Within the first two minutes of Cloverfield, several conventions of sci-fi horror films are established. Quick cuts, shaky camera work, and dark lighting create a "found footage" style and build tension as the audience cannot see clearly what is happening. Long shots show the surrounding area at night to further the sci-fi horror mood. Diegetic sounds become more prominent as the only clues to the unseen monster. The fragmentary footage leaves the audience with many questions typical of the genre.

1. Analysing the opening
2 minutes:
Cloverfield

2. The film cloverfield is very similar in it genre to the film we have
created for our coursework. The generic elements and codes and
conventions of a sci-fi horror film were all established within the
opening two minuets of the film. The film starts off with a close up
shot of one the main characters faces. This enables the audience to
discover the main characters. However there is very low key
lighting with only the characters body being lit up. This is a generic
feature of a horror film. The darkness of the frame establishes the
mood and links with the main generic colours associated (black
and red) with horror and sci-fi films. In addition this darkness
could also create the feeling to mystery to the audience as they do
not see much within the frame and rely on the characters to get
information about what is happening.
However there are also very quick cuts from the camera and
the movement is very fast. The quickening pace from the
camera is to create a handy cam effect to show that the
characters are filming this themselves. This then adds to the
mystery of what is happening within the film. As the action is
happening very quickly and as the camera moves a lot the
audience never get to see much what the action. This
quickening pace from the camera also creates tension within
the audience. As they are never able to see much of what is
going to happen next. There are also many long shots. This is to
establish the surrounding area in which everything is
happening. The are is in darkness (it is at night time) this again
has connotations with a sci-fi horror film as most of the scariest
things happen in the dark when it is harder to see things, and it
is a generic theme that runs throughout this genre of films.

3. The camera is constantly panning and tracking all the action
which happens onscreen. This creates the feel as though you are
watching the film through the eyes of one of the characters. The
sounds within this part of the scene then become slightly more
dominant, as there is a lot of diegectic sound and no non diegetic
sound. The sounds become more predominant as the only form of
the ‘monster/alien’ which you can see is through the sounds it
makes and the destruction it causes.
Also the editing also builds up a lot of the tension
within the scene. The quick cuts and constant flow of
motivated/ reaction shots allow the audience to be a
part of the action as they are seeing it first hand
through the camera of someone who is there. As the
scene progresses the camera becomes very jumpy and
blacks out at certain stages. This again suggests that it
is being filmed through a handy cam so the quality
isn't perfect. Also as the camera cuts out the diegetic
sounds also stop which creates the realistic feel to the
filming. The framing at this stage of the sequence also
becomes very undefined as the camera is moving all
over the places to show that everyone is running away
from the horrible creature.

4. Within the opening two minuets the ‘creature’ which is
causing this destruction but is never shown is made to be a
generic villain/mysterious unearthly creature which is
always present within sci-fi films. This also has
connotations to the mystery and the fact that the ‘unearthly
creature’ wont be shown until the very end of the film. The
unnatural close ups make the scene seem abstract because
it is hard to tell what is going. This leads to the audience
not getting much information about the rest of the film
from the two minute opening sequence. The audience is left
with many questions and these are answered throughout
the rest of the film however due to the genre these are
given in small doses, as generically within sci-fi horrors not
much is given away until right at the end.