Prelim - Hunting for scents - Opening title sequence

This is our practise opening title sequence which we filmed and edited to give us an idea of our real opening of our thriller film.

Abida Amani Uddin played the psycho.

Andreia Cardoso played the FBI. 

Esme Worrell and Alisha Kaur filmed the sequence. 

We all edited the title sequence on final cut and added the additional soundtracks to create a sense of suspense. 

Thriller sub-genres

There are many types of Thriller films and the target audience is usually depending on the genre of the film.

The different sub-genres:

• Action/adventure
• conspiracy
• crime disaster
• disaster
• drama
• science fiction
• horror
• erotic 
• legal 
• medical
• psychological
• religious
• Techno
• spy
• supernatural
• serial killer

The most common films are Action, drama, horror and serial killer.

Action-adventure thrillers - Usually a fast pace film with a unique storyline but also contains a lot of action and fighting scenes which make the film intense such as Taken.

Disaster thriller - Any kind of disaster that can affect a large amount of people such as alien invading or a storyline that brings the 'end of the world' such as I am Legend and 2012.

Serial-killer thriller - This is an extremely popular subgenre where a serial killer is terrorising a group of people and the main character is usually in the end is still alive and kills or escapes from the bad guy.

Horror thrillers - Horror thrillers are similar to serial killer thrillers but they normally include non-existing creatures to be the negative side such as zombies or some sort of ghost.

 

Target audiences

Target audiences of Thriller films. 

Thriller films usually are 15+ but sometimes 18+ in extreme cases where the content in the film is extremely explicit. This can be due to containing violence and/or psychological issues which could be disturbing for sensitive or younger viewers.
Thrillers are particulary popular with the 25+.
Figures show that on average, Thriller films are more popular to females than males.
Editing in many thriller films like fast cuts and fast pace are used to create more of a dramatic outcome. Music that is passy also creates more suspense and tension towards the climax of the scene. The codes and conventions are mainly what the audience expect to see in a thriller. The codes and conventions within a thriller mainly allows a female protoganist to be a victim of a dominant male character. This enables the audience familarise themselves with the general stereotype, females being the vunerable dependant victims, and the dominant male figures being dominant.
Psychological thrillers include creating a story that will play with audiences minds or a plot to keep the audience guessing and thinking; this also help to intrigure the audience into the film and they urge for more. Other sources show that thriller films genrally appeal to a lot of teenagers. The target audience is one of the most important things the marketing and producers will have to create as the film has to engage audience that can relate or intrigure them.

Intertexuality

Intertexuality in media is the when a film refers to other media or a certain part of a film that will be recognised by the audience. Intertexuality is the defining of a work's meaning through the understanding of other texts. An example of this is a Stepfather and The Simpsons.
The famous scene in Psycho where the aspects are taken and used for Stepfather.



Both of these still images are men holding a knife in the same stabbing position threatening to kill the their victim.
However in 'psycho', the character's identity is hidden where as in stepfather, the killer is fully revealed. This clarifies two different ways of how to make the scenes scary. In stepfather we are able to see the killer's fierce aggression where as in psycho the killer remains anonymous to put the audience in the victims position, unexpecting what will happen.




The images above show that the originial and the replicated 'shower' scene. The famous shower scene is also used in many other thriller films and is said to be one of the best-known scenes of all time.

Analysis of a previous students film opening

Violet - http://candiashalloffame.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/violet.html

Sound – The music is very eerie and tense, setting the mood for the film. It has door creaking sounds, a heartbeat and the sound of footsteps. All of these sounds create suspense and tension.

 Editing – There is lots of editing used in this film opening, the black and white editing makes it seem quite creepy, also the jump cuts because they make the audience feel tense and on the edge of their seats as they don’t know what imagery will suddenly appear on the screen. The editing speeds up towards the end of the opening.

 Mise en scene – There are a few different settings in this film opening which introduces the audience to some of the background. The jump shots show the different moments in the film, because they jump with shot changes from setting to setting this makes the audience apprehensive about what actually happened and the order of events. The fake blood used makes it clear of what the genre of this film is and the clothing of the girl makes her look innocent and vulnerable, which makes it even more haunting that she has been murdered perhaps.

Camera shots – there are a couple of cutaway shots, including the first image on screen of a flower, the plug hole with blood in the bath and her blood covered hand out of the side of the bath. These create suspense to what will appear on screen next. There are mid shots of the girl’s face which appear on screen towards the end of the opening as she gradually gets closer and closer to the camera in each shot which builds tension. There are also a few over the shoulder shots of the man to show his perspective and this suggests that he is probably the villain of the film.

Dan Commentary on 'Hunting for scents'

Whilst editing, my group  was complimented as well as given improvements and told what we had done wrong in the filming by Dan. We have taken into consideration his ideas and will definitely improve on the areas required to.

Thriller openings examples

Examples:

Voice over / narrative opening - When a narrator tells the story to the audience, whilst showing the imagery. Example:

Montage opening - Multi-layering, sometimes in rapid imagery and multi-layered editing. Se7en is a good example:

A collage opening - Involved slowly dissolving layered imagery.

Titile overlay opening - An overlay of establishing where the film is set and where the plot will unfold. A title overlay opening is always a good opening in which to use good music accompanied by titles. Example; Panic room

Genrally, the opening of a majority of Thrillers include four main elements in the opening credits; The title, music, camera angles and shots and the main storyline. These factors are very important to the fim as they help to introduce the film to the audience. The titles in the film are always important as it takes a great work and effort to produce a titile sequence. Seven is an excellent example of a successful thriller opening. The storyline in a thriller opening is probably one of the most important factor which has to be successful in a way that it usually grabs most of the attention from the audience. The opening must create excitement, suspense and action, althought it must not reveal too much in order for the audience to urge for more. The camera shots and angles are also very important as it has a great impact of the actual film. Music is a key element to the opening of a thriller. Music helps the opening of the flim to appeal to the audience which sets the mood or atmosphere which will help to gain the audiences attention which in a thriller film is usually very tense. 

Arlington Road re-make

Different types of thriller openings

 Intertextuality is a term used to describe films that borrow visual or audio elements from another film in the way that the audience will recognise and if they do they will understand clearly the film borrowing the elements. Films do this through either camera-work, mise-en-scene, characters and editing. In class we have identified a number of films that use intertextuality successfully.

For instance The Stepfather has successfully taken scenes and shots from Psycho the original. 

 

On the right image we can see that The Stepfather has clearly borrowed the visual elements such as the background setting: the door behind is open and is white, white walls. This is a mid shot to emphasise the killers intention of murdering their victims and for it to appear as if the audience is in the victim's position. The difference between the two is that The Stepfather antagonist's identity is exposed and the audience can see his facial expression whereas in Psycho it is hidden. In my opinion this is because of different plots and in Psycho it adds more fear because the audience cannot see the killers face.

 

 In Psycho (left) this is the scene when the women is stabbed to death and as she falls she rips the shower curtains and it falls down with her as well.The fall of the curtains emphasises her affliction as she is hunger to protect herself from the killer. The stepfather has borrowed the idea of the shower curtains breaking and the close up. 

 

The difference between the images is that in Psycho the mid shot shot shows the victim more to the right and a huge space on the left. And The stepfather shows the killer on the centre. The similarity is that both are inclined onto a white wall in agony and we can tell this because of their facial expressions.

Different types of film openings

There are various types of film openings for example, narrative, trainspotting, discrete and title over black screens.

Narrative film openings set the scene and introduces the characters and their situation by giving the background information to the audience. The reason for this is to make the plot easier to understand. Camera shots, editing and sound are used to do this. An example of a narrative film would be The Shining.

This film opens with a car journey at a rural and isolated place. The music is tense which puts more emphasis on the uneasy feeling about the film making the audience doubtful. Due to the voiceover monologue by the protagonist the audience gets a sense of his personality which makes it easier to engage because the audience is aware right from the start.

Secondly, trainspotting film opening is when there is a voiceover and multiple scenes give us the sense of the chracter's life. An example of this would be Choose life.

The voiceover introduces us to the protagonist's life as well as the other characters.

 



Thirdly,  the title over black screens opening is like a separate film. This is when the title credits are shown separately from the film and completely unrelated to it. The font is also stylised differently to make it look dramatic and on black background to have that old-fashion look.  It shows the plot of the story however it still does not answer the audience's questions. In fact, this opening sequence is the hardest to make but is great because after we have watched the film it feels as if we can place the 'pieces' into their place. Seven is an example of this.

Seven uses sound really well to go with the film, it is disturbing and rapid making the audience feel like there are many events happening in the film. The film has a old and distorted effect. It uses close-ups of the hand and photographs to highlight what the person is doing. The props are really well dominated.

The discrete film opening sets up the mood and expectations of the film, it does this through sound, setting and introduction of the character.  Donnie Darko is an example of this.

I think that all the different types of film openings would be a great influence on my film opening because then it would follow a certain structure and it would be a way to engage with the audience. I think that I prefer the title over black screen because it appeals best to me

Research - Timeline of two film openings

There is a strict order in which names and jobs appear in the opening credits because it shows the order of importance for who is involved in the film.  The companies involved are shown first of all as they put in the money towards making the film, most significant actors in the film because if they are the most famous it will influence more people to watch the film as they have a high status and are known to be in good films. Then the casting crew, costume designers, music and editing crew, production designer, director of photography, executive producer, the writer(s) and finally the Director. This shows that the main people involved in the making of the film are shown last so their names are the most memorable and they get the most credit for their hard work.

Signs (2002)

00:03 - Touchstone pictures presents

00:08 – A blinding edge pictures/ Kennedy/ Marshall Production

00:14 – Mel Gibson

00:20 – Joaquin Phoenix

00:25 – Signs (music begins)

00:29 – Cherry Jones

00:34 – Rory Culkin

00:39 – Abigail Breslin, Patricia Kalember

00:45 – Casting by Douglas Aibel

00:51 – Music by James Newton Howard

00:59 – Visual effects supervisors Eric Brevig, Stefen Fangmeier

1:03 – Costume designer Ann Roth

1:08 – Edited by Barbara Tulliver A.C.E

1:14 – Production designer Larry Fulton

1:19 – Director of photography Tak Fujimoto A.S.C

1:24 – Executive producer Kathleen Kennedy

1:28 – Produced by Frank Marshall and Sam Mercer

1:34 – Written, produced and directed by M. Night Shyamalan

Captain America: The first avenger (2011)

00:03 – Cirected by Joe Johnston

00:08 - Screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely

00:14 – Produced by Kevin Feige

00:20 – Executive producers Louis D’Esposito, Joe Johnston, Nigel Gostelow

00:26 – Executive Producers Alan Fine, Stan Lee, David Maisel

00:30 – Director of Photography Shelly Johnson, ASC

00:35 – Production designer Rick Heinrichs

00:39 – Editors Jeffrey Ford, A.C.E and Robert Dalva, A.C.E

00:43 – Costume designer Anna B. Sheppard

00:48 – Visual effects supervisor Christopher Townsend

00:53 – Co-producers Stephen Broussard and Victoria Alonso

00:57 – Music by Alan Silverstri

1:02 – Music supervisor David Jordan

1:09 – Casting by Sarah Halley Finn, C.S.A, Randi Hiller, C.S.A, Priscilla John

1:15 – Chris Evans

1:19 – Tommy Lee Jones

1:22 – Hugo Weaving

1:27 – Hayley Atwell

1:33 – Sebastian Stan

1:37 – Dominic Cooper

1:41 – Toby Jones

1:48 – Neal McDonough

1:50 – Derek Luke

1:54 – Bruno Ricci, JJ Field, Kenneth Choi, Richard Armitage

2:00 – Stanley Tucci

2:05 – Paramount Pictures and Marvel entertainment

2:10 – A Marvel Studios Production

2.17 – A film by Joe Johnston

2:22 – Captain America: The first avenger

Prelim Storyboard

Research - Psychological Thriller films opening scenes

Psychological Thriller Films - opening scenes

From these opening scenes I can tell Psychological Thrillers tend to start off by introducing the main characters in an every day life situation, they don't go straight into telling us what is wrong with the character, or to give anything away about what might happen later on in the film. I think this creates tension to make it more creepy and  dramatic when the audience sees later in the film the thought processes behind these characters.

The Talented Mr Ripley (1999)

Fatal Attraction (1987)

The Game (1997)

Arlington Road

My task was to put silent clips taken from Arlington Road in what I believe was the correct order and edit. I had to include title sequences in the correct order.However, the main reason behind this task was to expand my knowledge on Foley sounds. Foley sound is done in post production; they are everyday sounds such as footsteps. Foley artists use foley studios to perform the sounds by walking, running, jogging, rubbing their clothing, handling props and breaking objects etc.The Foley sound I recorded and used was when the car was going towards the child’s direction.  I recorded a footstep sound however it did not follow the boy’s pace and that was my difficulty because it was not in time. I understand the importance of Foley sounds it is because it makes the image we see on the screen ‘come to life’; Foley sounds make it realistic and sets the mood. We may have a fist fight but the audience won’t be able to listen to the sound of a fist punch, which is why Foley sound exists. The term Foley is named in honour of Jack Foley. He is the one that established the technique that is still used  today.

Below, shows an example of what Foley artists do by me and how I tried to include a sound of footsteps on my remake of Arlington Road.

I did not include the footstep foley sound because it was difficult to match the footstep sound pace with the boys actual footsteps. I put music over that instead. 

This clip shows more understanding of the term.



Holiday Homework - Research 1

The second opening i analysed was 'Strange days' this film was released in 1995. The opening of this film is a narrative opening; this is because the scene is set, the characters are introduced and we see the situation that they are in.

http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/strange-days/

The camera was shot through a characters point of view; we know this because we cant see the character himself however we can hear his voice. We also know that it is through his point of view because we see what he sees and when he runs it feels as if we are running with him. The camera shot seems like it is through his point of view because he has a camera attached to him; towards the begnning of the opening he clearly says: " Im recordin' I'm recordin' ". The camera shot stays the same throughout this opening.

The mise en scene suggests that it was shot in a urban city; this is through the props and the buildings that we see. There are props such as the guns and this has conotations of crime and gun crimes are more likely to be in the city rather than suburbs; we also notice that the characters are stealing from a resturant as they try to take the money and make the victims go into one room; this suggests that it is in the city as there is also a mix of races and ethnicity (we notice an asian man and a white lady). another reason why is may be set in the city is because when two of the charaters run onto the roof there are many building; it is also very noisy and the atmosphere very much contradicts rural areas such as the country side.

The sound of this opening starts off with a very weird sound and then goes on to dialogue. The characters are American as they speek english in an American accent. They use a lot of swear words and this suggests that the film is going to have a lot of violence since there is many police officers involved. The slang vocabulary suggests that they are american since the police says: " drop the god damn weapon " and this is something that an American would say. There is a lot of giegetic gun shots and siren sounds which suggests the violence in this movie.



Holiday Homework - Research 1

I will be analysing the opening of a film opening called 'burried' which was released in 2010.

 

 

This opening is a titles over a blank screen opening as it is titles over a blank screen. There are not many images in this film however sometimes when there are images that are shown it is unclear of what the image is. There are titles over a black screen in yellow and white and tthere are patterns which form the titles in log rectangles and squares. The movement of these shapes vary as sometimes they are slow and sometimes they go really fast depending on the mood of the music and the pace of the music.

The music starts off slow and becomes intense later towards the end of the opening. The music is scary and therefore bui;ds up the mood of the film and portrays the genre of the foilm which is a thriller. The music also gets louder and there is a change in the music at some points. The music is very dramatic due to the heavy deep sounds of the instruments.

A clear camera shot would be a close up of money and the long shot of the graffiti on the wall. Theclose up of the money suggests that the film may be revolved around money and money plays a big part. Also the shot of the graffiti suggests that the film was set in an urban city as there is more likely to be vandalisms and youths doing graffiti on walls.

Overall this opening of the film is really god because it sets the mood of the film and gets the audience ready for what they are about to watch. The colours are also eye catching. The images are mysterious and this builds tension as the audience want to carry on watching.

Intertextuality

Intertextuality - When a film borrows visual or audio elements from another film in a way that the audience will recognise.

Thriller films can use intertextuality in order to create a memorable event or character that their audience will recognise from another film to associate to it.

An example of this is the shower scene in Psycho and this has been used by Intertextuality for the film Nightmare on Elm Street.

Another example of this is that the character Freddy Krueger from Nightmare on Elm street who wears a black and red jacket has been intertextualy used in the film scream as the villain's costume.

Different types of Thriller openings

Narrative Openings - 

Narrative openings set the scene, introduce characters and vaguely present their situation.

The shining 

The introduction shows a journey to a rural and isolated setting, and because the music is tense and disturbed, this suggests that the setting the car is travelling to will be suspicious and hostile.

Arial tracking shots to track the car show that the character inside the car will be the main protagonist or the villain.

Trainspotting 

This film opening shows the main characters names in text, which is a more direct way of introducing the characters to the audience compared to 'The shining'. also the voiceover is used to create the main character and to portray their emotions.

Multiple scenes give us a sense of the characters life.

Discrete Openings - 

Discrete openings are like separate films to the main film.

Seven

There is disturbing imagery in this opening which implies the genre is Thriller, and rapid movement of the scenes with a distorted effect creates the illusion that it is an old film.

All the shots are close ups of hands and props such as script books, with no facial shots. This makes the opening tense because the audience know they are watching the villain and it is disturbing not to be able to see their faces.

Donnie Darko

This opening begins with titles over a blank screen to introduce the producers, cast and crew.

Narrative elements such as characters and setting are introduced in this opening. 

Sounds of thunder create tension and a creepy setting and the gothic font shows that this film is a thriller.

Stylised editing opening

Stylized openings use sophisticated editing with lots of transitions and effects.

The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009)

This opening uses fast moving imagery, showing the setting as a busy city.

close up shots of main characters with some tracking shots to show we are following these particular character's lives.

Mesrine (2008)

The use of split screen editing on particular characters shows we will be following these people throughout the film as the main characters. The tense music and slow imagery sets the tone for the film to create suspense. Also the small screen view of imagery following the characters allows us to get to know the characters however this opening doesn't focus on much of the setting.

Research - Conventions of a thriller in The Orphanage

Conventions of a thriller – The Orphanage

Conventions of a thriller -

Creepy dim lit haunted house.

Women protagonist as victim, psychological issues, no one believes her.

Creepy children and old woman are conventions of a thriller that ‘The Orphanage’ used.

Masks on the children’s faces and disfigurements are quite disturbing.

Dead bodies in the cellar are also unsettling.

Finding clues to where her son was creates suspense.

When the woman came to the house that could see ghosts, by counting down to channel her mind to see the ghosts this created suspense.

Tense Music used when there was a climax in the film there was also a climax in the music.

The Dark corners in the cave where you don’t know if someone’s hiding there creates tension.

Echoed sounds in the cave also make the scenes eerie and more supernatural.

Date Night

Over the holiday I saw Date Night, a thriller and action rom-com. I chose to see this film because I do not like the other sub-genres and horror thrillers is of one of them. Therefore I wanted to see a film that I would enjoy watching and actually learn from it in order to make my thriller opening a success. As soon as I saw rom-com under its genre my eyes lit up, I was very happy to know that I was going to watch a film that I would normally go and see for myself.  I found the film very amusing  because of the comedy and I was familiar with all of the actors which somehow made it better to watch.  

There were tonnes of conventions that were successfully used for example at the opening sequence the music is upbeat continuously which shows us that the couple has a lot of distractions and disturbances at home. In addition, the fact that the couple was sleeping and then in all of a sudden are disturbed by their children emphasises their stress. Moreover, the camera tracks backwards to show the couple in bed after ben waken up by their children early in the morning foreshadows when they are disturbed by two spys at the restaurant. The spys clothes are plain, simple and black; it is perfect for their role as the 'bad guys'. Black connotes negative words such as: death, evil, mystery...etc
Date Night is completely different from the Stepfather and the Orphanage. The reason for this is because the others are not as light hearted as this one. Before my research on Thrillers I was not aware o the different types of thrillers,  I used to think they were all horrible and horrifying however now I know that there are many types of thrillers and one of them is my favourite, romantic comedy.

 

Coraline and Dr. No opening sequence

Coraline opening sequence

The film opening starts with the credits and then a doll entering a window and is then placed on a table. The doll is then being sown and cut by metal hands. The music is heart-warming and light to symbolise innocence since it is showing a doll. After the doll has been reconstructed into another doll she is thrown out the window again.

The fact that the doll is going round and round and enters through the window shows that is odd. The doll then has the hair, eyes and the insides sown off by metal hands. With little understanding at the start, the audience then realise that the doll is being made into another doll with different features. Every sown piece of the doll is shown to show how much time is put into making her. It is quite hard to understand the narrative straight away however the fact that the doll is changes its features definitely makes the audience want to find out more since the doll is being sown by metal hands.

The camera is at a high angle filming the metal hands assembling a new doll. It also shows the power of the thing with the metal hands as it manipulates the doll. The metal hands seem creepy but at the same time making the audience curious to find out what it really is and it is making a new doll. An extreme close-up of the hair being taken off of the dolls head is to show how it is being taken off as well as when it shows the button eyes...etc

Ellipsis is shown when the doll first comes into the window and the outside is light navy blue however when the doll is totally different and thrown back out the window the sky is pitch black.

The non-diegetic sound is orchestral mainly using the triangle to show it is light hearted. The metal hands reconstructing the doll contrast the sound because it is unusual. The sound is somehow ghostly with children singing in the background emphasising the fantasy genre as well as the thriller. The music then pauses and continues at a high pitch but more comforting.

The doll is in a room with a creature/character with metal hands. Around the room I can identify textiles, sewing pins, wool, yarn, buttons, scissors, sewing machine...etc. The props help to reconstruct the doll’s features. After the doll’s clothes are made, the audience is aware that the doll is a little girl. The lighting in the room is relatively dark and therefore gives us the impression that the film is not entirely heart-warming.

My opinion:

The sound in Coraline's opening is suave however the lighting and the metal hands transforming the doll into another completely contrasts to the music. Through my research I have found out that the Other Mother sews children's eyes into buttons and takes their souls therefore the metal hands we see are from the Other Mother. I still think that the song should have been different but it contrasts the Other Mother's character which we later find out she is a monstrous witch. I didn't think the opening caused an instant arousal however it definitely set questions and didn't give too much of the plot.

 

Dr. No opening sequence 

Editing for perspective is successfully used when it also acts as the eye line match who is used from the assassin’s perspective.

Non diegetic sound added in post production is used very well. At the beginning the sound effect is high pitch which quickly grabs the audience’s attention. Before the point-of-view shot there are instrumental noises that introduce James Bond to the audience and then the gun shot noise.  After the gun shot, the James Bond theme song is introduced and it acts as a motif, a musical refrain which accompanies Bond as it introduces him to the audience. The theme song sets the mood of mystery as the big circles continuously flash around the screen. The tone and pace of the music is fast as it goes from one credit to the other. The music all of a sudden changes to a drum and rhythmic sound that adds ambience making the audience feel like dancing.  The change from the rhythmic sound to the three blind mice sound sang in a Jamaican accent shows the audience where the film might be set or the protagonist’s regional identity.

Mise en scene is not used very well mostly because of the graphics used in the opening and therefore does not require a lot of costume, location and props. However, James Bond’s suit and hat was chosen very well because it definitely supports the stereotype that agents wear black suits and black hats. The audience knows from the start that he is an agent due to his clothes. Also, the gun used was great in order to make it bel

The film opening starts off with the credits. Then the audience’s perspective is shot from the point-of-view of an assassin’s gun barrel. The gun barrel follows James Bond’s movement as he walks, turns and then shoots directly at the camera which then causes blood to run down implying that the man behind the gun has fallen. This is then accompanied by the James Bond theme song. The title Dr. NO is flashed around the screen several times in different bold colours. Big circles in different colours are flashed around the screen and at the same time the credits are being showed. The James Bond theme song then wears off and then changes to a more rhythmic beat song that show human like characters dancing to the beat. Then it shows three old men walking to the right, all behind the other. It reminds us of the human evolution image that show the change from apes to humans. Due to the music they are the ‘three blind mice’ it is clearly shown because all three have walking sticks.

The images of the circles probably symbolise the gun barrel. The fact that it is shot inside the gun barrel is captivating and engages the audience; making us see from the assassin’s perspective. The blood dripping down the screen emphasises that it belongs to the assassin and the fact that the camera moves unevenly and then falls suggests that the assassin has also fallen. It hooks the audience because we want to know more about why the assassin was following Bond in the first place...etc In addition, the flashing big circles on the screen grasps the audience’s attention as well as when it is done with the title. It helps the audience understand the narrative and since it is an opening it has to quickly grab our attention. The dancing people show a different side to the film, meaning that not all of it is serious and a mystery. The dancing people and the three blind men leave the audience in doubt and thus making us want to find out more of the film.

The camera is successfully shot from the point-of-view of an assassin’s gun barrel. When Bond shoots at the assassin it engages us because it makes us feel as if we have just been shot. When Bond shoots the assassin he is still and the camera uses pan because it swivels left to right and then eventually moves on to the next scene. There is a mid shot of the people dancing to the beat to show their dance moves and then a wide shot of the three blind men walking. There is a drastic change from the bright colours on the screen when the people were dancing to dull colours such as navy and grey to when the men are walking which may suggest that something bad has happened. The camera tracks the men’s movement to deliberately show their slow pace.

ievable that he actually shot the assassin. The colours of the circles and the title differ so it is more appealing to watch. The animation graphics of the people dancing are in different colours to differentiate each character. Throughout most of the entire sequence until the three old men walking, the background colour is black. The three old men walking with their walking sticks are all black and the background colour is navy and grey.

My opinion:

I think that overall Dr. No has successfully used most of the thriller conventions. The reason for this is the fact that the music chosen was very appropriate for the genre of the film, for instance the James Bond theme song is mysterious and  it is a glamorized spy film so it worked very well. The opening gave out some clues of the story for example, the three blind mice song is sang in an Jamaican accent, later on in the film we find out that  John Strangways' is murdered in Jamaica and his body is taken by a trio known as the 'three blind mice' and James Bond is sent to Jamaica to investigate his dissapearance. The three blind mice song set up questions at the start because no-one knows where the film is set but this is exactly what film produces do to film openings. Film producers make us set up questions because they do not want to give too much of the film away otherwise it would have been a waste of money for the audience.  Personally, when I first saw the opening I thought that there was too much going on. I did not understand why there was dancing and the three blind men however through research I found that the opening related to the film a lot more then I thought it did.