The opening narrative shots and title length of thrillers.

Taxi Driver


Taxi Driver was directed by Martin Scorsese in 1976.

We watched the first two minutes of Taxi Driver and we are first introduced to the character by the use of an extreme close up of the man,a shot reverse shot is used to show the man then the city then it cuts back to an extreme close up of the man which focuses on his eyes. A low angle shot is used to show the taxi, this shows the audience the importance of the taxi in the film. A diagetic sound is not heard until almost the end of the two minutes; when we hear the ringing of a phone, before this we hear a non-diagetic instrumental soundtrack. Editing would have been used to show the red and oragne lights of the city.
In Taxi driver, it takes 10 seconds for the diagetic sound to appear after the non-diagetic sound disappears.

Identity

Identity was directed by James Mangold in 2003.

In the two minute opening of Identity, that i watched the director; James Mangold uses a vast amount of extreme close up and close up shots. He uses these close up shots to show us various tapes with a the same mans name written on all of the tapes. The use of the close up shots make it very clear to the audience who the film will focus on. Mangold uses the rule of thirds on the title, which holds for 5 seconds, the use of the rule of thirds in the title creates an instant point at which are attention is drawn to. In the title shot, the word `Identity` slowing dissapears, one letter at a time, this technique is used with all of the words that appear on the screen, this technique would have been added in the editing process of making the film. At the beginning of the opening we hear a diagetic sound of thunder, this sets the scene for a thriller film, as it creates a dark feel and creates a sense of the unknown. The use of the tapes which show just one mans name, and the very dark lighting creates a question to the audience of weather this man is mentally unstable.

Heat

Heat was directed by Michael Mann in 1995.

The the first shot of the opening of Heat, Micheal Mann uses a long shot of a train and the diagetic sound of the train is introduced and becomes louder as the train draws closer. The shot then cuts to an over the shoulder shot from behind of someone travelling down the escalator, the use of this shot creates a sense of mystery. In the beginning of the opening Heat is set in a trin station, however towards the end of the two minutes the setting changes and we enter a hospital.
The title shot, is held for 3 seconds and each credit is held for 4 seconds until it cuts to the next.

London to Brighton

London to Brighton was directed by Paul Andrew Williams in 2006.

The two minute opening i watched of London to Brighton, did not give me a great insight into what was going happen or what the film would be like, however the first shot when we are first introduced to the characters, Paul Andrew Williams uses a close up shot of the women and the girl. The setting where the two characters which we are introduced too are; a toliet cubicle in London, gives us an idea of what the characters backgrounds and lives may be like, Williams focus`s on the grime of this setting. The use of the mirror in the toliet creates an illusion that it is bigger than it appears to be. The opening of London to Birghton, although it does not give us a great idea of what will happen, we can start to understand the basic storyline, the language and settings help us to understand this. We can start to understand that the film is about the women and the girl who are the first characters we are introduced and towards the end of the two minutes we start to understand that they need to get away from someone and are going to get the trin to Brighton, however they need the money to pay for the train tickets and this is when the topic of prostitution is introduced.

Red Road

Red road was directed by Andrea Arnold in 2006.

Red road opens with a black screen, where the word `Glasgow` appears in white, this instanstly tells us where we are. The shot then cuts to a blur of colours which then pans out to reveal CCTV screens. Arnold uses a medium close up of the CCTV operators face, by using this shot we can see the emotion that she feels from the CCTV cameras. In this two minute opening it does not tell us as an audience much about what is going to happen during the film.

Description of a character typical of a thriller film.

My character, Rose who is forty four years old lives in Miami, on the sea front , she lives in a large house with five bedrooms ,a swimming pool, tennis courts, three cars and all the luxuries you could want. She works from home as a shoe designer and owns a shoe shop in the nearby shopping mall. She has a sixteen year old daughter named Lillie who she lives with, until just a few months ago she was happily married to a man called Sam who was forty six years old, who owned a very high class restaurant in the town, he worked a few days a week there, the other days he would spend at home with Rose, they spent a lot of time together and were a very close couple, they had been happily married for twenty years and built up both their business`s together. Sam died just a few months ago of cancer which had been fighting against for just over a year, when he sadly lost his battle, his death hit Rose and Lillie very badly as they were such a close family.

Although everyone; family, friends, all Sam's customers in his restaurant knew he was battling with cancer, one man suspected his death was caused by Rose and has accused Rose of murdering him because she wanted all the money from his restaurant and his previous business ventures to set up a life somewhere else for her and her daughter and significantly expand her shoe designing business. The characteristics that are significant to my character are that she has recently lost her husband this shows connotations of loneliness and vulnerability .

Analysis of openings of Thriller films - Leon.

Film - Leon

Year - 1994

Director - Luc Besson

The director opens Leon, by using a wide tracking shot of the city, firstly you see a mass of trees then it zooms closer to the skyscrapers,this shows the diversity between city and country, the director zooms close up to a sign that says `Little Italy` when they get into the city, which implicates that perhaps The director uses an extreme close up of the two gangsters at the table. The director uses a wide variety of shots, which creates diversity.

The director creates suspense very well, by using false alarms leading up to the real things, for instance when they use a dummy model in the lift, so the enemies will shot it thikning it is a real person. Leon is set in America in `Little Italy`. The music that has been used; Drums and kettle drums, create a build up to the event and creates suspense and tension. The music is stopped suddenly when the officer has a knife held to his throat. The officer is portrayed with this tough guy exterior when actually we can see how scared he really is.

The director used one particular shot of all the bullet holes in the blackout blind, which created spots of lights from the holes in the blind, this showed the transistion from dark to light, this could also represent how people can change from bad (dark) to good (light).

The conventions of Thriller films that are shown in Leon are; the accents,dark glasses,guns,knifes,through the key hole shots, prostitue and trap doors.

Another convention of Thriller films is spiral staircases becuase although you can hear who is coming up or down them, you can not see around them, these are most commonly used in chase and murder scenes, it is used in Leon in the chase scene and also when we are introduced to the girl.

Analysis of openings of Thriller films - Dont look now.

Film - Don't look now




Year -1973





Director - Nicholas Roeg

Don't look now has been set in the 1970s, and is about a family who live in a large house in the country, and starts off by showing the brother and sister playing in their garden, in the woods and around the pond, the director makes it seem very idyllic with the weather and the surroundings, this creates a sense that something is bad is going to happen.

In the opening of don't look know it is raining and the camera is focused on the rain splashing on the ground it then starts thundering and the faint sound of someone humming appears this creates a mystical feel and give us the sense that something bad is going to happen later in the film. We are first introduced to the brother and sister who are playing in the woods, the director also focus`s on a shot of the big house they live in, this tells us that their parents are wealthy and have a good upbringing. The other focus point that the director focus`s on is the large pond situated in their garden which is frozen, the director also puts in a false alarm, when the brother is playing with the football and he drops it in the pond, we think that he is going to fall in to the pond however he does not. The setting at the beginning is very domestic and portrays this family to have the perfect parents, children , large house in an idyllic setting which is disturbed by the sad event of the daughter drowning.

The father seems to be on-edge, this shows that perhaps he can sense that something bad is going to happen. The film has been shot in time shift, between the children playing outside and the parents working inside. The music starts outside and is used in the time shift. The music that is used is soft piano music, this is one of the main conventions of a Thriller. When the girl falls into the pond and drowns, her father sees it first and comes running out and pulls her out of pond, the music changes into a harsh violin sound which is very empowering. When the girl drowns a red and blue liquid appears over the screen,red could symbolise the blood from the girl and the blue could symbolise ink from inside that the parents are using in their art work, this could also represent bringing together and uniting the parents and the children. The girls red coat could symbolise blood and danger. After the girl has been rescued the director uses time shift and shows the father in Italy.

Analysis of openings of Thriller films - Flightplan.

Film - Flightplan

Year - 2005

Director - Brian Grazer

Flightplan was directed by Brain Grazer in 2005, it follows a mother played by Jodie Foster and her young daughter of whom have lost their father/husband, who live in Berlin and are going to visit the mothers parents in America. the film is mainly set on the plane going to america and how her daughter has disappeared from the plane however no-one ever recalls seeing her or her being registered on that flight.

In the opening to Flightplan the first thing we see is a black screen with the fliashing light of a tube, which creates a feeling a panic and hectic-ness to us. The first we see of the main character, Kyle is a full length shot of the back of her, which creates a sense of mystery for the audience. The film starts off in Germany,berlin, we can tell this at the train station in the opening; by the language that was being spoken and from the signs around her. The backgrouns music starts off as soft piano music in the background however this then changes to be quite loud and harsh, which ties in with the sound of crowes which apears in the background, the crowes create a sense of horror and evil, which leads us to believe that something sinister is going to happen later on in the film.

The director uses a wide range of shots to create different illusions and feels to the film for example: when the mother and daughter are coming out of the house at night to go to the airport, he uses an extreme long shot of them both, they are both wearing black clothes and the setting is on a very cold wintery dark night, all of these elements that have been used create a dark and sad feel for the audience, the use of black across the whole picture relates to a funeral and the image of death. The dark clothing contrasts with the bright white snow outside, this could show the good and evil side of the characters. The director also uses a close up shot and hold this hot of their luggage, the director also uses a close up shot of the mothers wedding ring, which obviously signifies that she is married and at this stage in the film makes us wonder where her husband is, later for us to find out he had died a few days previosuly.

In the film, when the air hostess is counting the amount of people on board the plane, the daughter Julia is hiding underneath the seat which means she is not counted so when she later goes missing and her mother, Kyle ,reports it because she had not been counted the air hostess`s try to dismiss the disaperance of Julia. The air hostess also tried to make Kyle believe that Julia had never boarded the flight. The director uses flash backs to show what had happened prior to Julias disappearance, however it does not give us any clue to how or why Julia disappeared.

The director creates suspense when Julia has gone mising, by using cloe up shots on peoples faces, he also portrays one air-hostess to be more concerned than the others this leads us to believe that perhaps the lady either has children of her own or has experienced this before. The director creates more suspense by making the other characters on the plane seem very unwilling to help, i think he may have portrayed the characters as unwilling to create a sense of anger towards these people. The Director uses Kyles husbands death to create a sense of sensitivity and reality towards Kyle, this also creates even more suspense becuase she has already lost her husband, so it would mkae it even harded for her then to loose her only child, the death ofher husband would also make her feel very upset and uneasy, this sense of feelinf uneasy was shown in the first scene.

As the audience we are made to guess what has happened to Julia and one guess that i made and the director lead me to believe was that perhaps Julia had felt very upset and disturbed by her fathers recent death, also becuase of the strain that would have caused julia she may be feeling very vunerable, this leads us to believe she may have been kidnapped. we are shown the vunerability of Julia in the first scene when her mother hides her underneath her coat when they are walking to the taxi.