitude this aims to show his new atitutde and the person he now is.

Comparison: These movie have similar motives that they try to show perspective of life and have dramatic openings to pose the enigma of why are the characters behaving in a certain manor. But they contrast as they may both show hard hitting stories they take completely seperate routes.

group pitch : Untitled

Untitled on Prezi

thriller pitch

Title - Now you see me now you don’t


Sub-genre – psychological thriller

Content- credits fit the theme of police badges CIA badges with actors. Starts off with opening credits. Plain darkness, then a phone rings and the voice of a dark sinister man as he describes how he will never be caught and describes his latest murder the sound of the phone being hung up leads to the start of the soundtrack. Main credits roll from main actors, titles and director. The scene is two detectives in their office debating what they should do next. The phone rings again and the detectives hear of the discovery of another dead body and they rush out to destination.

Opening shots could be shot with an extreme close up of just the mouth of a man whose face cannot be seen and then a jump cut to a body lying motionless. This opening sequence would be simple yet effective as the narrative expectation would be of psychological thriller which proves to have the biggest following in terms of thrillers and can be played in many ways. As mine is about a multiple murderer I have chosen to try and display it from the detectives view to make it seem more mysterious and interesting.

The movie is set in a city were crime has zero tolerance apart from mysterious character who intends to disrupt the city by performing murders and the police have no idea how to catch him. I think that a dark room and an office would be two great locations to shoot my opening sequence as the dark room would be perfect for shooting the shots were the man is on the phone opening mocking the police as it would be easy to distort the visability, the office would be good for shooting the exchanges between the detectives as it would look realistic and be a great way to portray the scene.

thriller research

Thriller is a genre of  film and television that uses suspense, tension and excitement as the main elements. The primary subgenres of thrillers are: mystery, crime and psychological thrillers.Thrillers are mostly characterised by an atmosphere of menace, violence, crime and murder by showing society as dark, corrupt and dangerous, though they often feature a happy ending in which the villains are killed or arrested. Thrillers heavily promote on literary devices such as plot twists, red herrings and cliffhangers. They also promote on moods, such as a high level of anticipation, adrenaline rush, arousal, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, anxiety and sometimes even terror. some examples of sub-genres in thrillers are:

• psychological thrillerse.g. strangers on a train movies- which have complex and and often dark storylines
• man on the run- e.g. the bourne identity- movies which follow one character trying to evade capture for a crime
• action thriller e.g. Die hard- movies which often involve the police getting involved with a violent gangs and often has explosions and gunfire
• slasher thriller e.g. the hills have eyes - often include multiple murders with simple storylines
• spoof thriller e.g. shawn of the dead- mock the convections of thrillers and often reflect scenes from other movies.
• horror thriller e.g. House of wax- movies which show dark scenes and often to scare the viewer

comparing film openings

This is the opening scene from the movie "gangs of new york" the opening scenes suggest that there is a lot of conflict is war music playing in the background as the priest this make the narative expectations very steroetypical in the idea that there will be a lot of fighting in this movie as right at the begining the priest is marching the "dead rabbits" into battle. after the leader of the natives however kills the preist this may con the vieweres into thinking this is the last of the conflict as the war music dies out and the the priest's killer makes a speech about how this is the end. When the child of the preist however tries to kills the butcher ( his father's killer) he is captured and he has revenge in his eyes which show that this isn't the end of the feud setting up the narrative for a story of revenge.
The compilation in this clip a very well orcustarted as the shot selection is very simple, compliments the atmosphere and the continuity is floorless. from 3:39 its starts of showing the priest and his immediate men and the camera angle slowly changes to a long shot to show more the people inside his burrow preparing themselves and the chages again to a great establishing shot of the entire burrow showing the scale of which the war they are about to begin will be clash literally of waves of people.


This clip also introduces the two the main characters of this film the butcher (bill cuttings) and amsterdam the priest's son and their opening exchanges tell you all of what you need to know about their characters. Amsterdam is young boy who have self inflicted himself the burden of avenging his fathers death and from the look in his eyes as the little boy shows the hatred that has for the butcher


This clip from 'The usual supsects' shows all the classic conventions of a thriller. You learn a lot about the narrative from this opening scene as you see a dead body on a floor, a man get killed and a boat go up in flames. simply from theese shots you can tell this movie may contain gangsters and the clip suggests that this scene could be the end of the story but the beginig of the movie.

We only see two characters in this clip but interaction they have shows that they know each other. the fact that one kills the other could show one of two things, that they have had some of conflict or that the man kills his friend out of pitty as he can no longer feel his legs. Both theese characters reflect characteristics of gangsters showing the viewer that this is based on some sort of gangster activity.