Thriller mood board: In this mood board I have included various images of S.W.A.T teams, police and detectives. This is because in many thriller films action happens which involve one of these groups. There is an image of a young couple which represents the characters that normally get targeted in thriller films and there are images of men in balaclavas to represent the 'badguys' in a thriller film.
Horror mood board: In my horror mood board I have included images which are 'horrific' and 'spooky'. There is an image of Jigsaw out of Saw because he is a well known horror icon and there is an image of a scared couple because young couples are normally the victims in horror films. The image of the house represents the setting of a typical horror film and the alleyway is also a well known horror location.
Romantic comedy mood board: In this mood board I have included images of young couples. This is because in all romantic comedies the main characters are usually a couple at the start of the film or towards the end. I have images of Jennifer Aniston and Colin Firth because they are both involved in a variety of romantic comedies. Wedding images are included in the mood board because it relates to romance and in many rom-coms a wedding is present.
At the start of the opening, non-diegetic music is playing over the Paramount company logo. The music then carries on through the opening of the film. The music is pop, upbeat and girly which shows that the target audience for the film are females. The bright titles, the fashion magazine headlines and the bright atmosphere and also the bubbly, soft fonts continue to show the femininity to the film.
The main character is blonde with blue eyes and is played by Kate Hudson. Her character contradicts stereotypical blonde girls. She works as a journalist for a magazine company and her intelligence is shown when she tells her friend that she wants to write something important about politics or the environment. Her job is an aspirational job, a job that a lot of people wish to have. Matthew McConaughey is intoduced into the opening scene on a motorbike, wearing a leather jacket and jeans. This gives the impression that he is rebellious and a rocky character. The non-diegetic music playing is rock/punk music which relates to his character. His character is arrogant, flirty, forward and pushy and this is shown through the way he flirts with a girl. He is overly confident. Most of the characters in the opening scene are power dressing. They wearing business dress, suits, shirts, blouses etc. The film is set in New York which is a glamorous city and it ties in with the fact that Andie works for a fashion magazine - Her life is dream like and a fantasy.
Just like heaven: Director: Mark Waters Main characters: Reese Witherspoon, Mark Ruffalo
The film starts with non-diegetic music playing over the Dreamworks company logo, the same as the start of 'How to lose a guy in 10 days'.The music is a girly pop song which again shows that the target audience for the film is females. All of the titles fade and are a pink/purple colour which shows that the film is a romantic comedy. The first shot is a crane shot which seems as though it is coming down from heaven to Elizabeth the protagonist, in juxtaposition. The scene is set by a pink fog and many flowers. The pink colour and the flowers represent love and romance which fits in with the genre of the film. This atmosphere also seems dream-like and almost like a fantasy. Like the pink fog and the flowers, the chair that Elizabeth is sitting on is red which also represents love and romance. The main character Elizabeth is a blonde intelligent girl just like Kate Hudson in 'How to lose a guy in 10 days'. She also contradicts the stereotypical blonde girl and works as a doctor, an aspirational job. She is also single, so her life is career based. This contrasts with Elizabeth's sister who is married with two children.
Christian Metz wrote 'Language and cinema' in 1974 and this explored the development of genre. He said that genre passes through four stages of existance which are the following:
The experiment: The phase of early films which explored and experimented with horror films in its narrative- Nosferatu (1922), The cabinet of Dr Caligari (1919).
The classic: The phase of films which established the narrative conventions of the horror genre in it's most successful period- Frakenstein (1931), Dracula (1931).
The parody: These are films that have mimicked the horror genre in some way- Carry on screaming (1969), Scary movie (1999).
The deconstruction: Films which have taken the generic elements of the horror genre and amalgamated them into varying sub genres- Se7en (1995), The sixth sense (1999), Blair witch project (1998), Scream (1996).
For this task we had to analyse the opening of the film Red Dragon which was directed by Brett Ratner in 2003. We analysed the pre-title sequence and the title sequence.
Pre Title Sequence The first thing that is shown in the title sequence are the names of the actors who play the main characters in the film. All of the titles fade in which gives the title sequence a spooky, eerie effect. The actors names are presented in a bold, chunky font and are red and white. The red and white font colours represent the contrast between good and evil, white representing good, innocence and purity and red representing evil, blood and danger. The background of the title sequence is black, which represents darkness and sets a spooky scene and the titles are presented slowly which adds to the eeriness of the film. The music that is being played is the diegetic sound of the orchestra. Older people and rich people tend to listen to orchestral music, which shows that the film is set for an older audience.
The first scene is set by the use of an establishing/master shot- high angle- which shows the theatre, the orchestra and the audience watching the orchestra. A low angle shot is then used to show the conductor. This low angle shot shows that he is superior over the orchestra as he is leading them. A crane shot is then used. It swoops over the conductor to a man (Hannibal) sitting in the audience. The man is the protagonist and he is in juxtaposition which shows he is an important character in the film. From this crane shot you can see that he is near the front of the theatre, meaning he is wealthy enough to buy the more expensive tickets for the show. A close up shot of Hannibal is then used to show the reaction to someone playing a wrong note in the orchestra. He winces at a wrong note being played and he tilts his head like a predator would look at its prey. At this point he isn't listening to the music being played, all of his concentration is on the man who played the wrong note. Throughout this scene, diegetic music from the orchestra is played.
Hannibal in juxtaposition - most important character
The scene is set by an establishing/master shot. This shot shows a house which looks like it belongs to wealthy people. This is because the exterior of the house has trees, pillars and the house is white and fancy which makes it stand out to the rest of houses in the shot. A long shot is then used to show the interior of the house and many characters sitting around a banquet. The wealth of the character is shown by the interior of the house - elaborate decorations, they are drinking champagne and they are all dressed in formal clothes- suits with ties. A low angle panning shot then shows Hannibal circling the table which the other characters are sitting around. This shows his superiority over the others and the way he is circling them relates to the predator/prey relationship. Another thing which relates to the predator/prey theme is that one of the characters says 'herd' in his conversation. Hannibal relates to a predator and the other characters are his prey. Slow, tempo incidental music is played throughout which sets a calm, relaxed atmosphere in the scene. In the next scene an FBI agent speaks to Hannibal. A shot reverse shot and over the shoulder shots are used to show the conversation between the FBI agent and Hannibal. An eye line match is also used whilst they are having a conversation. During this conversation, Hannibal says something to the agent that he doesn't understand and his confusion is shown through a close up of his face. A close up is also used to show Agent Graham's face when he realises that it could be Hannibal eating the humans. His face is full of confusion and thought. When Agent Graham is looking through Hannibal's book, a zoom in is used to show the page and the music picks up in tempo and there is a crescendo when Agent Graham gets stabbed by Hannibal.
Title Sequence
The title sequence starts with a close up shot of a scrapbook. The scene is dark and eerie which shows that the scrapbook could be in a basement. Again, the title sequence includes the names of the actors which are presented in red and white font. This is to show the contrast between good and evil and it keeps to the theme from the pre-title sequence. The main actors names show up first on the title sequence to show their importance. Various shots are used to show the different images and newspaper titles in the scrapbook. These shots are close ups, zooms, pans and tilts. The images and the music are syncronised so when the different scrapbook images are changed, the music changes slightly too.
Analysis of Halloween (1978)
The film begins with a flickering pumpkin surrounded by a plain, black background. Having a plain background puts the audiences focus onto the flickering pumpkin because they have nothing else to look at which creates a spooky start to the film. The incidental music playing is a high pitched piano which emphasises the spooky feel the pumpkin gives off.
The camera then starts to zoom into the pumpkin and as this happens the incidental music picks up tempo to correspond with the zoom. This creates tension for the audience.
The music slowly fades out then and titles appear on the screen. The background continues to be plain and black but the titles are written in white. The contrast shown between the black background and the white font could show the contrast between good and evil. The titles say 'Haddonfield, Illinois' and 'Halloween night 1963' which tells the audience where the film is set and on what day.
Non diegetic sound of children singing then starts to play and because the audience cannot see anyone, the music automatically creates an eery atmosphere.
A hand held establishing shot is then used to set the scene of a creepy looking house surrounded by trees, shadows and darkness. This relates to a haunted house which is normally present in a horror film. The establishing shot rapidly changes into a hand held zoom which is also a subjective point of view shot. This shows someone is approaching the house which creates tension for the audience. The zoom continues until it reaches the front door of the house, where a couple can be seen through the glass. Couples are usually the main targets/victims for a horror film so this creates more tension for the audience because they suspect that something is going to happen to the couple. The couple then move out of sight into another room in the house.
A hand held pan is used to show the character moving around the side of the house. (The pan is continuous throughout this part of the opening. No cuts or edits are used which gives the opening a sense of realism). Again, the couple are shown through a side window which ensures the audience that they will probably be the victims in the film.
The hand held panning shot then reverses and goes back to the front of the house where the scene first started. An upwards tilt is used after to show a bedroom light going off. As the light get turns off, a high pitched, eerie screeching sound is played which creates tension and suspense for the audience.
The hand held pan used throughout is someones subjective point of view. The audience do not know who the character is at the beginning of the film which will create the sense of mystery and make the audience want to know who the creepy character is.
The pan/SUB POV continues around the house and enters into a room that looks like a kitchen or utility. This shot shows the unknown character opening a draw and picking out a knife. The knife is clearly positioned in the side of this shot so the audience are aware of the weapon which will build up even more suspense for them knowing that a weapon is involved. The SUB POV then carries on around the house and up the stairs. Whilst this shot is happening, a loud, screeching incidental sound is being played and as the character is nearing the top of the stairs, an ambient sound of a bell chime is played. This could suggest that person who is upstairs has limited time left to live and the bell chime is signifying that.
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