2. The first shot shows a blank book with someone turning
the pages. The first text comes up ‘New Line Cinema
presents’ and the font flickers to the beat of the music.
The music starts off very loud and dramatic and then we
heart the sound of a heart pounding. This creates more
tension. I do not think this is very effective for the first
shot of the opening sequence because the audience will
not be very concentrated at the film yet, it would be
more effective if the opening sequences built up the
tension.
3. In the next shot, at first the text is mirrored so we
can’t read it but to the beat of the music it changes
to as we see it in the screenshot. This suggests that
the genre of the film is a psychological thriller
because mirrors are often used in psychological
thriller’s mise-en-scene. There is a drawing of hands
and the fingers look crooked. This could connote
the abnormality of the character’s mind.
4. The next extreme close up shot shows an object.
It’s not clear what this object is, this will create
enigma as the audience are going to be asking
themselves questions like; What is this object?
What is its significance? The shot is very quick.
There is a sound effect of something turning but it
almost sounds alien like. The music continues to be
very loud and dramatic.
5. In this shot, we see an unknown object. I think it might be
a blade. This is an extreme close up of an object which
makes the audience focus on this specific thing. The
music continues in the same rhythm but now we hear
very weird sounds, they sound alien like. It wouldn’t be a
sound which the audience has heard before so this would
create enigma code as they would be asking themselves
“What is this sound?” but also “What is this object and
why is it significant in the opening sequence?”.
6. Here is another extreme close up of an
object, again we do not know what it is. The alien
like sounds continue and the music rhythm doesn’t
change in this shot either. The lightning is very dark
creating mystery. The shot is very short so if the
audience were watching this opening sequence, the
shot would be too quick to work out what this
object is.
7. Here we see the first typography. This is the name
of one of the characters. Brad Pitt’s name is
probably the first text that comes up because he is
a brilliant actor and it would help sell the media
product. The text flashes and moves positions but
then goes back to its original position, this happens
when the alien like sounds start playing again.
8. Here we see a male hand and the object we saw
a few shots ago was a blade. The man is cutting
bits of his dead skin off. The hands are very dry
and look quite old which suggests that perhaps
this character is older. The blade fits with the
genre of psychological thriller because weapons
and sharp objects are often used in this genre.
9. Here we see a close up of the blade and now the
man is not cutting bits of his skin off. Dramatic
music starts playing. The background is faded
out and the main focus is on the blade. It could
connote that a character could be selfdestructive.
10. We hear a scream as the character again starts
to cut his skin off. This creates a lot of tension
and the audience will start to wonder who’s the
scream was. It sounded very feminine.
