CASTING FOR OUR OPENING SEQUNCE

In this post I will be talking about our decisions on the actors and actresses for our opening sequnce, firstly our main protagonist the stalker we chose a member of our group to be the actor for this because we know he will be fully committed to acting and he would be willing to do anything. We chose him out of our group because of his stature of how tall he is and how mascalling he is, having a butch manly protagonist works because it shows his power and Braun over the vulnerable girls who are being stalked. The character Rhys our actor will be playing has a story behind it , the stalker is a paranoid psychopath who has an obsession about following vulnerable teenage girls to train stations and from there house not to kill them but to take a locket of their hair to cherish as if they are his loved ones. Next, when it came to deciding on the actresses for our film we stayed inside our media class and chose the four girls who are working on their own films, we have 4 girls who will be in the film, Caitlin, Hannah, jasmine and jade. The characters they will be playing are themselves because they don't have to change themselves in anyway, the characters are normal stereotypical teenage girls who go to school and go out with their friends but they are misfortunate in the fact that they have attracted a stalker who a taken a powerful fond towards them, all the 4 girls are linked through friendship in the film which makes it easier for the stalker to go after them. These are the only characters in our film and who acts them, there aren't many characters but they are very effective to the audience.

WORKING ON OUR SCRIPT

In this post I will be talking about our decision to not have a script in our opening sequence, we have chosen to do this because we think that not having any speach or narration in our film creates a modity of suspense for the audience and the background music we have chosen can help to tell the story, in the past there has been very few thriller movies that do not need speach to tell the story so we have gone against the theory of you need to tell the story through dialog, this gives our film its own unique attribute because of the fact we don't have dialog. So with our planning for the opening sequence we do not need to make a script because of the detail on our story board and shot list.

ANALYSIS OF THRILLER FILM TITLES

In this post i will be talking about existing thriller film titles, i will evaluate how they can be effective and how they can not be as effective if they are bad representatives of the genre thriller.
One of the most famous thriller films is Alfred Hitchcock's infamous Psycho, i have chosen this as an effective title because it is in my eyes a perfect example of a title that not only matches the theme of the storyline in the film but it matches thriller on a whole, in my opinion it is so effective because it is only one word and even though this is the case it tells you so much about the film before you start watching.

Next, in my opinion for a negative representative i have chosen the title Silence of the Lambs, even though this a prolific thriller film the title isnt as effective as the contents of the film, the title is meaningless when comparing it to the plot, that is why when deciding on a name for our film me and my group tried to link it in with cutting hair and we finally came across the name 'The Last Strand' because our film is about cutting hair we chose this name.

Also, an effective opening title sequence should contain names and production companies, it should contain star actors and actresses which usually just one name fills the screen to show their importance in the film, and the directors name along with the editors should be shown on a larger scale as well but the other credits such as the camera crew, hair and makeup etc should be stereotypically shown at the end of the movie in the opening credits of the film. On the other hand, even though the big names like actors and directors are shown at the beginning they are also the first names at the top of the closing credits leaving the ones that haven't been shown till the end when people don't usually whatch up to that point.

DECIDING A SONG FOR OUR THRILLER OPENING SEQUENCE

When thinking for a song we were primarily looking for inspiration on the internet, we were looking for a song that you wouldn't usually match with the genre of thriller but the song works because its so opposite that it makes the scene uncomfortable for the audience. whilst we were doing this research we came across an excellent example of this from the well known horror film Insidious, here is this example.

The song in this scene is in perfect juxtaposition but the lyrics 'TipToe through the window' is exactly what the little boy is doing in the scene which is the only link between the song and the scene which makes it work so well.

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After we had done a lot of thorough we came to a group decision and chose this song called Cut Your Hair by the Pavement.

This classic song is not one of the first songs that comes to mind when you think about thriller music but we came to this chose because it fits almost too well with our plot of a unknown psychopath who has a fixation about cutting strands of girls hair.

EXPLORATION INTO TODOROV, PROPP AND LEVI STRAUSS.

TODOROV

Todorov has a theory of different levels of film, he believes strongly about the theory of equilibrium, he believes that a film should have a steady pattern of an equilibrium to a dis equilibrium back to a equilibrium, this means the film will start calmly and then a disaster or something bad will happen, after this towards the end the film will go back to a nice theme so it ends on a happy ending.

An example of Todorov’s theory would be the animation film Incredibles, the film starts off with the family being all happy just like a normal family, then the farther had to go away for work leaving his family worried about his safety, then towards the end of the movie they all come together to defeat the bad guy who has been traumatising them.

PROPP

Propp is another great theorist of media terminology as it was him who believed in having a main male protagonist as a hero figure who would come up against an antagonist who would try to knock him down, he liked the idea of this because it creates a rivalry which bases the film. Almost in every film with a villain and hero there is a final big battle which concludes the film.

An example of film which represents Propps theory well would be Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2, this film is the final one in the series of 8 films in saga, at the end we see a final battle between the protagonist harry potter and his arch enemy Lord Voldermort, this is perfect because their rivalry is built up through 8 films and finally after long awaited we see them fight it out. 

LEVI STRAUS

Straus was the man who believed in binary opposition where the two main protagonists are complete opposites, this would be like having man vs. women or having cat vs. a dog, this is an affective theory as it shows to people as important as each other but are completely different.

A great representation of this theory would be the family friendly film Cats vs Dogs where the 2 dominent species of household pets go head to head to see who are the best, they set against eachother to win number 1 slot.

MY CONTINUITY EDIT

In this post I will be showing you the short continuity movie edit we created using a variety of basic shots to get used to the techniques of the shot movement and the best angles to use, doing this exercise was good practice for learning how to use the cameras we were given, so we will know the perfect way to film in our actual movie opening.

We were split up into our groups that we would film our movie opening in so we could get to know each other’s best skills and attributes, Once we had finished filming our continuity shots over the 2 hours we were given, our media group went on a trip to local college where we were shown how to edit our films and put them together without using and special techniques or effects, we just used cut editing and basic skills on the editing software Premier Pro.

ESSAY ON THE OPENING SEQUENCE OF THE SECRET WINDOW

The film ‘secret window’ is directed by David Keopp and is in the genre of psychological thriller. In the opening of this film we see the protagonist Johnny Depp (mort rainy) finding his wife (Amy) cheating on him with another man at a quiet motel.

The sequence opens with a shot of the production company logo and in the background there is an audio which appears to be a high rated heartbeat, this is great because it creates suspense for the audience but this only happens until we see the opening shot where we realise that it is the wiper blades of Mort Rainy’s car, this has tricked the audience because it has got them on the edge of their seat but he got their hopes up at made them realise that it’s a chilled opening shot.

The mise-en-scene makes it clear the audience where the actor is and where the action is going to take place, the surroundings of the scene, the floor covered in white snow and wet and icy, because of the white and black colours of ice and snow it creates monochromaticity. From this I can infer that it is either set in winter or in a really cold country like Canada or Alaska. Also, the clothes that the actor Johnny Depp is wearing are warm and wintery clothes to keep him warm, when mort rainy gets out of his car we can denote that it is cold because there is a cloud of cold air coming out of his mouth when he breathed. In juxtaposition of the cold exterior of the building there are bright lights and warming colours inside the room keeper’s department of the motel to show it is welcoming and warm in here. Finally, when Mort Rainy is in his car we see a crucial indicator which shows that he is married because we can see a wedding ring on his hand, this is good because we see this ring before we know he is married so the ring denotes that something is going to happen between him and his wife and from power of deduction after the opening sequence we could infer that they have separated. 

The camera shots and movement sin this opening sequence are minimalistic with basic angles such as close-ups of the protagonist Mort Rainy to a low angle shot of the car reversing into the motel, this shot is used as the establishing shot to set the scene for where the action is going to set place, this establishing shot begins when the car pulls away from the camera for the first time in the film revealing the exterior of the motel. On one circumstance, there was a close-up shot of Mort Rainy in his car debating whether or not to go back to the motel, this shot is significant because the camera stays on his face for a lot longer than all the other shots, the director has done this to keep the audience looking at what frame of mind Mort Rainy is in. Next, when Mort leaves his car to go to the reception of the motel we see a crabbing shot following his walk from his to get the keys and during this it follows him through windows and the only time we see him in the reception is when the crabbing shot turns into a medium shot of Rainy. Finally, we see a POV (point of view) shot from Mort Rainys perspective entering the motel room where his wife Amy is in bed with another man, this is a significant shot as it puts the audience in Mort rainy’s position and makes them feel like he did seeing his wife cheating on him.

To conclude, in my opinion I think that the opening sequence of the film ‘Secret Window’ is a successful representative of a thriller movie as it matches most conventions of a thriller opening sequence and it gets the audience on the edge of their seats when watching this, this is the most effective opening sequence that David Keopp has created along with the help of the well renowned actor Johnny Depp.