ANALYSIS OF EXISTING A-LEVEL (AS) MEDIA THRILLER OPENING SEQUENCES

In this post, I will be comparing 2 current pieces of AS level media study thriller movie opening sequence, the 2 films are called CAPTIVE and EXCEMPTION.

Firstly, I will be talking about CAPTIVE.

The establishing shot of this film shows the man tied up to chair which immediately refers to the title 'CAPTIVE'. Also, we see numerous instances of diegetic sound from the CCTV cameras and to him spitting on the floor whilst breathing heavily, these are significant because it creates a sense of realism to make the audience feel what it would in his position and felling how he feels. Next, when talking about sound the non-diegetic music is key to this piece because of the high pitched orchestral sounds coming from strings, this creates an eerie atmosphere for the audience as it makes them feel uncomfortable to sit through and then when it comes to a halt we can infer that something bad is going to happen which puts the audience on edge. Then, we can see that money has been well invested into this project through the costumer and special effects make up of blood and cuts, these features are key to this film because it shows professionalism as if it is made from an executive producer, the make-up is so good that it is displeasing to look at and disturbs the audience into thinking what has this man gone through.

Secondly, I will be talking about the short film EXCEMPTION.

The first key thing we see is very good editing skills where the outline of the centre circle of the eye is a clock showing the time ticking bye this is very smart because it shows the audience how long they have been stuck in this building. the second good piece of editing we see if when the non-diegetic music starts and stops as the black title screens come on screen to bring the audio to a sudden stop. then, when talking about mise-en-scene we can see minor errors as the blood used in this piece looks extremely fake and not realistic, this is a key thing which need to be executed perfectly as it will affect the audience extremely. The camera work in this piece is executed very well containing numerous effective over the shoulder shots to show what is happening behind the boy being chased, also the extreme close ups of the boys eyes are key to make the scene tense as we can see their emotions through the boys eyes.