Research on Film Openings
Welcome to the research on film openings. I will quickly recap on my research. I have gone over three genres, moved from one idea to another, and now we have landed on my final idea: three friends in a car in an empty parking lot at night, waiting for one other friend. One of the friends in the car notices a strange bag in the middle of the parking lot. He tells the others, then steps out to check it. When he opens the bag, he enters a trance. The others start yelling at him, and they also go out to see what he's looking at, but they are too caught up in their own trance. Then the scene cuts to the fourth friend walking up. When he gets there, the car is still running, with no one in sight except a strange bag and some of his friends' personal belongings lying on the floor. Here, I will research, analyze, and discuss three thriller openings to improve my own.
Film Opening #1- Scream
The first film opening I will be going through is Scream, a mix of thriller and horror, but the opening leans more toward the thriller side. It begins with a character in a calm environment in her house, then a sudden break in the silence as a diegetic phone call sounds. The caller keeps getting increasingly threatening, making the audience feel more in danger, even though nothing has happened yet, other than this strange phone call. The minimal information restrictions information as a result building tension and places the audience in the same state of knowledge as the character. Then, with the boyfriend being murdered by the killer, followed by the girlfriend(daughter), the parents come to find.
The mise-en-scène is very realistic for the 90s, making the scene look real. The use of close-ups helps convey the characters' emotional reactions among the girl, her boyfriend, and her parents especially in moments when there is no killer, but the emotions still reveal the fear that occurs. Also, the pacing uses slow pacing to create fear, then shifts to fast pacing when fear becomes reality. This is very similar to our idea, where an event happens to someone, and others come to find it with no clue what happened.
Film Opening #2- The Dark Knight
The next film I will analyze is The Dark Knight, a mix of thriller, crime, and action. The scene opens with the Joker and his crew going into the bank, guns blazing, and people screaming. This puts the audience directly in the middle of the action. Each part of the bank's security measures is handled by a crew member. The diegetic sounds of the shots, screaming, and alarms make the scene look very realistic. Combined with the non-diegetic music, it heightens the tension in the scene and makes it feel more dangerous.
The use of medium and close shots creates mystery around the crew and shows the environment they are in. As the robbery continues, each member of the crew’s job is finished, and one of them kills, which adds a sense of psychotic behavior. At the end of the robbery, when the Joker reveals his identity, he is established as the film’s antagonist and shown to have planned this mastermind operation. One takeaway I want to explore is the ending and how it establishes someone as the antagonist, similar to Scream. While The Dark Knight has a great opening the large scale opening I can not achieve with my abilities but the techniques used are still a good reference for me.
Film Opening #3- Jaws
The final film I will review is Jaws. It begins with a party on the beach at night, then one of the women runs to the ocean and starts swimming. Non-diegetic music keeps getting louder until suddenly the woman is attacked by a shark. The scene uses dark lighting to make the environment seem unpredictable. The diegetic sounds of her and the non-diegetic, iconic shark music start to reveal a sense of danger without showing it directly. This combination creates tension by making the audience uncertain of what will happen next.
The POV shots from the shark create a sense of it hunting. The close-ups of the swimmer show her panic and fear, making the audience empathize with what she is going through. The cuts between the swimmer, the water, and the shark emphasize the suspense in the shark attack. Similar to our film opening, I want it to end on a cliffhanger so the audience is eager to see what happens next. Also, as in The Dark Knight, the music builds tension and suspense. If possible, I want to do something similar in my opening. Overall Jaws and Scream slowly puts the audience into the action, while The Dark Knight immediately throws the audience into the action; Jaws and Scream focus on psychological tension while The Dark Knight focuses on actions tensions this shows that I don't need a big flashy opening to achieve a good one.
(Jaws (1975). Woman screaming in pain while being attacked. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Universal Pictures.)
What did I gain?
At first I wanted to show everything at once, but I realized withholding some information can improve the effectiveness of the opening. All of these films shared five common traits: 1) They created a sense of tension and fear which kept the audience engaged with what was happening; 2) There wasn't much background information, so the audience needs to watch the whole film to figure out what is taking place; 3) The scenes were realistic, making the audience feel like it could be them; 4) they all introduce a opposing force/antagonist; and 5) The editing shifted between slow and fast pacing. Now that I have a better understanding of how other thrillers’ openings work, I will combine that knowledge with my own to create a successful opening for a thriller film.
References
Craven, W. (Director). (1996). Scream [Film]. Dimension Films.
Nolan, C. (Director). (2008). The Dark Knight [Film]. Warner Bros. Pictures.
Spielberg, S. (Director). (1975). Jaws [Film]. Universal Pictures.
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