Premonition influenced my own thriller opening sequence since it is tells the story of a housewife who has a premonition of her husband being killed in a car accident as a large truck collides into his own car, causing a huge, disastrous explosion killing them. Fortunately, this is similar to my plot for our opening sequence for the reason that in our film a teenage girl has a dream/premonition of her boyfriend attempting to murder her by the use of suffocation.
The film begins with a series of numerous shots whereby the distributor, production company, a ... film, the actors and the title of the movie fade in onto a darkened backdrop in an intense white typeface. As each scene flows onto the next, the letters fade away from the frame steadily before re-emerging in the following shot. The film opens with a ‘birds eye view shot’ of a woman sitting inside a car with her face buried into her hands. The camera moves steadily through its surrounding before focusing on the main character. Slowly, the camera angle begins to zoom down onto the woman and we notice her partner come into view as he stands alongside the car. The angle increasingly changes to a ‘close up’ of the couple. This has been purposely done for the reason that as the audience we tend to take in and observe the setting and the characters present in the scene. It is an excellent way to set the atmosphere as well as positioning the audience to see clearly, what is taking place outside of the scene as well. It is sometimes followed by getting closer to the subject at hand.
The camera angle suddenly changes to a ‘tracking shot’ as it tracks the two main characters as they begin to walk in front of one another. Gradually, the camera stops moving and focuses on the characters as the camera angle changes to a ‘medium shot’ which is filmed at the side of their bodies. This demonstrates their body language so that the audience begins to understand their thoughts and feelings. During the cameras fast paced movements, it frequently captures an ‘over the shoulder’ and a ‘medium shot’ demonstrating the couple looking astonishingly at their new home. As a result of using these specific camera shots, this illustrates to the viewing audience a sense of romanticism and idealism.
As the scene continues, the camera gradually begins to do a ‘two frame shot’ whereby the camera angle changes from a close up showcasing the top third of their body from the front and then changing to a ‘medium shot’ where their bodies are shown from the side. A variety of fast paced shots are used as they occasionally cross dissolve into one another to illustrate the two main characters talking to each other and glancing back towards the house on various occasions which may provide narrative information about the main concept in the film. The camera angle swiftly changes to an ‘extreme long shot’ so that the audience gets an insight into what other scenarios are taking place around the couple and their home. Rapidly, the camera shot changes to a ‘close up’ and a ‘reaction shot’ to express the characters emotion and facial features to the audience. The camera eventually changes to an ‘extreme long shot’ as it steadily moves away from the character and the house before fading out into a plain white backdrop.
Throughout the entire opening sequence, especially the opening credit, a non-diegetic sound is heard throughout; this is a sound that comes from a source outside the world of the story. A high pitched, electronic musical sound is heard overpowering the text and images on screen. Compared to the shots on screen, the melody is evidently different unusual. This implies to the audience that not everything is portrayed as it should be. Additionally, the tune builds up trepidation and anxiety as you feel as though something unexpected is about to take place in the subsequent shot.
Whilst browsing through another student AS media blog, it was clear to me that she has spent a lot of time and effort linking videos and pictures from other media sites and explaining in detail how they are necessary to her own media blog. Evidently, she has updated her blog every few days explaining what tasks she had to complete in order to create her opening sequence for her film. Additionally, she has broken down her blog and categorised sections of her work to make it easier for other members to view her blog. Some of these categories include: text/font, soundtrack, lighting, audience response and much more. What is more, is that she has recorded videos discussing the reasons why her group chose to film in a particular location and what clothing each character is going to wear.
One of the main things which I believe to be exceedingly good is that the student has also filmed a behind the scenes and blooper real to add to her blog. I believe this that this is exceptionally different as she has done extra work and done something different to show the examiner. She has obviously decided to do something dissimilar with her blog, which is that she does not need to keep on writing pages of text discussing what she has done to create her film and why she decided to do things in a particular way, instead she has done something creatively which is to film her group talking about the different things that they have taken into account when filming their opening sequence.
I have chosen the film ‘Nightmare on Elm Street,’ as a thriller of my choice to illustrate both Todorov’s five stage model and Propp’s theory based upon character roles, also known as spheres of action. I picked this particular film, as it relates to my own group pitch which we are hoping to create and film as our own thriller opening sequence.
Nightmare on Elm Street is a horror, mystery and thriller movie which highlights how death stalks the dreams of many teenagers to claim its revenge on the killing of a man known as ‘Freddie Kruger.’ They are chased and tortured by this finger – bladed devil, as they begin to experience old memories and the denials of a past of revenge which brings this hellish vision of a nightmare by allowing death to become a part of their reality.
Applying Propp’s Theory to ‘Nightmare on Elm Street:
‘The hero’ is usually the main protagonist who is at the centre of the story, or sometimes on a quest, a search or a mission= in the film there are two main characters Nancy and Quentin who in my opinion are the hero’s in the film since they are able to survive the dreams and find out what events are really taking place in ‘Elm Street.’
‘The Villain’ competes with and tries to destroy the hero = ‘Freddie Kruger’ is the villain in the film as he stalks the teenagers in their dreams and attempts to murder them with his finger bladed hands.
‘The donor’ provides a magic ingredient to move the story on = Nancy’s mum is the donor in the film as she provides information such as old photographs from when her daughter was in pre school. Through Nancy seeing the photographs she realises that everyone she thought she only met when she started high school, she now realises she was with them in her old pre school and that clearly there’s a link between them and the dream which they are all having.
‘The Princess’ is often the hero’s reward or prize at the end of the story =
Nancy is the princess in the film as she is largely considered as being the
main character in the film and the one who tries to solve the story and destroy
the villain.
‘The princess father/authority figure’ is usually someone who rewards the hero
= In my opinion, Quentin’s father is portrayed as the ‘authority figure’ in the
film as he was the character who found out that “Freddie Kruger” was a
paedophile and he was hurting the children at the pre-school, including his
own. He attempted to take action alongside the other parents but
unfortunately the plan backfired on them.
‘The helper’ is someone who provides guidance and support to the hero = I
believe that whilst Quentin is also a main character in the film, the movie
focuses on Nancy that little bit more compared to him. Therefore, Quentin is
portrayed as being the helper in the film as he tries to comfort Nancy and help
her to find out who “Freddie Kruger” is and why he is torturing them in their
dreams.
‘The dispatcher’ sends the hero off on his/her task or quest = In the film there
is not a significant character that plays the role of a ‘dispatcher.’ However, the
photograph of the teenagers when they were at pre-school motivates Nancy
and Quentin to find out what really happened years before. It encourages
those to go and visit the old pre-school and find any important evidence which
may be the answer to finding out why “Freddie Kruger” is torturing them in
their nightmares.
Todorov’s theory:
Todorov argues that “narrative involves a transformation. The characters or
situations are transformed through the progress of the disruption.”
Equilibrium: The equilibrium in the film was when the children attended a pre-school in ‘Elm Street' where they were happy and enjoyed sharing new learning experiences with their friends. It also highlighted that they came from happy families
Disruption: The disruption in the film was when a gardener who goes by the name of “Freddie Kruger” got a job at the pre-school. He slowly began to play games with the children and attempt to get closer to them.
Recognition of disruption: The realisation that there was a disruption in the
film was when the children began to tell their parents that whilst they were at
school the gardener always took them to his secret place, known as the
“magic cave.” Once there he would sometimes touch them and scratch their
clothes.
Attempt to repair disruption: The attempt to repair the disruption became clear
to us when the children who are now teenagers slowly began to have
recurring dreams of the gardener “Freddie Kruger” who they once knew when
they were younger. The dreams end up as nightmares as they are chased
and tortured by this finger – bladed devil, as they begin to experience old
memories from their past. The two main characters, Nancy and Quentin
realise that one of them must stay awake whilst the other must fall asleep in
an attempt to end this nightmare once and for all, by killing “Freddie Kruger”
and beating him at his own games.
A return of new equilibrium: The ending of the film takes a peculiar twist as
“Freddie Kruger” decides that instead of killing the students by becoming a
visage in their dreams and murdering them in hellish situations. He now
comes to a decision that he will target the relatives closest to the students and
kill them violently and brutally one by one.
Todorov and Propp’s Theory for my own thriller opening sequence – Premonition.
Applying Propp’s Theory to Premonition:
‘The hero’ is usually the main protagonist who is at the centre of the story, or sometimes on a quest, a search or a mission= in the film Premonition there are two main characters Yasmin and Nimesh. However only one of which is the hero, this is the Yasmin as she attempts to survive her premonition and find out why it is that her boyfriend is trying to murder her.
‘The Villain’ competes with and tries to destroy the hero = Nimesh is the villain in the film as he attempts to murder his own girlfriend.
‘The Princess’ is often the hero’s reward or prize at the end of the story = Yasmin is the princess in the film as she is largely considered as being the main character of the film and the one who tries to solve the story, prevent herself from being killed and destroys the villain.
‘The dispatcher’ sends the hero off on his/her task or quest = In the opening sequence there is not a significant character that plays the role of a ‘dispatcher.’ However, the text that the female character receives from her boyfriend could have been the point in the story which motivated Yasmin to notice her boyfriend’s strange behaviour and weirdness towards her when she saw him in her Premonition.
Applying Todorov’s Theory to Premonition:
Equilibrium: The equilibrium in the film was when Yasmin was sleeping and received a lovely text from her boyfriend explaining how he enjoyed spending time with her. This was a happy moment in the film.
Disruption: The disruption in the film was when Nimesh appeared in Yasmin’s premonition acting differently around her and awkward. He slowly began to play mind games with her by not acting himself.
Recognition of Disruption: The realisation that there was a disruption in the film was when Yasmin began to notice that her boyfriend wasn’t acting himself and he was acting cold towards her. She realised that something was on his mind but she wasn’t sure what that was.
Attempt to repair the disruption: The attempt to repair the disruption became clear when Yasmin woke up from her Premonition where she saw herself being suffocated and murdered by her boyfriend, Nimesh. Yasmin realises that the premonition that she is currently having will become a part of her reality soon if she doesn’t try to prevent this from happening. Yasmin realises that she needs to find a way to work out why it is that her boyfriend wants to murder her once and for all so that she can beat him at his own games.
A return of new equilibrium: We haven’t decided upon a new equilibrium yet but what could happen in the ending of our film is that instead of Nimesh attempting to murder Yasmin in her premonition. He could appear in different ways to her such as when she is day dreaming or when she looks into mirrors.
Analysing ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ – Opening Sequence:
The film begins with a ‘long shot’ of a forest draped with snow as it gracefully collides into the branches and leaves. As the camera changes its focus, it gradually begins to pan the backdrop slowly, circulating the forest. As each scene flows into one another demonstrating the use of continuity, credits appear as a standstill upon the wintery backdrop in a bold, electric black typeface. As each scene follows onto the next, the lettering progressively fades away from the frame before slowly re-emerging in the subsequent shot. The camera moves hurriedly through its surroundings before ‘tracking’ a young women racing along an unnoticeable pathway before eventually fading into the midst of the fog. This film segment builds up anticipation and mystery as the audience is unaware as to what may appear in the following sequence, fortunately this sets a narrative expedition. Additionally, by using fast paced camera shots, dim lighting and an eerie soundtrack, they all build up to create a terrifying, unsettling atmosphere to coincide with the genre of “horror.” During the camera’s fast paced movements, it consistently captures ‘extreme close ups’ from distorted angles demonstrating the females shoes, and face as she sprints through the forest. Consequently, this depicts to the viewing audience a sense of trepidation and vagueness.
As the scenes persist, the camera begins to change to a ‘180 degree shot.’The camera begins to pan across the backdrop steadily focusing on the young women as she hoists herself up onto a roped ladder before gracefully landing on the other side. The camera carefully rotates to distort the camera angle as we are presented with an ‘over the shouldershot’ whereby two characters have a quick conversation regarding the young women having to visit her boss. The camera quickly changes to another frame in the film sequence, changing to a ‘medium/close up’ revealing four dismantled name plates which read “hurt, agony, pain and love.’ Perhaps these are phrases which represent scenarios that might be featured in the film. The camera suddenly moves on changing to an ‘extreme long shot’ as the camera focuses onto a building or institute of some sort. However, the camera slowly re-focuses itself onto the young women as she makes her way towards the entrance of the building.
The camera seemingly zooms in towards the building, changing the shot to an ‘extreme close up.’ The camera lens focuses onto a selection of misted windows before gradually fading away into the subsequent shot. The camera eventually changes to a ‘medium shot’ as it hovers over the young women as she makes her way down a narrow, aged staircase. Lastly, the camera changes to a POV shot (point of view) to illustrate the dissimilar situations taking place currently. This provides the viewing audience with more information as we are able to understand the scenarios taking place alongside her and whether they are relevant to the remaining scenes in the film.
In the background of the scene a high pitched, disturbing, and harmonious sound is heard overpowering the scenes from the film sequence. Compared to the images on screen, the melody is undoubtedly similar as it coincides with the situations and atmosphere exceptionally well. Additionally, this conveys to the audience that there is vast amount of danger approaching them.
In conclusion, the opening sequence has began to build up each frame of the film to identify the danger, worrying, isolation which may surround the characters in the situations they put themselves in. Additionally, it might portray how the character thinks and feels. The audience should begin to have a better understanding of the weird and unsettling events which may feature in the film.
Analysing the film opening ‘Se7en’
The file opens with a series of numerous medium and close up shots, demonstrating the burnt, crumpled pages, flickering as each page turns over in an old stained book. A variety of fast paced shots occasionally cross dissolve into one another to illustrate an extensive range of weapons and machinery which may provide narrative information about the main concept in the film. As each scene flows into one another demonstrating the use of continuity, credits appear glistening against the bleak backdrop in a faint white typography. As each scene follows on to the next, the letters fades away from the frame before slowly re-emerging in the subsequent shot. The camera moves rapidly through its surroundings highlighting a slightly disfigured hand holding a minuscule piece of metal as it slowly begins to hack away at the skin. During the camera’s fast paced movements, it frequently captures extreme close up’s from misshapen angles demonstrating objects of metal as they begin to fade away from the frame. As a result of this, this illustrates to the viewing audience a sense of eeriness and ambiguity.
As the scene continues, the camera gradually begins to move closer towards a collection of folders, tracking the same disfigured hand as it begins to caress each individual folder. The camera steadily rotates to distort the camera angle as we are presented with a notebook scripted with a vast amount of lettering inside. As the camera jumps to another frame in the film sequence, changing to a medium shot, revealing a role of film and faded black and white photographs being dismantled and cut to shreds before slowly being stuck back together on a sheet of plain paper. The camera swiftly moves on changing to a bird’s eye view shot as the camera re-focuses on the same notebook scripted with lettering inside but this time the disfigured hand re-emerges creepily crossing out words and faces of different people.
In the background of the scene a high pitched, unsettling, electronic musical sound is heard overpowering the images in the film sequence. Compared to the images on screen, the melody is clearly dissimilar. This implies to the audience that there is vast amount of danger surrounding them.
The camera seemingly passes over the notebook and focuses on the hand as it begins to peel away the binder of a book before unsettlingly twisting the metal bars and re-placing it onto the notebook with the sharp pin-point edges facing upwards. The eeriness and mystery of the high pitched melody is heard again as it continues to disturb the viewer.
The camera, eventually changes to a medium shot as it hovers over the same notebook. The disfigured hand is showcasing an unsettling use of tools as he begins to use a thread and needle to sow pages together. Each individual page depicts either a male or female being tortured in an alarming manner.
To conclude, the entire opening sequence has been slowly building up each frame of the film to identify the danger, worrying, isolation based on how the character thinks and feels. The audience should begin to have a better understanding of the weird and unsettling events which may feature in the film.
When we were planning and taking note of our ideas for what our thriller opening sequence might consist of, we came up with ideas such as rape which is discussed in my prezi ‘Shadowed’ murders, stalking and harassments. Whilst we thought the idea of rape would be interesting and could become a successful thriller film if we filmed and created it in a realistic and appropriate setting. We realised that this similar storyline had been used in previous films before hand and as a group we wanted to do something a little more original and different so that we could show off our creativity and imagination skills.
This is when we came to the realisation that we could use ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ as an inspirational film whereby we could use the ‘dream like’ plot and import that into our own thriller opening sequence making sure that we changed features of it so that instead of our own opening sequence having the main character killed in her dream which meant she died instantly in reality, she could have a premonition of herself being killed so that throughout the remainder of the film she could try and resolve the situation and prevent herself from being murdered by her boyfriend.
What is more, is that the production logo that I decided to use in my ‘Shadowed’ presentation, we decided that as a group we would keep this particular logo and use it for our own thriller opening sequence. However, instead of having the image remain still, we would animate the logo so that the picture zoomed into the keyhole and faded to black allowing all other events to transpire.
Martin Scorsese is one of the most famous and successful directors in today’s film industry. He has directed an exact 31 films, all of which have been particularly popular with the viewing audience. Not only is he a film director but he is also a screenwriter, actor, producer and film historian. He is the founder of the ‘World Cinema Foundation.’ Scorsese has been awarded with numerous awards in his lifetime, from an Oscar, to a Golden Globe, to a BAFTA and finally he has been rewarded with a Directors Guild of America. Scorsese’s trademark is Italian/American Identity, Roman Catholic concepts such as redemption and guilt and lastly machismo and violence.
Here is a list of the 31brilliant films Scorsese has directed and in what year they were filmed:
Taxi Driver (1976), Goodfellas (1990), Raging Bull (1980), The Departed (2006), After Hours (1985), The King of Comedy (1983), Mean Streets (1973), My Voyage to Italy (2001), Casino (1995), Shine a light (2008), The Last Waltz (1978), The Aviator (2004), The Age of Innocence (1993), Kundun (1997), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Gangs of New York (2002), Bringing Out the Dead (1999), The Colour of Money (1986), Cape Fear (1991), New York, New York (1977), No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (2005), Shutter Island (2010), Boxcar Bertha (1972), Italian American (1974), American Boy: A Profit of: Steven Prince (1978), The Big Shave (1967), Made in Milan (1990), Silence (2008), Street Scenes (1970), Untitled Airbus Documentary Project (2006) and Vesuvius VI (1959).
Each individual film that Scorsese has ever directed has been a successful movie for the reason that they are films which are so close to the edge. They are realistic and gripping. What’s more is that his films are dangerous, they are the real thing. Scorsese is an extraordinary director because he is not frightened of using images and ideas from the “art world.” Every shot/scene in his films is truthful, humane and they speak of life realistically. He is a brilliant storyteller and a wonderful visual stylist.
Below are two trailers from the hit movies, Cape Fear and Shutter Island which were both directed by the incredible Martin Scorsese. By watching these trailers you can get a real understanding as to why he is one of the most renowned filmmakers of his era.
