Memento Opening scenes analysis

The beginning of the film opens with a high angle shot, looking down at a photograph of what appears to be a bloody crime scene of which a dead man is seen. The sound appears to be a violin which helps to exhibit the revulsion from that gruesome picture effectively, as it helps to create an eary and tense atmosphere.

Throughout this scene, the opening credits are displayed in the foreground with this same picture taking centre stage, this could suggest to the audience that this might be either a psychological thriller or a crime thriller as we're unaware of who's holding the picture and his connection with the deceased.



The next shot the audience see's is a reaction shot of the man who has been holding the picture this whole time. This shot shows him to be quite horrified and confused at what he has just seen suggesting that he isn't a police officer as they would be used to seeing images like this, thus suggesting he might have had a connection to the victim. This shot makes the audience sympathise with him as they can see that he looks truly confused by it, furthermore through the scar markings on his face the audience can infer that he too might have been in a accident or might have come close to getting killed himself as the marking looks fairly fresh, therefore it must have been recently.

The Usual Suspects- Opening scene analyis

The establishing shot is an extreme close up of a pack of matches been struck alight, this use of shot shows the importance of the matches and the fire. The fire already foreshadows danger this then makes the audience question what is about to happen. From this shot alone, I can tell that fire is going to be a crucial and vital element and stimulus in this opening scene as the matches are only jut being lit suggesting that the fire hasn't  happened yet but it's about to, very soon. This then helps to create suspense through the enigma of the situation.

In The Usual Suspects, Mise-en-scene is employed very effectively in terms of establishing characters motives and helping the audience understand  what's going on through the iconography. When the audience first sees Sgt Rubin’s office it is cluttered and messy, this then gives them an idea of his personality and a sense of what he's really like, disorganised, stressed.

The use of a long shot to help show the audience what is happening and the contents of the film, is pretty effective as it helps to enhance the film. During this opening sequence, the audience see all the elements in the office as more than simple props and set pieces, but elements that are key to understanding the story and realizing what really happened in the narrative. The director has cleverly chosen to use the mise-en-scene alone to tell the films story without relying on any dialogue from the characters, this deems to be really effective and powerful.

Status has been shown through the characters wealth as their the ones with the power, wealth is made clear by the gold watches and gold lighter.

During one of the final scenes where Kujan realises who Verbal really was, everything is put into utter silence with just a classical, ominous tone building in the background and a combined set of phrases that Verbal had mentioned throughout his story mixed together with the on screen equivalents of where this information was derived from is a really powerful scene in the narrative. The absence of sound is used when the cup shatters with only the background instrumental reaching its peak and the name being repeated over and over again by Verbal’s monologue, this was really effective as it really helped to draw in the audience as they had to rely on the visuals rather than the dialogue and sound.

Sound is crucial in the revelation of the characters status, this is shown through the change of sound after a character is mentioned. For example, every time Keyser Soze's name is mentioned, there is always a buildup of background noise, and music, which is then followed by a very brief silence which gives the character to react. This is seen in the first hospital scene when one of the characters first hears someone say Keyser's name. This engages the audience by keeping them interested in the mystery, as it adds intrigue to Keyser's character as the want to know what he's done.

The use of diegetic sounds like the water running and the fire help to set the scene as it makes the place seem even more gritty, dark and dangerous like a hidden basement. This then suggests to the audience that whatever happens down there is not going to be above board or completely, if at all, legal, thus making them even more intrigued to know what's going to happen.

The opening scene, is renown for its use of revelation shots, this is made clear through the editing and the camerawork as the audience are constantly following the action e.g. when one of the characters light up the fire the audience then follows the trail in to it goes to a halt and we get a revelation shot of one of the heroes of the movie as he is seen to be putting out the fire with his urine, however his face still isn't revealed, this creates a sense of mystery and ambiguity as the hero usually always wants to be seen saving the day but this "hero" does it secretly to begin with.
However, from this mans position and his actions (urinating from the balcony) suggest he is the villain, this is then heightened though the fact that he has been silhouetted and we cannot make out any of his features, thus making the audience assume he is the villain until we realise that his actions were helping to put out the fire and not cause a nuisance.

 









We are introduced to a character with a mid-shot on a burning ship with several dead men around. Immediately, the contrast between the extreme close up and mid-shot disrupts the narrative flow, making it deliberately uncomfortable for the audience. 





The director and editor creates an enigma through the various different cuts- long shots and extreme long shots of the boat and what surrounds it. Furthermore, even though  we don't see the murder of the dead man, the audience are able to assume and have their own idea and perception of what happened. This then gives the audience a sense of involvement, in the movie, this is used in many thriller films. The sound is an essential feature that contributes to the ever increasing sense of tension. Through the music's increase in pitch the audience are made to feel a sense of anxiety and fear as they are metaphorically dangling at a top of a cliff wanting to find out what happens, which is created by the sense of expectation as they are constantly made to feel like something bad or heroic is about to happen. Throughout the sequence the music emphasises the tense, dramatic atmosphere illustrated in this sequence.

 This shot of the explosion is intriguing as it makes the audience question whether or not people got out or not, who was affected and where this took place?

Shots from Reservoir Dogs

The Silence of the Lambs Opening analysis

How does the opening engage/create interest for the audience?

The opening of this movie starts of with a long shot to confirms the setting  of a deserted  misty and perhaps frosty woods with the trees taking main focus suggesting that it is set during the early morning and something has either happened or is about to happen; as the woods in thrillers are usually associated with the fear of the unknown as you don't know what could be lurking around. The opening engages the audience as it shows a woman running suggesting she's the victim; this is depicted through the use of tracking shots from behind her, which makes the audience think she's running fro someone, thus creating a sense of sympathy for her. This is because in most thriller the female is usually portrayed as the victim as she is the "damsel in distress" so the audience automatically assume she's in danger.

Furthermore, the camera angle is a high angle shot slowly coming down show a women running and trying to climb a rope. This use of shot gives the impression that someone is watching her and it illustrates her isolation, thus creating suspense and interest for the audience as they want to know who she is and why she's running. However it is only after she climbs the rope when we realise that she isn't running due to fear but she's doing an assault course as when she gets to the top she stops and takes a look around and shows no sign of distress. The first shot of the female character helps to establish her as an enigma through the juxtaposition of the tense spooky mood created by the mise-en-scene and her running through the woods.

      Through the character running, the audience can infer that she might be the main character as she's the first character we're introduced to. As the character gets closer you see that she is struggling to pull herself up using a rope which suggests that she's running away from someone or something and that she is weak. This idea of her being frightened is heightened by the diegetic sounds of her heavily breathing from running.

 Even though, her heavy breathing shows her to be tired and out of breath, this opening scene depicts her to be quite masculine as she doesn't appear to be struggling or moaning which female characters are usually stereotyped to do. Thus suggesting that she's a tough cookie, so to speak and that she's not to be messed with. Just by her tackling the assault course with ease, we already get a sense of her character.

      Within the opening scenes the audience can see the location of the woods, this helps to identify that this is a crime thriller as it is documenting the location; furthermore by doing this it takes away the enigma of the setting.  

          

      From the titles the audience can infer that this movies main character is female as it is a woman's name that is shown first in the titles. This isn't a usual occurrence as it most thriller are usually headed a by main male character being the antagonist or protagonist. 

    




The enigma is established through the miss-en-scene and how each character is introduced to the audience as the female character for example is supposed to be an officer this is illustrated through her interaction with another officer however, her costume doesn't illustrate this in anyway.

      The opening titles are displayed in a large black and white font in the centre of the screen, this also identifies that this is a crime thriller, as the font is big and bold and serious.

Renowned Psychological Thriller Actors and Directors

Psychological thriller actors and directors from paigewebbx

Conventions of a psychological thriller

Codes And Conventions Of A Psychological Thriller from Nic Bunby

Preliminary Task- different shots and angles

In this task we tried to record every task in a unique and interesting way, however, this task seemed to be harder than we originally thought. An example is when we originally tried to film ourselves walking down the stairs- we did this by placing the camera at the bottom of a spiral staircase and having one of the students walking down stairs from the top of the staircase however this didn't work out well as we weren't able to see him walk down the stairs. Therefore we then had to change our original idea and created this shot in a unique angle instead, we filmed him walking up the stairs and placed the camera on the stairs so we coiuld get a low angle shot.

Due to our resileince and perserverance we were able to shoot a variety of different shots such as the: close-up of the shoes, the mid-shot of the student in an exam and a long shot of the outside view of someone walking through the room. We used to cameras to capture the same image from different angles as in my final edit I used split screen to showcase the different angles we used to film the same thing, I felt this was effective as it was more creative and interesting.

The Machinist Opening

The Machinist- analysis of opening scene

 

This film is clearly a psychological thriller. This is shown through the first shot as the camera is filming from outside the apartment looking in on a man rolling up what we can presume to be a dead body. The psychological element in this first shot is the reflection of the streetlights from outside appear to be inside the apartment which can be inferred of the characters mental state.

 Within the first five minutes of the movie the camera work and the editing have given the audience an intriguing and conflicting narrative. This is done as the camera work depicts the main character Trevor as the villain, however through the editing we the audience can't help but sympathise with this character as we're constantly been shown shots of the character looking distressed and scared.

These two shots makes the audience empathise with the character as we are able to see the struggle in his face and his paranoia, as he believes he's being watched, suggesting that he could an unhinged character.

Thus making him appear to the audience to be a victim as it shows him to be weak and vulnerable, this could then make the audience  question whether or not he meant to really kill that person or was it just self defence and got scared so decided to dump the body. Through this shot alone, our interpretation and first impressions of him have been questioned.

This perception of him perhaps being a victim rather than villain is then heightened when he gets startled by a light coming towards him, he panics as he's just dumped a body into the water.

We feel like he is the victim when the light gets closer showing us another close-up of his reaction to the person whom he appears to know. However, the expression on his face could also suggest anger towards the person, perhaps suggesting he isn't as innocent as we thought.

Credits Timeline

Thriller openings from previous students

Below is a video from a previous student. This thriller is an example of a successful opening sequence at it has most of the functions of a good thriller.  I thought that the CU's in this video were significant to the genre of 'thriller' and were really effective in capturing the emotions of the characters, this was especially apparent at the end when there was a birds eye view shot of the children in the wardrobe. This shot emphasises their fear of whoever opens the door as that person has the power in that situation as they're looking down on the children, as the camera is taking position of the person. Another time that camerawork was effective was when the two girls were smoking they used a handheld camera to capture how one of the girls felt as it was moving in circles to represent how her mind felt as she was high.




Below is another video from a previous student. Another example of a successful opening sequence due to it possessing the main functions for a good thriller. Once again CU's are used successfully in this video, the first CU used was a CU of the watch, which is significant to the storyline.

Thriller posts

Below are some thriller posters and trailers of the movies I've seen.