The document analyzes 9 shots from a film opening sequence. Shot 1 establishes the production company. Shot 2 sets a dark, mysterious mood. Shot 3 introduces the main character and setting. Shot 4 uses a POV shot to make the audience feel what the character feels. Shot 5 adds shadow effects to the character's movements. Shot 6 emphasizes a second important character. Shot 7 uses a low angle to make the protagonist seem determined. Shot 8 shows the protagonist and antagonist falling into stereotypical roles. Shot 9 changes perspective and tempo to add drama. The shots aim to set the scene and introduce characters following thriller film conventions.

1. Screen grabs for evaluation
Shot one
We chose to show our
company ident as our
first shot as this
generally follows the
convention for this genre
as the majority of film
openings include the
production ident at the beginning of their film so the audience doesn’t lose focus
of the creators of the film and also so they are able to be approached by other
poss . I feel that our ident works well on its own with no audio as it allows the
audience to focus solely on the image. The text within the ident works well with
the image next to it as both the text and image relate to each other. This type of
entrance to a opening sequence is seen in many thriller related films, e.g. “The
girl with the dragon tattoo”
Shot two
With this shot we used the effect “cool tone”
To give the impression that the setting for our opening sequence is dark and
mysterious. The shot cuts from a image of a tree branch to the one below. The
purpose of the shot is to set the mood for a thriller my making the image seem
out of focus and dark, much like the techniques seen in many other opening
sequences such as the film Seven. This shot is the first one that has a title in it as
well, making it an important shot with is sole purpose of setting the mood for the
rest of the film.

2. Shot three
The particular shot is crucial as it the first
shot that shows the main character, with a close up
of his face. This tries to show the audience the
emotions of himself and the emotions the audience
should be feeling for him. The convention of the
genre for thriller films is that when you are
introduced to characters, you usually identify them
with emotions such as; worry, tension, panic. Of course this is not always the
case but you will defiantly witness this either in the opening sequence or later in
the film. Furthermore it shows the setting for the opening sequence by using a
long shot of the “castle” were we filmed. This is seen in many opening sequences
such as the film “shutter Island” were the setting for the film is revealed very
early in the film. The shot also includes the effect cool tone, with no other effect
as we wanted to differentiate the outside and inside shots by using different
effects.
This shot captures the mise en scene that is used throughout the rest of
the opening sequence.
Shot four
Here we used a point of view shot for the
main character entering the house. This is an
important part of the film process as it varies the
type of shots that we were taking. Many thriller
films use this to make the scene, almost relatable,
in the sense that they understand and feel the
emotions the characters are feeling. The shot is
taken looking up, trying to make the character seem small and worthless, making
his journey into house seem daunting. One particular film that use this type of
filming is “The Blaire Witch Project”. The entire film is taken using shots that are
filmed by the characters, making you feel what they feel and see what they see.
The method is effective as it makes the audience more involved in the film.
Shot five
In this shot the main character, is seen on his
own. The shot includes added shadow effect to
make his movements seem dangerous and blurry.

3. Shot six
in this shot, we emphasized the importance of the
second character as he enters the opening
sequence. We did this by changing the balance
between the desert and cool tone effect making the
shot seem more orange in colour.
We also slowed the shot by 50% to allow the
audience to absorb the characters appearance
fully. We also included the name for our film in particular shot and gave it a
special effect which was to fade outwards of the shot through the middle. We did
this to emphasize the importance of the title, as this is generally follows the
convention for this genre and most other films.
A good example of when a film emphasizes the main title would be “Indiana
Jones”, as they prolong the average time of the main title compared to the other
titles before the main title.
The character is seen to be immoral and wily as he checks his surrounding
before approaching Tom. The character that has just been introduced, Chris,
wears clothing that would traditional suit his style of character, which is wearing
tailored clothing with muted colors. The audio reaches a climax at the point at
which Chris is introduced to promote his arrival into the opening sequence.
Shot seven
In this shot, we used a negative effect by
maximizing the black and white colours. We did
this to vary the type of visual impacts we were
giving the audience. We filmed the shot from a low
angle to give Tom a imposing look as he now is
determined to find his missing daughter. His anger
gives him a more imposing persona. This breaks
the convention of this genre as this type of angle and mise en scene is usually
film with the antagonist. The antagonist is usually the one that is made to look
physically dominate through different effects and camera angles. One example
would be to channel the lighting onto the antagonist making him the sole focus of
the shot. You would place the camera low to make him seem bigger, more
intimidating to the audience.

4. Shot eight
In this shot the mise en scene is promenade. The
effect on the shot is changed to highlight the
importance of this shot. It includes both characters
with both of them falling into their given
stereotype of being the antagonist and the
protagonist. The protagonist, the character
standing in the for front of the shot is seen to be
looking worried and nervous whilst the character in the background, the
antagonist, is seen to look calm and in control. These type of emotions are
generally portrayed in most thriller films between the antagonist and
protagonist. An example of this would be the film “Shutter Island” were the
protagonist and antagonist display similar emotions to the ones during this
particular shot. The camera is kept level to Tom whilst staying close to him to
allow the audience to fully understand and feel what he is feeling. Furthermore,
we placed Chris, (the antagonist) in the background to act as a looming burden
on Tom in literal terms to clearly demonstrate the divide between the two
characters and the conflicts they are having. The shot supports the narrative of
the film as it clearly shows who is bad and who is good by giving facial
expressions that allow the audience to understand who to feel sympathetic
towards and who to dislike due to their characters personality.
Shot nine
The Dutch angle used here is a shot that varies the
normal type of shots that we used through must of
our opening sequence. It gives the sequence a
dramatic aspect to it as it gives alterative views
that are not usually seen by the average person.
The shot shows the two characters running. The
change in tempo of the opening sequence is
something that can be seen in many thriller opening sequences, maybe when a
something is introduced which causes some type of friction etc.. An example of
this would “children of men” there is one continuous shot that shows two
different settings, one being calm and indoors, while the other is hectic with lots
of movement displaying contrasting tempos of scenery which is what we were
aiming for in this shot. Furthermore the shot is edited to be short to promote an
upbeat scene of events. The camera was placed low to capture the majority of the
characters movements to fully show the drama that was taking place between
the two characters.
The settings changes back to outside to show that Tom, the protagonist has been
left with little options and is now resorting to going back from where he came as
he is scared of Chris cashing him.