Film Opening Research

Film Opening Research

For us to create a successfull thriller film opening, it was neccesary to research some other mainstream films, that are obviously acclaimed for their success in capturing the thriller genre successfully.

The initial thought in this case was Kill Bill purely for the reason that it is a thriller film with a strong female lead roll, and has a big director behind it (Quentin Tarintino), acclaimed for his success on the film. It gave us something to aspire to.



Sound

The foremost thing noticed in the opening titles of Kill Bill is the sound, or in this case, lack of it. No music was used, but rather digetic sounds. The lack of music makes the viewer pay attention to the digetic sound, which in this case begins with eerie footsteps building up. Both these in effect create tension.

Although a voice over isn’t used, the voice of the perpetrator is apparent throughout, and it does have a narrative like effect as he educates the viewer with some background information. We incorporated this into our film, and a voiceover was used.

Mis en scene

Close ups are used to portray the victims emotion, and emphasise it further. In addition, the constant cut away to the close up of the boots create a contrast between the two, and show who is ultimately in power, and who isn’t. We added this technique to our film. A close up on the victims face, and a cut away to a characteristic of the perpetrator (in this case his boots, in our case her knife) where both used.

Camera angles

As in most film genres, the weak is presented with a high angle shot to signify weakness, and the strong with a low angle. Uma Therman (the victim throughout the opening) is throughout in a high angle to portray her weakness. This inspired us further, and showed even mainstream directors use common camera angles that we too can use, and we did.