Research into thriller openings

For the past few lessons we have been watching various thriller openings which we then made notes on to help with ideas for our own thriller opening. 

Notes made on North By Northwest - Alfred Hitchcock 1959:

In the beginning we see a series of vertical and horizontal lines appear above the credits and title. the lines then fade and a similar set of lines appear but they are window panes of a large building. Lines are used close together to create an effect of chlostrophobia  or uneasiness. When the title is shown a clue to the film is given in the font, the 'n' in the word 'north' has an arrow pointing upwards off the top, representing north. Music is critical, it can be used to create a feeling of tension, fear and excitement. In the beginning of the scene there are lots of people in cramped spaces, non of them are standing still. This adds to the feeling of being trapped and confined.

Notes made on Vertigo - Alfred Hitchcock 1958:

The first shot in this opening sequence is an extreme close up of part of a woman's face. An extreme close up is used to create a very uneasy or uncomfortable feeling. The fact that we can only see part of her face in any shot adds to the enigma, which is, who is this woman? we then see a colour change as the screen has a red tint. This colour has connotations of passion, danger, blood, death, and pain. After we see this spirals then begin to emerge from the woman's eye. We are then drawn into the spirals which could represent the feeling of 'vertigo' and also make the audience feel like they are being drawn into the story. During all of this nothing at all is revealed about the woman so the enigma continues.

Notes made on Touch Of Evil - Orson Welles 1958:

This opening is all one shot, there are no edits which makes the whole thing run very smoothly. the camera is on a track and crane, this allows the camera to see the entire set from a lot of angles and follow the action at the same time. At the very beginning of this scene we see a man put a bomb in the boot of a car, and the longer the scene is drawn out without the bomb exploding the greater the suspense gets for the audience, the suspense and dread is worsened by the extras used, every-time the camera that follows the car with the bomb in passes someone the audience wonders wether the bomb will go off and kill them. This is called dramatic irony because the audience knows something that the characters do not.

Notes made on Kiss Me Deadly - Robert Aldrich 1955:

In this opening the performance is critical, the audience hears the woman running and her heavy breathing, this shows that she is panicked. The audience immediately knows she is in trouble when they see her, as it is night time, and she has no shoes on, these together suggest she is being chased and is obviously frightened by the person chasing her. Even though she has just made such a dramatic entrance the audience still know very little about her. When she gets in the car the driver acts as a device for the audience, as he asks all of the questions that the audience would be wondering. After the audience find out more about the woman the enigma is lost but then at the end of the opening the woman tells the gas station attendant she needs something to be posted and hands him a letter, thus creating another enigma for the audience who are wondering what is in the letter.

Notes made on Bladerunner - Ridley Scott 1982:

The non diegetic sound in this piece is of string instruments and drums, the strings are very high and screechy and the drum beats are very spaced apart and give the impression of bombs landing and exploding. The scene opens with a long caption setting the scene and letting the audience in on the context of the story. There is only black background which has connotations of nothingness and death. The font is all white with the occasional word written in red. the red has connotations of blood and death or passion. Finally the audience is shown the date and place the scene will take place in.

Notes made on Marnie - Alfred Hitchcock 1964:

The first thing the audience sees is the production company logo which is illustrated rather than the typical picture. Then all of the credits are revealed in a series of animated pages making the opening look like a story from a book. All the while the music in the background is very high pitched, very quick string sounds giving an effect of anxiousness and unease. Then when the title is shown the strings go slower and more romantic, and then immediately revert back to the high pitched and fast paced ones heard before. Cut to extreme close up of yellow handbag, this draws the audiences attention because it is such a vivid colour. Then tracking shot slowly reveals the rest of the woman carrying the bag, the audience then sees that she is very smartly turned out and is wearing leather gloves, but the audience can only see her from behind so there is still a mystery about her. lines are also used her to make the audience feel as though they are being drawn in. Finally it cuts to a close up of a man saying "robbed" the audience then is given the impression that the woman seen previously in the opening did it.

All of the following notes made on conventions of the thriller genre can be used to heavily influence our work. we can take on board different aspects of different openings to use in our own opening. For example if we wanted to, a shot in our opening could be in a train station and using the tracks and various lines in that setting we could create the trapped or drawn in effect.