In the opening of our thriller we decided that it was very important to show that the character Chantelle is badly traumatized by her past and that she is confused, leading her to walk to the cliff edge and want to end her life. The opening has Chantelle visiting a grave and a few flashbacks to show her troubled past, however we still did not think that Chantelle's distraught and disorientated feelings were being conveyed.
So we decided to take a risk and use a shot not normally used in films, a canted shot. We thought that it would be the perfect way to show how effected Chantelle is as the shot makes the audience feel distorted because of the slanting horizon. We also thought the shot would be effective as it would help the audience connect with the character and how she is feeling and therefore empathize with her.
In the shot, the sea line slants across diagonally from the right and the cliff edge slants diagonally across from the left. The effect here is that the character and the audience are left feeling unsettled and nervous, on the edge of a cliff.
In our thriller opening we have the character Chantelle who is so badly intoxicated by her guilt, she decides that perhaps the best option for herself is to throw herself from a cliff and end her life. However we didn't want to give too much of the story line away in the opening two minutes, so thought it would be far more effective to have flashbacks in the sequence, as it would give clues to her life before the incident and what may have happened to cause her to go to the cliff. We also decided that it would be effective to include flashbacks in the opening as it would keep the audience guessing and therefore intrigued and wanting to watch more.
We wanted to make the flashbacks clear to the audience so we thought carefully about how to edit them and incorporate them into the sequence. After trying many different techniques we found an editing tool called dip to colour which took the current image on the screen faded it to a blank white screen and then faded the white into the flashback. We think its very effective as it shows the change in time and location.
Once having added the fading effect we found that it still didn't show clearly enough that the character was having a flash back and we decided there needed to be be some sort of distortion in the image itself. After experimenting with a couple of different editing tools we found a video filter which gave us the desired effect we wanted, it was called a glow effect which made the image on screen shine much brighter and stretch the edges of the shot to show that it is a distant memory and is not completely clear.
In the opening credits of Kill Bill Vol 1 it is animated and the characters do look like the animated version of themselves. The music that goes with the sequence is like a tribal type of music which shows that it is violent.
Scream 4 opening credit sequence is great because it links with what it is for example the colour for it is red which links with death and blood which is what scream is about.
We each decided on various sound effects which we thought would be affective on the audience and then combined our ideas to create a vast medley of sounds from deep breathing to the sound of the ocean.
This image shows the choices we made as we choose various sound pieces and order of our shots.
Here we are choosing sound and music to cover our opening- our choices included: girls laughing, beach waves, deep breathing and eerie music.
These are the last stages in the editing process where we completed and made any final touches to sound and visual effects.
These are just a few images which show us in our journey of editing- we have completed piecing together all the shots combined with sound and special effects.
Casino Royale opening is slightly variant to the other thriller openings, however it is still an example of clever and interesting editing still portraying a symbol of an action and suspenseful film.
In place of having a suspenseful soundtrack, Casino Royale has more of a fast up-beat song playing over their opening credits, portraying an image that the film will involve a vast amount of fast action. If they were to use a slow assonance then it would feel out of place and wouldn't match up to the quick movements of the characters.
The titles appear in an unusual way- they come onto the screen and then will slowly fade out, this is so that most of the attention is kept on the actions behind the titles, instead of being lost in confusing and graphic titling.
As the film is mainly set in a Casino, the directors have chosen to use playing cards as they background of their opening titles. This is a clever way of demonstrating what the film revolves around. Colours in the sequence are mostly secondary hues- dark reds, blacks and navy's. As the titles are a bright white they stand out more, making it clear who helped create the film.
Finally, cartoon appearances of James Bond and other characters are shown during the starting scene giving the audience a slight insight as to how the characters behave and act- this all appears behind the titles making the shot more engaging instead of placing them on a blank screen.
We found it intriguing to view something a little more different and abnormal as it allowed us to see the possibilities we have to create an opening which represents the film.However we chose to incorporate the style of Deja Vu as we decided to create the title letters falling out of shot.
The opening titles to Se7en are an exceptional example of how fear and distortion are illustrated during the first few minutes of the film- as a group this is one of the opening sequences which we considered to be something we too would like to incorporate, before we started on our own opening.
At (0.06) the first titles quiver onto the screen in block capitals and still move around whilst in the shot. This style has been incorporated throughout the opening sequence, constructing a hesitant quivery feel.
The majority of the shots are a mixture of close-ups and extreme close-up giving only a slight illustration of what is being done- this leaves the audience speculating about why and who is doing all the actions.
The names of Directors and cast list are all in a small distressing font, which is a presentation of what may later occur in the film. Also, the style of the font combines well together with the uneasy, piercing music and moving camera work- each of these areas compliment each other well creating a chilling thriller opening.
This extract clearly shows how titling can be used to set a daunting, thrilling atmosphere without giving away too much knowledge about story. It gave us an insight into how we as a group could create this suspense using our credits and how we can impact the audience- we used this idea in our opening using the title to try and create suspense.
Deja Vu's opening titles is an inordinate example of tension and suspense being created during the opening descriptions. Along with the eerie music the slow jagged titles appearing on and off the screen bring the apprehension into existence.
The first titling we see is of 'touchstone pictures'- the individual letters appear almost typed onto a black screen and they then fleetly fall out of the screen shot, not long followed by the directors and actors names, which too proceed in the same way.
Having the individual letters typed on and then fall aside out of the shot, is a very effective way of implying that something abominable may occur.
Often when the titles are on screen, they will be present in a white, clear box- the shot behind will frequently blur constructing a distorted image.
At (1.17) the 'Deja Vu' film title will stumble into the shot, once again bounded in a small white box. This to some extent symbolises being trapped and enclosed- having watched the film, the opening titles do reflect a female character being entrapped by men, which is later to occur.
Thereafter watching and analysing the opening credits of 'Deja Vu', I feel that a similar style to how the titles are presented is something that would work rightful in our opening thriller. As a group, we speculated with creating letters that fall out of the shot- this will embody the storyline of our female character jumping off a cliff edge.
James Bond Goldfinger has one of the most famous film credits, they are intriguing and daring, perfectly setting up the ambiance for the rest of the film.
The music played in the opening sequence for goldfinger is very mysterious and exhilarating, it helps to introduce the thriller and the long haunting sounds helps to convey the idea of something sinister.
The use of still naked women and parts of women's body in the opening credits is very significant as it suggests passion and pleasure but also something forbidden.
The women are also gold which connects to the title of the film and also implies wealth. The gold bodies against the black backgrounds are very interesting as it creates a contrast of light and darkness.
The clips being played from the movie on the bodies of the women is also important as it shows a glimpse of what is to come and also suggests an element of entrapment in the movie as the clips are trapped in the frames of the women's bodies.
The credits fade into the shot and back out suggesting something coming and going perhaps like the characters in the movie or the action in the film.
The text is quite bold and stands out on the screen as the font is standard and in white, it is also always placed against the plain black background, implying simplicity and perhaps a fearless attitude, much like the protagonist's nature.
We wanted to use Match on Action in our thriller opening to show the techniques that we were capable of using. This technique has only yet cleverly been used once, this is where the young female walks through the graveyard, and we begin to follow her with a hand-held camera. The shot changes to an image of her feet as they slowly walk forward. We wanted to incorporate this into our clip, to portray the image of her slow, uneasy movements towards the graveyard.
As this is our only using of Match On Action we wanted to ensure that it was used correctly to create an impact on the audience. We had considered filming the back of her feet, using a Dolly, however after much practice and experimentation we discovered that the affect of this was not what we wanted it to be like. Also the Dolly created too much of a loud sound and the footage came out fast and jurky- something that didn't tie in with the narrative of the story. We finally made a choice to use the hand-held option viewing the front of her feet, so it's clear to see her slow paced footsteps.
These are images showing where Match On Action is used during our opening.
