Script for dialogue

Currently the opening will include an extract of a wedding pledge:

"Jennifer, is it your will to have this man to be your husband, to live together in the covenant of marriage? Is it your will to love him, in sickness and in health; and, forsaking all others to be faithful to him as long as you both shall live?"

The use of the opening dialogue creates an idea of the themes involved in the film. In this case a theme of relationships is involved. The scenes that appear after the first dialogue contrast against eachother giving a sence of enigma and mystery to as what has gone wrong.

Unlike thriller films 'Layer Cake' and 'The Sixth Sence' currently we have planned so that the dialogue will not tell the narrative; instead it will add to the visual action as an anchor. This will be done partly because we have a concern that the sound quaility available will bring down the potential of the opening scene and the belief that the less we hear from the characters, the more the audience will ingage in on the settings and the characters features.

On review of other A level students media thriller opening, we have noticed that the use of little to no dialogue helps draw in attention and therefore bring in the target audience. This is done as a sence of mystery and enigma is raised as the voyer is un aware of the full situation. To fulfill this convention of the thriller genre, we have decided to reduce the amount of dialogue in the thriller opening to a minimum.

Commentary on Directors of Genre

Alfred Hitchcock (13th August 1899 - 29th April 1980) - Hitchcock directed more than fifty feature films in a career spanning 60 years. He is still one of the most popular and most recognised filmmakers, with work still popular today. Often regarded as the greatest British filmmaker of all time, in 2007 Hitchcock was ranked #1 by film critics in The Telegraph's list of 21 greatest British directors. Hitchcock's films were said to have been so extensively storyboarded to the finest detail by a number of accounts; he was reported to not even bother looking through the viewfinder, since he didn't need to do! 'The Master of Suspence' directed films in his career credited in the top 100 thriller movies of all time such as: Physco (1960), Frenzy (1972), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959) and Notorious (1946).

David Fincher (28th August 1962) - Fincher is an Academy Award-nominated American filmmaker and music video director known for his dark and stylish movies. Theatrical films included: Alien (1992) which won an oscar for special effects, Seven (1995), The Game (1997), Fight Club (1999) which brought up huge publicity in its time and was put in the top 100 films of all time and Panic room (2002) which created $92 million in the U.S box office, despite not being as successful as The game, Fight Club and Seven.

Opening Sequences

An opening sequence aims to:

• Establish narative context and characters
• Set up a sence of enigma / mysteriousness or question that will be answered later on in the film
• Set up a location, character and purpose (setting, who's in it and reasons.)
• Introduce credits and action

Three films were initialy assesed to figure out which ones were successful in creating a good opening sequence and why:

Se7en - David Fincher

In the two minute opening audiences see a mysterious character act in a way that would make people very cautious. However this character isn't clearly identified with the purpose and location not being clearly established. The shots shown are connotated with murder and brutality so the enigma is strong. There are frequent shots between credits and action which makes it partly successful. The use of close-up shots and focus shots make it possible to guess the narrative, however this is difficult. Disturbing "edgy" music is used, which attempts to make audiences un-easy yet drawn in.

The Usual Suspects - Bryan Singer

Similar to the first opening, this film includes a mysterious character with the camera never showing his face. This opening has more action as the mysterious character swaps dialogue with another character and then shoots him. Because of this, the narrative is more guessable for the audience. The purpose isn't clear however the location is made obvious with the establishing shots of a boat. The dialogue used raises enigma and also helps set the context of the film. The opening shot gives another clue to the narrative and the use of fire is a strong factor - cutting through the darkness.

Hostage - Florent Emilio Siri

Different from the first and second sequence the third opening sequence is all animation. Although no characters or purpose is established, the shots make us assume that the location is in a city. The way the shots are put together, it takes the audience through the city, with the titles appearing on buildings. The use of dark greys, blacks and reds bring up a feeling of mystery and enigma. Mise en scene suggests violence, guns and war. Because the sequence is all animated i think the opening is not effective enough to be a convincing thriller film.

Forms and Conventions of a Thriller

Films famously successful at fitting the forms and conventions of a thriller:

The Hitchhiker (Lupino 1953)

Psycho (Hitchcock 1960)

Vertigo (Hitchcock 1958)

Fight Club (Fincher 1999)

Se7en (Fincher 1995)

Pulp Fiction (Tarantino 1994)

The Godfather (Coppola 1972)

The Usual Suspects (Singer 1995)

The Shining (Kubrick 1980)

Sixth Sence (Shyamalan 1999)

The Dark Knight (Nolan 2008)

"My initial thoughts about what a title can do was to set mood and the prime underlying core of the film's story, to express the story in some metaphorical way. I saw the title as a way of conditioning the audience, so that when the film actually began, viewers would already have an emotional resonance with it." Saul Bass 1920 - 1996

All the films above were successful towards being part of the thriller genre because they took on the conventions and forms. Any director of a thriller film will include these conventions deliberately:

• Build up to the action
• Creation of fear / apprehension / unserrling feeling / confusion / mystery
• Sence of suspicion between characters
• Hero / heroine seen in situations that threaten. Peril / danger
• Extrodinary events / behavior
• Hero(ine) in fallible
• Establishing mood and atmosphere throughtout the film
• Red Herrings
• Often theme of mirroring (reflections)
• Often include mistaken identity
• Flashbacks
• 
  
  Mazes & labarinths often used (real or psychological)
• Twists and unexpected turns
• Delay in showing the face of significant character, or action of an important event by first showing the hand of the character
• Audience are put in the position of voyeurs
• Killer/villan ensures hero(ine) through series of intricale moves

Forms and conventions of thriller film : Flight Plan (Robert Schwentke)

• Build up to the action - The director has achieved this by the use of flash backs, non-digetic music, use of mirrors which show more than one view and shot/reverse shots which helps the scene flow.
• Creation of fear/apprehension/anticipation - The director has ahcieved this by using disorienting effects with the camera, darkness (making the audience un-able to see clearly) the use of crows that audiences connotate with enigma and a realistic setting.
• Dark, shadowy atmosphere - Created by the appearance of shots being filmed at night.
• Establishing mood and atmosphere throughtout the film - This is achieved by the use of camera movement which gives the impression of pace speeding up. The scenes hold onto silence for long periods.
• Delay in showing the face of a significant character, or an important event by first showing the hand of the character - In Flight Plan a plane ticket is shown before the characters face with a focus shot, this proves important in the film.
• Morally ambiguous central character - In Flight Plan the flight attendents appear to have more depth in them
• Realistic settings to create a sence of 'the unusual' occurring within a normal setting - the action revolves around an airport and airplane
• Flashbacks - in 'Flight Plan' the use of flashbacks shows the uncertainty brought up
• Hero(ine) in situation of threat or struggle - the heroine loses her daughter in the plane
• Red Herrings - A character of middle eastern origin is suspected of commiting the kidnap
• Twists and unexpected turns - The girl has been said to have passed away
• Making and keeping the audience tense and on the edge of our seats - use of showing the characters nature before the twist and then turning our views against her. The use of non digetic music adds tension.

Forms and conventions of thriller film: Layer Cake (Matthew Vaughn)

• Build up to the action - The use of the voice-over without an visual pictures makes hightened to the opening.
• Creation of fear/apprehension/anticipation - The use of a calm, yet menacing voice over before the action brings in the audience
• Establishing mood and atmosphere throughtout the film - The use of lighting helps separate scenes and creates an undestanding of what is going to happen in the scene                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
• Morally ambiguous central character - use of voice over with no visual of character creates suspison
• Realistic settings to create a sence of 'the unusual' occurring within a normal setting - Created with diffetent locations. In the first scene a truck door is blown up
• Flashbacks - The use of flashbacks anchors the voice-over as the audience are able to gain insight to the context
• Twists and unexpected turns - Right at the start the door of a truck blows open
• Making and keeping the audience tense and on the edge of our seats - the use of the voice over creates an enigma and incite to the story so we are interested in what will happen