Final Production, after editing the process

YESCOMPLETEDSWEETCAROLINE from Gabrielle Royle on Vimeo.

Question 7

Question 6

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

The opening to our film could relate to the film 'Ills', as they both show a mysterious crime being committed, in which we never identify who the killer actually is, and in both films, the victim is a helpless female, alone in a derelict area, who dies within the opening 5 minutes of the film. We related our film to Ills as we thought it would attract a similar audience, as both openings leave the viewer wanting to find out more and asking questions such as 'Well, where can the film go from here?' and 'Who is the killer and why has he killed them?'. When researching, we found that a lot of films use this method of starting with a disruption leaving the audience guessing, such as 'Face-Off' and 'Sixth Sense', where the disruption occurs within the opening title sequences, like our production. (Below, a link to the opening titles of Face-Off, showing the disruption happening during the opening 5 minutes of the film).

  During our production, the cheery sound of 'Neil Diamond-Sweet Caroline' plays whilst two girls sit and drink in a bar. This music could be said to be contrapuntal as we have previously scene the girl in question running for her life down an abandoned rail-way track in the dead of night, and we can hear the panic in her heart beat. We used this contrapuntal music as it juxtaposes the idea of the film, and when the song starts to turn slow and sinister, it notifies the audience that something bad is going to happen. We got this idea from the film 'Face-Off', when the contrapuntal, happy music during the opening scene turns sinister when the boy is shot. We feel like this is the unique selling point of our film as the song which links in with our production's title is edited to sound dangerous and is heard in a way that it wont have previously been heard before. It also foreshadows that a happy atmosphere is about to take a turn for the worst.

When talking about synergy in the media, it means that teamwork will produce an overall better end product, than if each individual person in the group were working towards the same goal individually. Synergy applies to us as we split the work load between us, to achieve a better end product, than if we were to do it all individually.

Media institutions recognise that audiences enjoy using converged technology, and want to consume media in a variety of different ways, for example: trailers, videos, jingles etc. This can be used to promote a companies film and to boost sales to create a profit. If we were wanting to promote our film, we would have to start off small scale, perhaps by creating trailers and posters. In the industry, if a film does well and creates a lot of sales, a company may wish to merchandise. This could be done by creating a game, a range of toys, or something along those lines.For example, Star Wars has created a range of computer games which has increased the films reputation, as shown below.

Star wars DVD cover

Star wars game

Audience Responses

AUDIENCE RESPONSE FINISHED from Jodie Mountain on Vimeo.
Here is a video of what some of our friends thought of our production. We interviewed them and gave them individual questions to answer.

4. Who would be the audience for your media production?

Media question 4 from JodieMountain

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Q.2 How does your media product represent particular social groups?

How does your media product represent particular social groups? The main girl character, Molly, plays a similar character to that played by Maggie Grace in the 2008 thriller 'Taken'. Both characters/productions are similar as they both start off with a happy equilibrium event i.e. Molly is going for a night out with her friend, similarly Kim is going on holiday with the best friend.

Both girls dress in respectable clothing, are around the same ago and portray happy characters all of which builds up their vulnerable persona. Both characters are naivley preyed upon by a male character and unbenknown to them later are taken advantage of.

 

 They however also have differences, a major difference is the resolution of the situations. Molly does not have anyone to save her in our production and end up being killed by the villain, however in Taken her father is trying to help her throughout and comes to her rescue at the end. Another difference between the two story lines is that Kim was not left on her own in Taken her and her friend got taken together however Molly is left on her own from the beginning which creates more tension from the audience.

 Molly fits with the stereotype of a typical damsel in distress. She is a young female character, this portrays her as weak and helpless in the eyes of the viewer. She is an easy prey. We have dressed her is respectable clothing in order to show that this situation could happen to anyone and not just those who look more provocative. Doing this also surprises the viewer and plays against their expectations.

 Our male character is similar to that played by Michael Eklund in the 2013 thriller ‘The Call’.

 The characters are similar due to the fact the both have similar dress codes, they wear shabby clothing, on our case he is wearing his work clothes and in The Call he is wearing casual clothes. Both men look like they could be ordinary men however inside they are both corrupt. Both men prey on girls that fit the stereotypical vulnerable, damsel in distress stereotype in order to then kill them.

 They also differ, in The Call his character preys on a number of different girls in a number of different ways such as sneaking into their house or kidnapping them in a car park however in our production the male character only has one victim and he comes across her by drugging her in a pub. They both dress in similar clothes however the colours of the clothes signify different things, we dress our character in dark clothes to represent the evil character inside however in The Call he is dressed in pale creamy colours to make him look dirty and scruffy. These colours will show when he is sweating or dirty which will revolt the viewer and add to their dislike. He is wearing shabby,dark clothes and is a young male.

 We have created him to follow the same patterns of the stereotypical thriller antagonist; a predatory man. We want to make it obvious that he is the villain in the film and that she should be wary. This builds the tension in the bar as the audience can predict what is going to happen before it actually happens. By dressing him in dark clothing it connotes his dark, evil character, using shabby work clothes also helps to create an lack of social standing, this is used in many films to create a motive for some villains.

Question 1

COMPLETED COMMENTARY from Jodie Mountain on Vimeo.
This is our directors commentry, it states how we have produced certain aspects of our film, and why we chose to do it in that way. Storyline The story line is about a girl going on a night out and getting drugged by a man who is in the same pub as her, this happens in the opening and the rest of the film is about what happened to him afterwards and whether he will get caught. The opening helps set this storyline up as it first explains whats happened and gets the audience involved with the action, it builds up their opinions on the character and then makes them want the male character to be found and punished for his actions. The whole idea of the opening is setting the scene and getting the audience involved with the story line in order to enjoy the film to its full potential. Genre The opening uses a lot of dark, chiaroscuro lighting and sinister background music, this all helps to build the atmosphere and tensions needed to a thriller film. How the characters are introduced The girl is the first to be seen, this is when she is running down the railway. Introducing her like this gets the action within the film started straight away and gets the viewer interested from the very beginning, it also introduces her as an endangered character so the audience knows what to expect from the very beginning. The first time the male character is seen is in the pub at the bar, here he is sat having a pint and is in his work clothes, portraying him like this makes him look like a normal person however the audiences opinion will soon change.

Title

When picking the name for our production, we thought of many possibilities, and it wasn't until we started putting the music onto our footage and editing the production that we came up with our final decision of 'Sweet Caroline'. We chose this because it juxtaposes the theme and idea of the production, an eerie thriller with a sharp and abrupt ending. Also, as we never find out the name of the main character, the title 'Sweet Caroline' could be describing the damsel in distress as a person, but we will never find out. We thought it necessary to have Neil Diamond's song playing during the bar scene so that the title somehow linked in with the film and it also adds some irony.



The edited titles and how they look on our production



Our Production

this is the finished one from Jodie Mountain on Vimeo.

Music

It took us a while to choose the music for our production as it was hard to find music that we liked and that fit the genre, without it being copyrighted. In the end we ended up downloading music from 'jamendo.com', a website that enables you to download free un-copyrighted music that we could use for our production. It took us a while to find suitable tracks. We used key words when trying to find the tracks such as 'murder' and 'stalker' and in the end found music that we fought fit the genre and our film style well. As our production is called 'Sweet Caroline', we thought it would be fitting to incorporate brief diegetic use of 'Neil Diamond's song 'Sweet Caroline' during the bar scene as it is quite a happy, uplifting song which is contrapuntal due to the genre and story that our production follows. We then used 'Pinnacle Studio' to edit the music and as the scene takes a dark turn, so does the music as it goes lower and the words are dragged out making it sound distorted.

Logo for Pinnacle Studios

Casting

When casting, we used Molly as our damsel in distress as out of all of us we felt that she was the best actress and had the most capability of pulling the part off.

To play the part of the mysterious man who spikes the damsel in distress, we used a family friend of Molly's called 'Taylor'. He played the part well as he was dressed all in black which connotes the idea of danger, and in the production we never got to see his face which blocked the audience from having a connection

During the bar scene where the spiking takes place, another one of our group members, Holly, played the damsel in distress' friend who is distracted from these events due to a phone call.


When filming the scenes where Molly is running down the railway tracks, through to the end scene, Taylor was unavailable to play the mysterious man so we had to substitute Gabby in for this role. She dressed all in black with her hood up, and as we do not ever see her face it works just as well.

Prop List

PROP LIST Miscellaneous
• Duct Tape: Gabby bring
• Car: Holly (driver)
• Tic Tacs: Jodie
• Blindfold: Gabby
• Shovel: Jodie
• Rope: Molly
• Crime Scene Tape: (eBay buy)
• Torch Outfits Guy Girl
• Black Gloves
• Heels
• Black Hoodie
• Clutch Bag
• Black Jeans
• Dress

Costume Designs

Costumes In the bar
- Nice, classy, black dress.
- High heels.
- Neat and tidy hair, up in a bun.
- Red lipstick.
- Clutch bag.
- In a nice shirt.
- With black jeans
- Bomber jacket
- Clean shoes
- Smart hair

Running down the tracks
- Same dress.
- With the mans oversized jacket on.
- Heels in hand.
- No clutch bag.

 Man:

- Black hat
- Black gloves
- Black t-shirt
- Black pants

Location

When filming our production, we used one of our group member's family pub. This was the setting to the scene where the damsel in distress gets spiked by an unknown man and her night takes a turn for the worse.

We filmed the rest of the production at Holly's house at night as we had access to barns, rivers, hills, railway tracks and other areas to give the production an eery atmosphere.

Weather

When filming our production we checked the weather to ensure that it wasn't raining as any water on the lens would ruin the look of the production, and filming in the rain wouldn't be practical for the things we needed to shoot. E.g a shot of a girl being dragged up a hill by a man.

Storyboard

Storyboard from groyley

Shoot Evaluation

Overall, shooting our production went really well. We started by filming the bar scene in one of our friends pub, although we did encounter a few problems. For instance, the lighting in the pub was too dark to start out with, but we overcame this minor problem by using the disco lights, which also gave the feel that the two girls in the frame were on a night out and it added a bit of life to a once boring shot. We also had the problem of background noise, as there were other people in the pub whilst we were filming so we could hear their conversations and the noise of the television. We over came this problem by deciding to play Neil Diamond's 'Sweet Caroline' as a diegetic sound track, as if it was actually playing at the time.

 During the second shoot, we went to Holly's house to film the part of the girl running down the railway track, the fall, and the scenes of a mysterious figure with an axe. As it was night time by this point, we faced the problem of there not being enough lighting, so we had to use our own artificial lighting by using head torches, which was quite inconvenient and difficult as it was hard to make it look like natural lighting and not too staged, but after many attempts we managed to overcome this problem. We also faced the problem of how to film the tracking shots without any of the proper equipment, and we needed to do this for the shot in the barn, where the camera blurs out and then focuses on the axe. After a number of different efforts, we came up with the idea to attach the camera to the tripod, place it in a wheelbarrow, and slowly but carefully move it in the direction we needed. It took a few tries, but we eventually managed to get a smooth shot that we were able to use in the production.

 Another problem that we encountered throughout the filming of our production is conflict within the group, because obviously we all had our individual ideas of how things should/needed to be done. After listening to eachothers ideas opinions, we managed to compromise and take each other's opinions into account to avoid any falling out.

 Availability was also a re-occuring issue within our group as we found it difficult to agree on a set time when we were all able to meet to film the production, due to illness, holidays and other commitment, so this really limited the time period that we had to film. Due to this, we were left with only three days to film our production, so in reality we were lucky that it all came together like it did.

Script in order of shots

1. Molly: *breathes heavily*
2. Molly: *breathing increases*
3. Molly: *breathing heavily* 
4. Molly: *breathing gets quieter as the camera gets further away*
5. Molly: *gasps*
6.*silence* 
7. *bangs as she drops the shoes on the floor*
8. *silence*
9. *bushes rustle*
10.*rustling gets louder*
11.Molly:*gulps*
12. *diegetic music in the bar – quiet*
13.Random people in the bar:*people laughing*
14.*talking but you cannot hear them*
15.Molly&Holly:*talking but is muffled out so you cannot hear what they are saying*
16.*everything gets slower, music gets sinister*
17.*sound of glass hitting the bar*
18.*bag hits the floor*
19*drink fizzes*
20.Molly:*gulp*
21.*non-diegetic uncomfortable disturbing music*
22.*car engine noise*
23.*bush rustle*
24*None diegetic eerie music*
25.*sweet caroline*
26.*sweet caroline but really crackly as there is no signal*
27.*sweet Caroline continues when car stops*
28.*the music has stopped – thud of boot handle*
29*creeks open* 39.
30.Molly:*muffled sound as she tries to scream*
31.Molly:*tries screaming* s
32.*boot slams shut*
33.*noise of the shovel being dragged along concrete* 
34.*boot opening noise*
35.*noises as she bangs into things*
36.*sinister none diegetic music*
37.*rustle*
 -FIN-

Shot list

1. First shot is a high angled shot from behind a girl of her running. She’s holding her heels in her hand and her dress seems scruffy and ripped 
2. Cut to a close-up of her face (mascara running down etc.), looking left and right with heavy panting to show she’s scared
3. We cut to her legs running from the side as there’s a tracking shot
4. Cut back to the behind of her, this time a panning shot for a few seconds but she will be getting further away
5. Close-up shot of the girls face gasping and looking left
6. Here there’s a long shot (she’s still looking left) but she stops completely
7. She drops her shoes and we cut to a close up tracking shot of them falling to the floor (slow motion)
8. Point of view shot of the girl (as she’s just looked sideways)
9. The point of view shows the green bushes and they’re rustling – diegetic sounds of her crying and gasping heavier and heavier
10. Zoom into the bushes as it rustles more and more
11. Extreme close-up of her eyes as they shut
12. Cut to flashback of what she saw before
13. Black and white scene
14. Long shot of two people sat at the bar
15. Close-up on girls face, this time she has no make-up running down it etc.
16. Tracking shot of girl drinking
17. Extreme close up on drink as she puts it back on the counter
18. Cut back to longshot
19. Over the shoulder shot of the guy standing up
20. *Start montage of Jump cuts* Close up of guy ‘accidentally’ knocking the girls bag off the counter
21. *Close up of the bag on the floor as the contents spill
22. *Cut to close-up of the guys hand taking something out his pocket
23. *Jump cuts of his hand going to put it in the drink of the girl
24. *Close up of the drink with the pill fizzing in it
25. *Close-up of girl drinking the drink
26. Cut back to the prior scene – non-diegetic uncomfortable/disturbing music
27. Extreme long shot of the car going over a hill or something
28. Extreme long shot of car, but different angle...can’t see the driver
29. Dark lighting, close-up of a hand on a car wheel
30. Long shot of the darkness but diegetic rustling sound of car going over grass
31. Point of view shot of killer, looking out the window…wobbly
32. Cut to close-up of radio in car
33. Close-up point of view gloved hand presses a button on the radio
34. Diegetic sound, really loud, contrapuntal music
35. Cut to exterior of car as it comes to a halt – diegetic music with it
36. Contrapuntal music continues, back shoulder shot of the killer stood at back of car
37. Close-up of black gloved hand on the boot opener handle
38. Sustained medium-shot of the boot opening
39. Still sustained shot, close up, we see a person with hands tied and tape over her lips (same girl as before) and we see a shovel
40. Close up of girls wriggling for help
41. Cut to close up on the shovel, see the same gloved hand but his hand on the handle of the shovel
42. Ellipses edit to back shot again with the man slamming the boot shut
43. High angled, sustained medium tracking shot of the guy from behind dragging the shovel
44. Cut to front of guy stopping – medium close-up but just on the bottom of his legs
45. Sustained long shot of him digging and digging. Wobbly to suggest insecurities
46. Cut to back long shot of him opening the boot
47. Close up of the girl wriggling again in the boot
48. Cut to ellipses edit of him carrying the girl from the front…can’t see his face
49. Jump cuts so film from ages away then cut closer and closer to create an eerie look
50. Close up of killer at screen, only see his eyes (wide eyed)
51. Immediately cut to opening titles (full screen of title)
52. Next scene- its day time, long shot of crime scene investigation tape and two people stood observing one crime scene investigator on the floor. Overlay titles
53. Close up of the tape wobbling and rustling in the wind
54. Fade to black to suggest the end of our piece

-FIN-

Opening Synopsis

When a girl gets spiked on a night out with friends, her evening takes a dramatic toll when she finds herself running for her life on an abandoned railway track. Trying to make sense of the events that have happened. A fall may prove fatal in an attempt to escape from a deranged ex-boyfriend who cannot seem to get to grips that their relationship has ended. When local authorities are alerted of the girl’s disappearance, a frantic search party set out to find her in hoping that they aren’t too late.

Student Thriller - Obsession

Obsession Student thriller from Holly Entwistle on Vimeo.

Analysis Of A Student Thriller - Obsession

Obsession: Student Thriller

The production starts off with a full screen image of the ‘Miramax studios’ logo. The logo is presented as a full screen title telling us that it is important information, and the colors of the logo are white writing on a black background. This has been chosen because the black and white contrast with each other as binary opposites and create a sinister atmosphere. Next the ‘fractional studios logo appears, this again is full screen on a black background and the image and writing are in white. The crow is all black with a red eye, black symbolizes darkness along with red symbolizing fear and death, the use of the red in the crow’s eye makes the crow look more sinister and dangerous all of which sets the mood for the upcoming thriller, fear. Crows are a bird associated with mystery and power, many people see them as a symbol of superstition and bad luck, therefore the crow has been used as it helps to create the thriller genre of dark and evil and also adds to the sinister effect.We then have the title of the opening of the thriller, ‘Obsession’. This is full screen so we focus on it. The writing is white and Sans Serif and the background is black. This shows us the binary oppositions and foreshadows the genre of the piece; thriller. There’s no sound, and the silence is significant until a non-diegetic, industrial rock type of music plays with a repetitive, machine like rhythm. This is played while the titles are still on. This creates a sinister atmosphere.

As the titles fade out, the music becomes louder and louder and hits a crescendo. From this we have a sound bridge of the music (hitting the crescendo), and takes us to the emphasized diegetic sound of a tap dripping. The music dies out and we hear the diegetic sound of the water hitting the basin of the sink. This has been done to build tension from the audience and to emphasize the sinister atmosphere the scene is intending to create.The shot is an extreme close-up and we see the water dripping one-by-one. Whilst the music is still playing there is an emphasized sound of water dripping from the tap.

Sound bridges are constantly used to link each of the shots within the opening scene. We cut away to a long shot of a hill from inside the house looking out of the window, followed by a series of ellipsis edits showing other point of view shots looking out of other windows is the house. In the corner of one of the shots is a pair of binoculars, these are placed in order to imply that the character is spying or stalking someone. The camera is slightly wobbling on these shots adding to the effect of the point of view. Here there’s natural light used and it’s bright. This creates controversy with the fact that it’s a thriller and the setting seems positive. On this shot we have white, overlay titles. These are in sans-serif, which tells us the film does not require intelligence to understand the plot; it implies that the film will be action filled and modern. The titles grow as we cut away to a medium close-up of the window. Here it’s still ambiguous but we feel due to the mysteriousness of the opening that we have seen villain.

From here we cut to a montage of cuts; the titles disappear and we cut away to a bed shot, here it’s at a low angle. There’s high key low contrast lighting involved to represent more a feeling through the camera work. We cut away to a high angle shot of a mobile phone; it’s an extreme close-up to show the significance of the phone. The phone also shows the modern era juxtaposing with the exterior of a rural area. The phone turns on; here we hear a diegetic sound of the phone vibrating once again to reinforce the significance. Only a hand appears and this could show, once again, the importance of the phone. We once again get overlay titles, in the same font, as we fade into another close-up of the t-shirt. From this we cut to a low angle of a coat, the low angle could suggest dominance alongside with the dark lighting. From this we cut to a close-up of the zip of a blue jacket someone is wearing. We hear the diegetic sound of the jacket zipping up; this creates ambiguity because we still don’t know who the person is as we’re yet to see his face. To reinforce the idea of mystery we cut to the back of the character who is putting his hood up. This allows the audience to believe he is trying to hide himself and makes it more of an ominous opening.

We cut to a close-up of his shoes on a red carpet. The red carpet could give the idea that something is going to go wrong due to its negative connotations of blood and death. The black shoes also signify unhappy things; on top of this we have more overlay titles. From the fairly static pictures so far, there’s a match on action edit of him walking out of his bedroom door. We have a close-up of the door; we hear a diegetic sound of the man walking on the ground and the door opening. We then cut back to the previous shot on the floor to represent the match on action.

From here, we’re once again looking at the back of the character to continue the mystery as he walks down the stairs. We cut to a low angle long shot of the stairs, with the camera cutting off his face. The titles are still ongoing from here as the ellipsis edits of his morning routine continue, we hear the diegetic sound of his cereal crackling as he pours the milk.

We feel a sense of normality with this character currently as he’s partaking in everyday activities so it’s something we can relate to. But alternatively, his character is never fully revealed which consequently allows us to think something is wrong, something bad is going to happen and he may be the villain. This idea is supported by the non-diegetic music in the background at this point, the same industrial rock music that played at the beginning.

Once the person has left the house we fade to black. From here we cut to him walking, he does have a bag which allows us to think he’s going somewhere. Maybe he is going to school, or on the other hand he may have alternative motives which we, the audience, aren’t aware of. 

A graphic match is used to follow the boy as he walks, this is done from a front angle long shot, this is used to continually shoot his walk and move time on so it does not get boring for the audience. An ellipsis edit is then used to introduce a young female character, who we presume is the victim. We presume she is the victim because she is a young female character, using Propp’s theory about character roles in films she fits the character of the ‘princess’ or damsel in distress. The constant sinister background noise merges into a happier melody accompanied with diegetic bird noises in the background to create juxtaposition.This has been done to portray to the audience a little about the girls character, the bird noises are to represent her innocence and happiness compared to the contrapuntal non-diegetic music represents the danger she is unaware of. We can see that she will be the protagonist character in the film and soon become the victim. The music is used to create happiness around this character in order to create a love for her so when the girl later becomes the victim the audience feels empathy. A cut away shot is used to show both characters walking along the same path, not together but with the boy following behind the girl. As the girl comes into contact with another boy we hear the diegetic sound of their interaction and greetings. Meanwhile in the background when another person appears we see the boy, who we presume is the protagonist, disappear behind a tree, this is done to show the audience he does not want to be seen. This is done to create tension from the audience as we know something bad is soon going to happen however the girl does not. Doing this gets the audience involved with the film and entices them to watch more.

Throughout this the music is still playing in the background. Overlay titles are being shown over the scene in white writing, overlays are used to as they are an important piece on information within the star of the film, however they are used as overlay as it makes the beginning of the film flow as we focus on the action.

The girl drops her bag as she is walking; this makes the audience question why she dropped her bag? Did something make her drop her bag? A high-angled shot is used which creates a sense of weakness and vulnerability about the girl. As the girl bends down a medium close up is used and we see the boy stood behind her however when she stands again she looks around and they boy is no longer there. We see she looks concerned, we can tell she senses a presence of some sort.

he is no longer there showing the audience that he is stalking her and makes us wonder where he is which then builds tension and creates an air of mystery.

The screen now fades to black and the music tempo and pitch decreases and once more the sinister sound that was used at the beginning of the film. An ellipsis edit is used to take us to a street, at first the lights are blurred used to create a sense of unknown and mystery amongst the audience, this then focuses showing a long shot of the street. 

It then cuts to a long shot of the victim (the girl) walking down the street alone, her face is dark as chiaroscuro lighting is used. This makes the viewer’s uneasy and on edge as they do not know what is going to happen next however they know the girl is in danger. Another cut to medium to long shot of someone else walking behind her who is unidentified, the character has a bigger body build and their hood up so we presume this is the boy from earlier. At first we just see one figure however as she continues to walk the second figure emerges from behind her, this creates a shock to the viewer and build the tension as we realize that the incident. The diegetic sound of cars is used in the background as this links with the scene and makes it realistic, simultaneously the non-diegetic music is building in the background towards a crescendo, and this mirrors the action of the film as we know the disaster is drawing near. A medium shot of the attacker’s legs standing in front of the victim just before an extreme close up of the girls mouth is showed as we hear the diegetic sound of the girl screaming in a loud, unpleasant pitch. A dissolve edit is used to transition the shots, the use of the dissolve here helps build the tension as it is quite a slow edit, is also makes the characters seem closer than they have ever been.The shot of the boys legs is used in order to show a barrier between the audience and the girl, is makes her seem more helpless and provokes emotion from the audience of a will to help her. We are not shown what makes her scream as is creates more interest and a want to know what is happening, it leaves us on a cliff hanger in order to be hooked for the rest of the film. We assume that the boy who features in the start of the film has attacked her in some way; we are just not sure as to whether she survives the attack or is the attacker gets found. What will the resolution be?

A cracking sound of faded voices end the scene whilst the film title is shown again, flickering each letter on and off. This leaves the opening of the sinister tone needed to continue this effect throughout the rest of the film.

I think the opening as a whole was very well done and creates the sinister tense mood that thrillers need. The end scenes help to build the tension for the viewer because of the lighting and non-music used. All of the editing done is smooth and does not create confusion or a jump in the flow of the opening so the viewer is clear about what is happening. An area that could be improved is the middle section of the opening, when it is shot in daylight outside. I think the process is a little drawn out and could have been done more efficiently and less confusing to keep up the flow of the film.

The Usual Suspects Opening

Usual Suspects Titles from Andy Outis on Vimeo.

Thriller Opening Analysis

Analyzing the opening of a thriller – ‘The usual suspects’ – Jodie Mountain

The opening titles to the film are white on a black background. This contrast is an example of binary opposition in the film which could reflect the idea of good versus evil in the film. The titles have an effect on them which makes them almost look like waves as they move across the screen. This creates a sense of mystery for the viewer as we cannot see anything else. As the titles fade, we cut to a close up of some matches lighting a piece of paper. It is night time in the shot which creates a sense of mystery and danger, as the only light we have is coming from the matches.

We hear the diegetic sounds of boats in the background which indicates that this could be happening either on a boat or near a harbor of some kind. The camera then pans upwards and we see a man (who’s name we do not know) lighting a cigarette. We know that the man is in danger as the camera cuts to a shot of oil pouring out of a canister, yet despite playing with fire does not seem phased by these events. When the camera cuts back to the man, he drops the lighted piece of paper on the oil which catches fire. Maybe hoping that this will kill him, or attract help of some kind. As the oil goes up in flames, the camera cuts to show a dead body which gives the viewer the indication that some form of crime has been committed or maybe a some kind of accident .

As the camera tracks to follow the oil, we get none diegetic sinister violins, and as the camera pans upwards, we see a silhouette of a man standing on a higher level of the boat. The fact that he is in complete darkness creates a sense of mystery as we cannot see his face, and the fact that he is stood higher than everybody else makes it seem like he is in control of the situation and maybe the cause of the deaths. The camera then cuts back to the man’s face and his expression shows a look of despair as he shakes his head. The camera then closes up on his feet as he walks, maybe to show that they could be significant later on in the film?

The camera then uses the 180 degree rule to cut from the man on the floor’s face, to the man standing above him. The standing man lights a lighter and then lifts it to his face but the audience cannot see. The man on the floor sighs and looks at him with a look of recognition and drops his head, maybe as he realizes his fortune. The man dressed in black addresses the sitting down man as ‘Keaton’ in a raspy whisper which adds more mystery to his character. The fact that we cannot see his mouth also creates a barrier between the audience and the character.

 The none diegetic music is quite low in pitch and is parallel to the scene as when the man in black moves the music either changes in pitch or tempo which makes the man in black seem dangerous and in control. As the man pulls his hand up, we see a close up of a gun, but the camera then cuts away to a long shot of the boat, we then hear the gun shot, so we can only assume that the man is dead. The camera then cuts to different areas of the boat. The boat looks as if it has been deserted and undergone some kind of crime, as the sinister none diegetic music in the background implies. The camera then cuts to a close up of some rope, and we see an orange burst of light, which we can only assume is the boat going up in flames. A sound bride of police sirens accompanied by a graphic match of Verbal Kent sat in a police station takes us to the next scene.

Research Into Thriller Conventions A thriller always consists of a hero, stereotypically a middle aged men who is high ranked in his profession and doing well for himself. The hero usually tends to have a flaw, perhaps a mental disorder or physical handicap. Different examples of this type of character are Christian Bale in The Dark Knight, a billionaire who despite his status is a lonely grumpy man. In ‘Face-Off’ Travolta plays a middle aged head detective (as proven by his wall of achievements. His flaws are that he is still grieving over the accidental death of his son, and the fact that him and his wife are no longer as close as they used to be. Strauss’ idea of an equilibrium is apparent through Travolta’s character as he starts off as a happy family man, spending some quality time with his son. This is then followed with the disruption as Cage accidentally shoots his son. When this happens, the shot is slowed down so that the sense of panic is emphasized and we can see the expressions on characters faces. The resolution (we can only assume as we have only watched the opening of this film) is that Travolta, being head detective manages to somehow catch the villain (Cage), and somehow manages to resolve his flaws, by becoming closer with his wife and finally be at peace about his Son’s death. In comparison, Bruce Willis, in the ‘Sixth Sense’ plays a middle aged child psychologist who is highly ranked in his profession as proven by the plaque that he has just been awarded. Willis’ flaw (although not apparent until the end of the film) is that he is dead. In these thrillers, the hero’s seem to consist of the on-going idea that they are usually middle aged men, highly ranked in their profession but consisting of a flaw. Thrillers also consist typically of a villain, usually a middle aged man like we would expect the hero to be. We often find a lady character who plays the ‘damsel in distress’, who we often find falls in love with the hero. For example, in ‘ Dead Again’, the ‘damsel in distress’, (Emma Thompson), falls in love with the hero of the film ‘Mike Church’, played by Kenneth Branagh, who again is stereotypically a middle aged man who is a high ranking detective. Claude Levi Strauss’ theory of ‘binary opposition’ is always present in a typical thriller film. Some examples of these could be: day and night, hero and villain, life and death, black and white, strong and weak and the protagonist and antagonist. We often find in thrillers that the antagonists take action at night and the protagonist takes action during the day time. This links in with light connoting purity and darkness connoting evil. In ‘Ills’, the opening scenes show us a murder taking place at night, accompanied by the use of stormy weather (pathetic fallacy), despite not seeing the antagonist at night, we see his work. This then cuts to a lady who we can only assume is going to either be the ‘damsel in distress’ or the hero walking through school halls during the day time, which could reinforce the idea that she is pure. ‘Hero and villain’ is the most obvious binary opposition that we see in thriller films, for example: Travolta and Cage, Pitt and Spacey and Pacino and Di Nero. Again, stereotypically all middle aged men. Todorov’s theory of narrative structure states that thriller openings consist of an equilibrium, followed by the disruption (often some sort of crime, usually a killing of some sort), and eventually at the end of the film is the resolution. An example which proves Todorov’s theory of narrative structure is the film ‘Memento’. The equilibrium is how Leonard used to be; a happily married man, doing well in his job as a highly ranked detective. The disruption occurs when his wife is killed, and he suffers an injury to the head, leaving him with short term memory loss. The resolution is left open to interpretation as we do not know whether he finds the man who kills his wife, although the clues are there to suggest that he does. Leonard also suffers with a flaw, like most protagonists in thrillers. His is that he suffers from short term memory loss and cannot make new memories since his accident, and in order to catch his wife’s killer must use a series of notes and tattoos. Psycho: This film starts with a woman at work, she’s happy and the whole atmosphere is positive, it is only when she steals the money and the mood changes. This is typical of a thriller as it usually starts with a positive scene to create the contrast between good and evil. Later on in the film we see the woman get murdered in her own bathroom, however id this was the opening of the film it would loose suspense. Opening Titles There are a few different ways in which titles can be shown in the openings of films. Examples of two different ways are in the films, Sixth Sense and Face Off. In the film Sixth Sense the titles appear in white with a black background. This makes the audience concentrate just on the titles and in this time period the mood of a thriller can be created as it is done in Sixth Sense by using sinister eerie music, and the moving ghostly text used in the titles. Different styles of fonts are used for the titles, usually San Serif and Serif. The font in these titles is ‘Sans Serif’ portraying it is more youthful and does not need as much intellectuality to be able to follow the film. The introduction of ‘Usual Suspects’ uses the title sequence really well. At the start we see on the screen; Polygram filmed entertainment & Spelling Films, International Presents Blue Parrot/Bad Hat Harry Production and Bryan Singer Film. The above titles were all white writing on a black background with smoke rising from the bottom of the screen. Words are in Serif which tells the audience that the film is for people of a higher intelligence and the film requires a lot of concentration. After these opening titles we have overlay titles of what we assume are less important aspects of the film. This consists of names of the producer and people within the film. We then cut to a clip of a cigarette in a glass ash tray; we presume this is where the smoke is originally coming from. The final title is ‘The Usual Suspects’ in a large white font on a black background with the smoke. The smoke connotes mystery and fore, this is portrayed later on in the film when an explosion occurs.