Research Task- Imogen Salmon

Eden Lake

 

BCU - child's face 

- Big close ups of each of the child’s faces looking up at the teacher, reflects their innocence by showing their emotions, heads facing upwards shot at high angles, POV shot from

POV- Point of view shot

- The camera is always particularly focused on their faces in the foreground and the background blurred suggesting the importance if their facial expressions. 

LS- classroom scene

- Lighting throughout the whole opening sequence is high key, soft, and with a high saturation, supporting the vibrant atmosphere of bight colours and during the day, with plenty of light suggesting it is sunny




- A sound bridge is used from black frames with red writing of the opening credits contrasting into the opening scene of a children’s classroom, diegetic sound of this scene uses characters of children and a female teacher singing together

CU- engagement ring and boyfriend

- Non-diegetic music in this scene is contrapuntal, the music is slightly eerie, but also orchestral and calming, however, this still doesn't match the cheery, bright coloured scene of happy children and a young caring teacher which is suggested by the way her hand is positioned on the child’s shoulder and the way she clearly connects with them by the way they look up at her

LS- women running

- The scene following, continues vibrant theme of images and created using cross cutting of the man (her boyfriend) and the woman (girlfriend) running, and then the two characters meeting in the scene together

- These scenes linked together form a happy, vibrant atmosphere but, following Todorovs narrative theory this is just the normality stage of equilibrium, before the disruption 

CU- kiss (showing relationship)

-The opening sequence is successful to be classed in the thriller genre, due to the non-diegetic sound, the camera shots throughout give off a good vibe, but the juxtaposing sound works to create the feeling of worry in the audience knowing by the music something isn't right, and that the scenes to follow wont be so happy

The Hitcher

 

LS- abandoned car

 - The opening scene begins with the camera tracking to the left, establishing the scene which appears to be in a hot country in the middle of nowhere dull and derelict, due to the dried grass and dusty roads. The camera pauses its movement when it reaches an old, stranded, car and then a rabbit, the camera continues to track following the rabbit

Camera tracking  

 

ELS- rabbit hit 

- Diegetic sound of the sound of a car coming the opposite direction is enhanced, separating it from the other sound, allowing the audienceto predict what will happen next, rabbit getting hit

- Parallel non-diegetic sound is used building up the suspense using both low pitch instruments along with very high pitched instruments, creating unstablility and leading up to this event


- A foley of the rabbit getting hit would of been used, as it is very loud, used to shock the audience.

Foley 

- The car which hit the rabbit was not shown on screen, it was unpredictable, entering from the left hand side of the frame, the camera did not follow it purposely, this was in order to mislead the audience 


- The lighting in this scene is dull and low key, contrasting the next scene of vibrant high key lighting


MLS- teenager on mobile

- As the scene changes the music does too, becoming up beat, changing from eerie to a band playing using guitars, drums and singing too, becoming parallel to the change of scene






CU- teenage couple

- A close up two shot of teenage characters, show the romance between them with the eye contact, and their emotions smiling, this is the normality.


-The opening sequence overall is successful to a thriller film as although showing scenes of romance and teenage lust with a vibrant atmosphere  it also has contrasting scenes previously, with a graphic death of an animal


-This narrative structure begins with an action code leading to something bad happening, but then follows with an enigma code, not allowing the audience to relate both scenes together.

- This opening sequence doesn't follow the usual structure of Todorov, as begins with a disruption of the death then has normality of love.

1408 

ELS- car in rain

 - The opening scene, establishes the setting, at night, bad weather and low key lighting, all signifying a negative atmosphere.

- Non- diegetic, slow paced music along with the diegetic noise of the radio, the rain, windscreen wipers, thunder and the man driving 

BCU- man in car

- Low key lighting on the man's face to create this affect only a couple of light sources would've been used. The typical 3 point lighting isn't being used, the light source is coming from his right hand side at a high angle, leaving shadows on the other side of his face, this is also hard lighting leaving features defined, therefore a diffuser would not be used which softens the lighting.

3 Point Lighting

- The camera shot make significance of the sign, changing between shots of the man's reaction to the sign itself using close ups, and long shots of the sign he is looking at.

ELS- car in rain

- Mainly long shots used, establishing setting, showing it from point of view shots from outside the car window, voyeurism, as if someone looking in at him

LS- sign

- Camera angles from very high and very low, together with being hidden behind other objects (e.g the stair rail to the right) suggests he is being watched, point of view angles.





- This makes a successful thriller opening due to the parallel sound and scene, the spookiness created from different POV shots, without letting the audience know who the POV is from, creates enigma code.

ELS- man from high angle, pov shot

The Others

ELS- scene of mansion

-  The first shot is in silence, establishing the scene, text on screen used, silence broken by the next shot of a piercing scream of a women, sounding in despair, affect of silence used to shock the audience by the following loud diegetic sound

- Dull lighting, on a mysterious large, mansion house, weather is gloomy, creating negative atmosphere

BCU- women screaming

- A tilted BCU of women screaming, hard, high key lighting, source from above, BCU emphasis on emotion on her face, camera rotates around, signifying a bad state of mind, as if not thinking straight turning, like the camera


- The camera which is handheld at this point is swaying slightly, tracks out revealing why the women was screaming partly solving the enigma created why she was screaming as she was in bed so must of had a bad dream, but this still doesn't reveal exactly why

Transition of MCU- ELS

 
- The editing technique of a dissolve is used linking two scenes together  along with a sound bridge of someone laughing interlink the two scenes.







- This opening sequence works successfully as a thriller as firstly the setting is appropriate, it is mysterious and a typical, spooky place. Also, the technique of silence, into a peircing screaming sound is used to shock the audience, raising questions purposefully. The camera movement of roatation and a tilt view, also distorts the audience.