Title Openings

In today's lesson we started thinking about the start of our thrillers and the different ways we can make them effective thrillers we ended up talking about the techniques of professional films that were all classed as thrillers.We also started thinking of ideas but hadn't formally story boarded them.
Then we analysed why these thrillers were so effective and how the openings had an affect on us.
The professional films we looked at were Brick, Zodiac and a few more which varied in openings which lead us to believe there was terror from the beginning or that there was a suspicious element to the story  or had the totally opposite view.
When analysing opening titles we were told to think and take notes of what made the openings good and what aspects of the start made good thriller openings and about the Idents  that professional film makers use and what our ideas of one was
We were also told to consider and concentrate on these main things when making our own opening to a thriller and analysing the film clips we were going to watch:

• Holding a shot steady
• Framing a shot 
• Using a variety of shot distances 
• How is the shot material appropriate to the scene or film genre set 
• Using key conventions   

1. A history of violence (2005) : 
This is an crime thriller, it is an adaptation of the graphic novel "A History of Violence" by John Wagner and Vince Locke in 1997.The film stars Viggo Mortensen,Mark Bello, Ed Harris and William Hurt. The main character played by Viggo Mortenson is Tom Stall he is the innocent owner of a diner that is put into the spotlight after killing two robbers in self-defence.
This opening scene is has a very unsuspecting and unsettling beginning, I have never watched this film but have read the whole plot and it is very well done because you think that theses two men are going to have a big significance within the film but they do not.
Some effects of this opening title was:

• Slow paced and long shot- this was a really good effect during the opening scene because it had a tense build up and everything just seemed too suspicious to be innocent two men staying in a motel together with little conversation or a oblivious out look,also the long shot just show the two characters which make us believe they are the main characters in the film. It carefully manages the audience focus  and pulls our attention.
• Contrast- It has a good use of contrast pulls a reaction from the false normalcy from the audience/viewer, we don't expect the ending of the opening scene in the part we watched  I haven't been able to find a clip that shows everything we saw but as I have said throughout the title opening  the acting is slow paced there is no music just continuity sound   but then as the calm scene goes on we see that it is actually a murder scene and this is a contrast to the way they are acting and what has actually happened this has an effect on the viewer because we don't expect a murder although we know that the characters are suspicious.

2. Zodiac (2007) 

Zodiac is a crime and mystery thriller, it is based on the true story of the Zodiac killer who was a serial killer during the late 1960's and the early 1970's leaving several victims and left letters taunting the police and the newspapers, using this symbol on every murder he committed. 

With great film stars like Mark Ruffalo, Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Downy Jr, the main character played by Jake Gyllenhaal as a San Francisco cartoonist who becomes a amateur detective as he becomes obsessed by the Zodiac killer and tracking him down. 

Sadly I couldn't find the clip we watched to show the effects of the clip but I will say what was really good about the clip still:

• Music and the Scene- This is the first thing we notice about the opening shot, first we hear pleasant up beat music and this gives us a happy atmosphere and just an all round happy theme then we have the shot that is very awkward and in some way creepy without the music as it is just showing the street from a car window and the journey the person is taking this has an aspect of mystery as you cannot see the driver and you are confronted with a  unrealistic view of the street.Also another Scene is the part when the couple are getting shot by the Zodiac killer,there is a pop-rock music on the radio and this is contrapuntal sound because it doesn't match the scene and has a false representation. 
• Pacing and the settings- First of all at the start despite the music it is a very slow paced scene because it is as if the car is rolling down the street or about to stop  which is more natural but can also lead us to the unsuspecting ending of the extract also the fact that the couple make there way to "lovers lane" which is also contradictory as this is meant to a romantic scene in a romantic setting with a couple a forbidden love but it is full of tension and it is deserted so you already sense a sense of doom and as we know this is true as the couple are also on edge in the scene.  

We also analysed two other films that were also impressive,Brick and No Country for Old Men, Brick also had a slow paced start but No country for old men had a faster pace.

Brick :

No Country for Old Men :