Similar Text Analysis (2)

2^nd Movie Opening Analysis - Se7en

This opening sequence seems fascinatingly mysterious and it immediately establishes the character that seems to be ‘working’. The montage sequence which starts from the XCU of the book consists of juxtaposition of CU and XCU shots of the person writing, cutting photo negatives, sticking photos, scraping his fingertips, sewing the books, cutting the word ‘God’ from a newspaper and doing other weird, crazy things. This certainly doesn’t seem like the work of a ‘normal’ human being and we come to believe that this character has some (scary) mental disorders and possibly is a ‘psycho’. The XCU of his fingers also look bruised and dirty- maybe because he’s been scraping off the skin. Again, this shows that the man is trying to hide his fingerprints which means he’s doing illegal things- secretly.

When we see him scratching people’s faces in photos and sticking murder/death pictures in his book, we think/know he’s been murdering those people and writing in his book about those killings and sticking things up as evidence. The whole mise-en-scene and actions in this sequence is disturbing, distressing and gives out a pessimistic feeling. We also see quite a lot of shadows and darkness in the clip. This not only represents ‘a state of privacy/wickedness and impurity’ and ‘a state of distress or trouble’ but also helps to set the scary and uncomfortable mood among the audience. The introductory titles (in white) are also shown in black backgrounds as well. This goes very well with the amount of darkness we see in the videos. It can be said how darkness conveys fear, mystery and hidden secrets as well as danger. The makers probably wants us to feel all this while watching this sequence.

                                     

The words shown here seems to be scratched in and hence looks rough and ‘man-made’ just like the books and photos that the character is making. They also have this twitching and shaking effect which again looks scary and disorderly- just like the character we’re being shown. The title and the visual come up turn by turn while there’s a constant flow of the music. We also see some flashes of writings that can’t really be read between the things on the screen.  The non-diegetic soundtrack which is also mysterious and accompanied with cries and screams compliments the creepy, bizarre visual. This distorted, curious sound somewhat indicates the irrational inner-workings of this psycho character. This music creates tension and builds up the excitement and it gets pretty quick at the end of the sequence and because we get the gist of what is/could be happening, we want to know more about it.

We notice how both the video sequence and non-diegetic music sequence changes from a slow-pace to a pretty fast pace later when we once know what we are being shown. It’s like as if the director wants to show us a lot of things about the character’s unnatural behavior and because there isn’t much time to do so; we are being rushed through all those sequences. This title sequence is a brilliant example of how good things can be when the shown imagery- the film and the music is all synched to each other. Without even showing us the face of the character, it has been able to create the scary personality of this crazy ‘antagonist’. Because it is full of mystery, the audience is left want to go deep inside the plot and find the hidden secrets.

Similar Text Analysis (1)

1^st Movie Opening Analysis - Ginger Snaps



The title sequence of this movie is a collage of death/suicide videos and photo sequences of the same two girls - as we later notice. In all of these, we see the girls killing themselves in various ways. Different locations have been used: bedroom, garden, garage, bathroom, car boot, freezer in the store room etc and props which can be used for killing like rope, knives, pills, pitchforks, lawn mower and body bags are shown. These home locations  and the shaky, unsmooth camera gives a voyeuristic feeling that intrigues the audience (because they feel like they are there with the girls secretly). The video and (police; crime-scene-like) photos are all combined together and is then made to flow with the music.

When the shaky video footage stops, the scene looks like a still photo which is again zoomed in and out to show/ emphasise on blood, weapons, death notes and so on. Because of this ‘play and stop’ method, the opening has some sort of a ‘broken film’ effect i.e. the machine is being stuck again and again but of course this is done for us to explore the gory drama that is happening in those scenes. One death scene cuts to another one in a pretty fast pace. We see the Sepia, Black and White effects being used in the footage which makes them look ancient and sophisticated- something out of the hidden, horrific historical books perhaps. Some scenes are again just too bright and weirdly confusing.

Variety of camera angles is used from MCU to XCU and from LS to high-angle shot. There’s a non-diegetic, melancholic, instrumental soundtrack throughout the sequence with a few other added sounds like that of a car- its screeching tires, screams, whacking sound and a vulture-like noise.  All these sounds are there when related items are shown for example, the screeching noise is heard when we see the girl underneath the tyre of a car and the whacking/chopping sound can be heard when the other girl’s neck is stabbed with pitchfork. We can also hear camera shutter sounds which gives out the sense of photos being taken of such death scenes and we might relate this to teenage suicide and police investigation. This music certainly builds up the tension among the audience and intensifies the visuals.

The whole thing looks like a crime scene where different ways of suicide is portrayed and this makes the viewers wonder what is happening and therefore creates mystery which they want to explore. But again, the victims are always the same two girls and the audience might think that they’re killing themselves in their different lifetime- the B&W and sepia effect might help create this ‘old, pastlife’ feeling. Or they might as well think those are different people who have the same face.

All this creates enigma and, like a proper inquisitive mind, the audience want to know what is happening. Because of this opening, the character of those two girls is established: death obsessed, somewhat crazy teenagers who are constantly thinking of new ways to ‘die’ and actually getting all the props and trying to make it look like they followed those whacky ideas and actually succeeded in killing themselves. This opening immediately tells the audience that the film is going to be a bit unpleasant with blood and a bit of gore in it and is a ‘horror thriller’ movie.

The writings in this sequence are written in normal font and this doesn’t exactly match with the creepy, crazy footage. Maybe the visuals were already scary enough to get the message across that no special texts was required to do so and the directors didn’t want to get it over the top. However they do have a somewhat blurry effect -fading in and out slowly. I find this ‘video-photo-zoom in/ zoom out-and-video-again’ sort of technique pretty charming and by the zooming in and out as well as the panning movement of the camera, we are able to make our audience focus on the things which we want them to notice.

The titles for this movie are different from other clips I've watched including 'Se7en' and 'Catch me if you can' where the first name that comes up are that of the Production Company followed by producer(s) and then director(s). In this movie, the names of the actresses are the first ones we see and then only does the other names follow. The producers and directors only come at the very end of the title sequence. This, I assume, might be because it is a Canadian film and they are a bit different from Hollywood ones but it still looked a bit unusual so we decided to stick with the 'American conventional format'.

Getting started...

Research on 'Thriller Movies'

Thriller

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Questionnaire and Result

Audience Research

Before starting the pre-production work for thriller opening, I along with my group, prepared a questionnaire which consisted of both close-ended and open-ended questions. This was done to know what age-group liked what sort of movie and to decide which age group we supposed to present our thriller movie to. We chose those questions because they would help us know which social status, location they belonged to and their age as well as sexual orientation. By finding this, we thought it would be easier to narrow down our target audience and make the thriller opening the way they like it.

We got feedback after putting it up as a ‘Facebook note’ and by circulating it via e-mail.

Questionnaire

1. In which age group do you lie in?

       Under 16  ☐      16-18 ☐     19-21 ☐     22-28 ☐      29- 35 ☐     +35 ☐ 

2. In which ethnicity do you belong to? 

White ☐          Asian ☐         African ☐ 

Mixed : 

 Asian British (Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Other Asian) ☐ 

 Black British (Black Caribbean, Black African, Black other) ☐ 

3. Your gender:  Male  ☐        Female ☐           Other ☐

4. Your sexual orientation:

Heterosexual  ☐                       Homosexual   ☐                                          Bisexual☐

5. You consider yourself to be in: 

 Upper Class  ☐                             Middle Class   ☐                                  Working Class ☐ 

 6. Where do you live?

      Pinner ☐   Wealdstone ☐   Wembley ☐   Harrow ☐  

Other ☐  (If chosen ‘other’, please specify....................)

7. Your lifestyle: 

       How often do you go for movies? ..................

        Do you like reading? ...................

        Do you like partying/ clubbing? ...............

        Watch and play games? ..............

 8. What certificate film do you tend to watch?

            U ☐                 PG ☐               12+ ☐              15 ☐                18 ☐

9. Which genre of films do you like?  

    Action, adventure ☐      Romance ☐      Horror ☐    Thrillers ☐

     Western ☐     Comedy ☐     Science-fiction☐

10. On average, how many films do you watch a month?

            0  ☐                 1 -3  ☐                     4 – 6  ☐       7 – 9  ☐        10+ ☐ 

11. When I say 'thrillers', what do you think of? ....................................

12. What would you expect from a good thriller movie? .....................................

13. What is your favourite type of Thriller?

Action – Adventure  ☐                        Disaster  ☐                 Historical  ☐

Medical  ☐                 Religious  ☐                Psychological  ☐         Serial Killer ☐

14. Do you enjoy plot twists and cliffhangers in films?

            Yes  ☐             No ☐

15. Where do you tend to watch to your films?

Cinema ☐       Rented DVD  ☐           Purchased DVD  ☐                  School  ☐

Other (please specify)  ☐       ………………………………………………….

Result Analysis

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