This document provides an analysis and summary of the opening scenes of a thriller film. It summarizes how the opening establishes conventions of the thriller genre through tension-building elements like counting and questions about an ominous figure. It describes shots that show a happy young couple before a mysterious man in black is seen following them and boarding their train. The analysis notes how a climactic encounter between the couple and the man is portrayed in an intentionally ambiguous way through distorted exposure and sound effects. After the title card, the ending shots continue building mystery around the number 43 and where the train is headed next while hinting there will be backstory to explore.

2. The counting up creates tension, it gets people asking,
when is this gong to stop? Why is it counting? These
questions and build up of tension are conventions of a
thriller. Heart beat sets in at this point to set the theme
and over this is the sound of a train leaving a station,
and this sets the scene, we then know where the action
will take place.
We then get this lovely shot of two young teens.
We can infer by how close they are and smiling
they are boyfriend and girlfriend. We can see it is
day time and this is where we go against the
conventions of a thriller, because dark scary
scenes are associated with dark, gloomy nights
but as we attempted to film at night but we
quickly realised the camera didn’t work well in
low light, so we changed it so we could convey
the idea that you can be taken at any time,
anywhere. Like Horror films that begin with
normal happy family life, to make it relatable and
more realistic so it can be more scary.

3. This shot establishes, a blackened figure,
boarding the same train just moments
after the couple. Yet we are not sure why
he is following the couple and this creates
enigma, which is a convention of a thriller.
Yet we can tell he is bad news because he
is covered in all black on a nice sunny day.
This very clever shot is maybe used in
the wrong order, it should have been
used before the mysterious figure gets
on the train, as it can be seen as a POV
shot from the mysterious character,
spying on the couple. And we can see as
the girl scrolls through her photos, we
see that this mysterious figure has been
following them for a while, as if you look
closely you can see the mysterious man
in each photo. I see this long scene as
the calm before the storm.

4. The tension builds and now the first physical
encounter between hunter and hunted. The
editing is clever as when he hunted gets hit
the exposure goes over the top and flashes.
And a loud sound. And then goes to black. This
works for a thriller. I wanted a fight scene, but
that wouldn’t work for a thriller. This is the
climax of the opening.
After the cut to black the Title inserts its-
self and now we wonder why the title is
called station 43? And then link this to the
counting to 43 at the beginning and
ponder o that situation. This creates
enigma and mystery two main
conventions of a thriller.

5. And when the visual kicks back in again we see a
train rolling into the distance, not sure where the
train is going. But yet going back to fundamental
idea, that this mysterious man can take you from
anywhere anytime, which creates a scary
atmosphere. Introduce the director of
cinematography.
Train continues to leave the station
and the director traditionally is
introduced at the end of the
opening.
The end of the opening suggests
there is going to be a back story
to one of the three characters to
explain why this boy was taken.
The 3 dots create tension and
keep you thinking.