Tuesday 15 March 2011

Analyzing Existing Opening Sequences

I'm going to analyze existing opening sequences in order to broaden my perspective of how they are constructed. We analyzed some sequences in school by using the website www.artofthetitle.com. I made some notes which I am going to upload on here. I also used Youtube to research and analyze some more.

Panic Room:



Above is the opening sequence to Panic Room which is a film within the thriller genre. The sequence goes as follows:

- The company credits (19 seconds)
- Fade into black (2 seconds)
- Fade into environment 
- Cast names displayed on New York backdrop (some names are still images, some names are displayed with a pan  movement by the camera)
- The music is very  mysterious and creates suspense and tension for the audience which builds up anticipation as this makes the audience assume and become aware of what danger is yet is to come.

House of Wax:

Unfortunately I cannot embed this clip from Youtube as there is no code, so I've had to upload the link instead. I still thought it would be a good film to analyse as it is of the horror genre and can help me to identify the general conventions/features used in horror opening sequences. Although the clip is 10 minutes long, I only watched and analysed the first 2 minutes.

- Company credits (39 seconds)
- Fade into black (5 seconds)
- Fade into environment with a pan up of cooker
- Shot of kitchen counter with date [1974]
- Shot of woman preparing wax; we only see her hands with a ring which suggests she is feminine.
- Shot of young boy/girl eating cereal in a high chair followed by a low angle shot of their feet with sandals on.
- Shot of mask with wax.
- Shot of mother (who we see fully this time) attending to child
- Mother pours milk into bowl when father (we assume) comes in with screaming child.
- Intense and scary music to heighten tension.



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