Film Research

Analysis of movie openings for my production

Before the production process can begin, I have carried out some research to inspire me. As I am not yet sure of a suitable genre, I have chosen a range to analyse in hope that it will help me choose and bring professionalism to my piece.

500 Days Of Summer (ROM-COM) 

The Day After Tomorrow (Sci-Fi/Thriller)

Shutter Island (Thriller)

Contagion (Thriller)


I have now decided that my chosen genre is thriller:

Definition of thriller

The aim for thrillers is to keep the audience alert and on the edge of their seats. 

Alfred Hitchcock

Sir Alfred Hitchcock is a successful and hugely famous director of mainly psychological thrillers. As this is my chosen genre I have decided to research his techniques to see if it will inspire me for my opening sequence. 



(sourced from http://borgus.com/hitch/hitch2011.htm)

Techniques:

1)Audience: This website describes how Hitchcock purely thought about the audience and how they would react/feel throughout his films. It describes how people watch thrillers because it is fun, they enjoy the thrill of it. With this in mind, I will make sure during editing, filming and planning, that I consider my chosen audience, as I have using uktribes.com.

2)Frame for Emotion: I must make sure I use shots wisely to engage the audience so that they feel the emotion of the scene. 

3)Camera: "The camera should take on human qualities and roam around playfully looking for something suspicious in a room" I will use this technique in my sequence, perhaps in the last few shots to build the tension and atmosphere. 

4)Montage: To have an effective sequence, I must include series of the same shots e.g close ups. This is simple but engages the audience.

5)Keeping it simple: The opening sequence shouldn't be too complicated, so I am going to make sure that mine isn't, and it will make sense to a real audience.

6)Suspense: This website says to include information in your sequence/film, that the protagonist doesn't know about. This obviously makes it very tense. Although this may be hard to included in just the opening sequence, I could simply use the idea of danger and film innocent characters that have no idea.

7)Surprise: Never end in the way the audience suspects. I can do this by having a twist, something that is not too obvious to the audience which carries the film on. 

This quote helps me understand that my opening must be informative and enticing, visually. I know now that the audience is of huge importance and I must include them within my film. This is especially significant for thriller, as they must be enticed to be thrilled and shocked. 

Here we can see the sound is hugely important. I am going to concentrate on sound a lot throughout my production. This quote describes how it adds another dimension, which I believe is very true. I have seen in my movie opening analysis that sometimes the screen can be blank, but sound is still heard, to great effect. This proves that sound is a key element to making a thriller.


Now I can use this information from a reliable source to create an effective opening sequence.

Obviously, my ideas of a pandemic disease taking over the world has been created before in film, many times. It is very hard to come up with an original idea within film so I intend to give mine a unique, original twist. By doing this I am going to give an overall review on this type of film and see what I could add to mine to make it different.


Films About Disease/Infection

This table shows many films that include ideas of disease/infection leading to themes of the living dead (zombies). For my production, I am going to stay away from this idea so that my opening sequence/film idea has some originality. Mine will also be about the breakdown of humanity due to virus/disease because I think this is a very thrilling idea and will entice the audience. I have looked at a few films with this theme e.g Contagion and The Day After Tomorrow. A similar film is Anti-Viral, but this has concepts of self contamination to create the ideal celebrity figure/ face, which is an interesting idea.


Antiviral is a film by Brandon Cronenberg (2012). 

From IMDb: 
"After becoming infected with the virus that killed superstar Hannah Geist, Syd March must unravel the mystery surrounding her death to save his own life."

I like this idea because I have never heard something like this before, relating the idea of the ideal celebrity look and physical manipulation.

The trailer describes the atmosphere of the film: 

 

It starts with the idea of attractiveness and how to create this artificially. 

The product is revealed, these shots are very commercialised and superficial

 Then the main protagonist is introduced and the seriousness of the film is presented

We see that a celebrity has died

Then the idea of using this celebrities DNA to recreate the way a person looks

But it is then clear that it has gone wrong and infected the person

and it is also infectious as other people become ill

I like this twist on disease/infection very much and will include a unique idea for my opening sequence. 

Different kinds of thriller appear over the years, some more popular than others. I am looking into this to ensure my theme of thriller would be popular to my modern audience. 

In 2008, a lot of thrillers were directed more towards a horror theme such as The Strangers and the eye. There are also a lot of action thriller such as Body of Lies.

In 2010, a lot of thrillers were more complex and theatrical such as Inception and Black Swan.  I like the artistic twist to these films.

 In 2012, a lot more horror/thrillers occurred such as Sinister, The Woman in Black and The Cabin in the Woods. 


The most recent thrillers have shown me that audiences enjoy artistic thrillers and horrors. I intend for my production to be quite contemporary and psychologically thrilling.

Thriller Sub Genres (Deciding what kind of thriller to make)

Conspiracy films are about organisations, in which the hero/heroine is involved with e.g The Bourne series. I find these films to be quite bland and too action packed, therefore I will choose a different sub genre of thriller.

 Crime films are enticing, but it may be difficult to convey this in just an opening sequence. Also, it may be too complex to create due to there being certain settings and props (guns etc.) 

Disaster movies are often a popular choice. Films such as 2012 and 28 Days Later are very thrilling. I may use this genre partially, along with something else. As stated above, I do find zombie films are becoming too repetitive so I am going to stay away from that theme. 

This genre relates a lot to crime, however it involves the audience as they also want to discover the mystery, an example is Shutter Island. I may use an element of mysticism in my film, to involve the audience. 

This is the most quintessential sub genre and one of my favourites. I like the way in which it plays with the audiences mind and involves them the most out of all the sub genres. A particular favourite is Fight Club, the twist at the end made the film mind-blowing. I want to include this element in my opening sequence. 

Otherworldly films such as The Others and Carrie are very successful. The tension, suspense and fear of the unknown makes this genre very thrilling. The time and basics that I have may make it difficult to produce a supernatural movie opening. 

Overall, I have decided to create a Disaster/Psychological thriller with added mystery to  engage my audience.

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Production Company Logos 

The Warner Bros. logo is perhaps most recognisable mainly from the Harry Potter movies. As each film progressed, the logo changed slightly in colour and texture to suite the atmosphere of that film. For example, the last films logo is very rusty and dark, as it was the ultimate showdown and one of the more serious of the series. For my logo/s I am going to create something that fits in with the thriller genre, so the audience is alerted from the very beginning. 

The 20th Century Fox logo is extremely recognisable. The music is a key element for this logo and I am thinking about including a slight sound effect/tune to my own. The animation is obviously very technical and the logo itself is 3D.

The Universal Studios logo is similar to 20th Century Fox in the way that the music and animation is a key factor. The symbol of Earth fits in with the name 'universal'. I am going to relate my logo to the name of the company.




The MGM logo is a classic, with the roaring lion in the middle and film reels on the outside. Founded in 1924, it was and is one of the most glamourous film companies. I may include a striking animation in my logo.








From this analysis I can gather ideas about what to include on my logo such as animation and music.



This film research has expanded my knowledge on thrillers and film in general. I now have an understanding of what elements make a good thriller and how to create an opening successfully. This research will influence my ideas and help to bring professionalism to my opening sequence.