Story of a female assassin whose troubled thoughts send her on killing sprees. Her paranoia sends others lives into the hands of death. However her antics are easily noticed by sharp minded friend Dominic whose whole focus turns to finding the killer.
We slightly changed the opening sequence.
We’ve kept the idea of an emotionally unstable main character. However we have decided to put a unique spin on our thriller by incorporating the idea of voyeurism. We wanted to incorporate a natural effect within the setting to build up the suspense to the audience as they would not be aware of what will happen next.
In our opening sequence we begin by introducing the characters in a classroom setting, planning a music video. Little do they know that one of the main characters is psychotic, FOR REAL!
We reveal hints of the characters personality to build suspense
Film Synopsis
Psychological thriller about young Alicia. A troubled girl whose past determines the future of others. After the sudden death of Pedro, his best friend Dominic decided to investigate deeper into the mystery not knowing that his new friend is not all she that she appears . This was the initial film synopsis, we changed it a slight bit by using the name shanice instead of alicia. Due to the film idea being changed aswel our new film synopsis is....."Psychological thriller about a young group of students. Shanice a troubled girl whose past determines the future of others. Wierd events take place confusing each member of the group but will their disturbed selves prevent them from realising one of them had sealed the others fate.
Analysing Opening Sequence
What lies beneath-
Camera zooms slowly into water, as if it is looking for something or wants us to look closer. This prepares the audience for the establishing shot which shows the environment and the surroundings of where the woman is. The tracking shot of her in the bath draws the audience in because it focuses on her and her only. It makes you think what is going to occur next. The medium shot of her and the view from out of the window gives the audience a view of their environment outside the window. Again the view of water leads back to the title. Another medium shot introduces the audience to characters so we have a fair idea of who we may be seeing in the film. The camera always tracks the lady it wants us to follow her, this can lead to a surprise or shock it causes the audience to become so wrapped up that they could be starled.
Mise-en-scene
The title itself “what lies beneath” give the audience a deeper thought into what this title actually means. Due to the setting consisting of water right at the beginning, one could say that it may have something to do with something beneath the water. Mist helps to contribute to the spookiness, creates an eerie atmosphere. The lighting in the house is rather dull in most places, kind of gives the feel that this isn’t going to be a bright story.
Sound
Sound is eerie and scary, slow and loud, this gives the audience a feel to how the atmosphere in the film will be. Sound of people fighting outside the window is very relevant because the audience can hardly see actors because it is an extreme long shot of them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpvaGoT0tPU
The Blair Witch Project
Camera Movements – Throughout the opening sequence, handheld camera is used. This creates an atmosphere that the person filming and the people in the frame are by themselves. This also creates a sense of vulnerability.
Mise-en-scene – At the beginning of the opening scene, white text is used against a black background. This as well as the shaky text, creates a tense atmosphere. Straight after the text, a blurred image appears and eventually it focuses out on a lady who appears to be in her late teens. This immediately makes her seem venerable and the audience may even assume that she could be the target. The next part of the scene introduces another person who also appears to be in the same age group. This person being filmed is holding a camera, which he then pans around. A
Sound – The sound used in the opening scene is all diagetic as it is recorded onto the camcorder used in the actual film itself.
Editing – There is not much editing used in the opening sequence. The small editing that is used contains a majority of straight cuts and very few dissolving effects. There are parts of the scene where the colour changes to black and white.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAkKyDfEUnU
Gothika – Opening Sequence
In the beginning of this opening sequence, the credits role and sponsors fade into text and previous text fades into other ones. Alongside this is the contrast between the white font and the black background as well as the deep resounding music. This is already giving an eerie approach to the movie. The last text shown is the title of the film Gothika – the letters are blurred and it appears all at different times conjoining with the chilling atmosphere. As the title is shown clearly, you hear a woman’s voice without actually seeing her but then the title fades into the face of the woman where the close up emphasises that she is looking at us the audience but we then gain the fact that the camera is first person. This gives a striking affect also because of what the character is talking about is rather psychotic. In the first 3 minutes of the opening sequence it shows the main character and we know this because we gather that she is the main focus as she is somewhat of a therapist who visits people in a certain place. This sets up the whole thriller film as we can also understand that the movie has something to do with her job.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0e8SfWvXdM
Analysing Opening Credits
The Shining
The music used in the background during the opening credits of ‘The Shining’, has a slow tempo which gradually builds up. During the build up of the background music, a sudden change in the rhythm takes place which creates a ‘creepy’ and ‘strange’ atmosphere. The background sound gradually starts to echo, which adds to the eeriness of the situation. This rhythm is then slowly replaced by the opening music but this time, at a much louder rate and with a heavier bass line. The background sound used in ‘The Shining’ during the opening credits creates a immediate atmosphere for the viewers, as it starts to build tension.
The actual opening credits used appear very basic in terms of font and the fact that the titles scroll upwards on the screen (from the bottom to the top) shows nothing abnormal. The font colour used is a bright blue. Personally I believe the font and display of the opening credits give absolutely no clues whatsoever about the genre of the film. I believe the opening credits could have been used in a much more effective way, in terms of the colour, the styling of the font and also the moving display of the text. The opening credits are featured against a movement of a continuously changing bird’s eye view of a car travelling on a deserted mountain road. The setting of the complete openness creates a sense of ‘No escape’, which adds to the peculiar atmosphere.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBEwYxnrv_Y
Unbreakable
‘Unbreakable’ is a psychological thriller film. The presentations of the opening film credits are completely different to that of ‘The Shining’. Unbreakable starts off with textual information displaying facts (sales of comic book), which relates to the further progression of the film. The start of the film begins and there is an immediate climax which builds the tension. Within two minutes into the film, the opening credits appear, on a black screen with white font. The credits are displayed in the centre of the screen and they change constantly by fading out and in. The credits continue to feature in the actual film (in a different scene to the one from the beginning). The background music, featured whilst the credits are being displayed, builds up in both volume and tempo. The music is repetitive, especially with the constant drum beats, thus adding to the fast paced and sudden storyline.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5E69-oJ7TDc
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