Research: Conventional Thriller Openings - Mrs. Quinlan

Conventional Thriller Openings

Why are film openings important?

Film openings are essentials to films as they set the mood for the scene and give the audience and idea of what to expect in terms of tone and possibly the narrative. Film openings also give the audience a first impression of the film, an opening of the film is the most important time to be drawn into a film. Openings contain common conventions of thrillers to intrigue the audience, this can be done with fights or murders, usually with unexplained events to grab the attention of the audience. The audience will wonder why and how certain things have happened and will then continue watching the film to find out more about the narrative. This is a very effective example of a convention of a thriller opening as opposed to other genres which open with explanations of the narrative or general character development. 

What is the purpose of film openings?

The purpose of a film opening is to inform the audience of the atmosphere the film will connote, as well as depicting the tone of the film. They should generally appeal to the audience watching the film to keep them watching, usually thriller openings have suspenseful openings which do not explain anything, attempting to make the audience keep wanting more.

An example of this is the opening of The Loft (2014), where there is no narrative right at the start of the film, there is a close up shot to a car and it quickly is smashed and the windows break and the alarm goes off. Judging by the movement of the car downwards we can assume something has fallen on top of the car, damaging it heavily. There is then a straight cut to an inside view of the car, a POV shot from the drivers seat where there is iconography of blood, mixing with rain water making it seem excessive. Another straight cut to a person's hand and then a panning shot upwards to a building suggests that someone has jumped off or fallen off a balcony. This opening is extremely effective as it leaves the audience wondering what has happened, causing them to want to carry on watching the film. As well as frighten them due to the possible event of a suicide or murder as someone has jumped off a balcony.

Conventional thriller openings

Conventionally thriller openings tend to have a lot of close up shots, low key lighting and tense music, this is to make the themes apparent and to present narrative ideas. Audiences tend to make assumptions as to what is going to happen next when they are watching a thriller film opening. It is good to intrigue the audience with a lot of suspense and tension in a conventional thriller opening.

The example below is the opening from I am Legend (2007), this opening is conventional due to the multiple shots used throughout the opening. The scene is set with many establishing shots of an empty city. Until 0:50 there is a close up shot which then pans to a characters face, this is conventional as we can only assume so little. There is then a mix of long shots for when the character is driving around the city. There is low key lighting in the car where the man and his dog are, high key lighting outside. This is conventional to an opening as it establishes the setting as well as the characters involved, without giving away too much narrative. The only thing we can assume from this opening is that the man and dog are alone in the city, making the audience ask questions such as whether they are alone in the world, and why are they alone.

What information needs to go into a film opening?

Generally film openings consist of opening credits, this is to show the audience who was involved when making the film but can also be used to set the tone of the film as the font of the typography can suggest tones or themes.

From this opening we can assume that there will be action due to the man falling into the water and drowning, as well as the typography used which are guns and the blood. Themes are also shown through imagery of a cemetery and a lot of fire. This connotes death or violence. This can lead us to assumptions that this is an action thriller film.

Thriller openings analysis

In this opening to Se7en (1995), there are many examples of conventional thriller openings. Typography is used in a very peculiar font, in white colour over a black background, this is in between jump cuts to extreme close ups of someone cutting off their skin on their fingers with a razor, in an attempt to remove fingerprints. This can suggest that the character is about to do something bad, but this is not enough information to know whether the character is a protagonist or antagonist. This is an example of making the audience to want more as they watch. There is low key lighting throughout this opening sequence, further conveying the dark tone of the film, as well as flashing images which connote mystery, this causes the audience to have a suspenseful reaction.

This opening from Memento (2000) follows some conventions of thriller openings. It starts with an extreme close up in which the only things visible are the man's hand and a photograph. As the man shakes the photograph, the picture starts to fade, this confuses the audience especially as the close up does not show the audience what is actually going on. After the 1:20 mark, we learn that the scene is going backwards, as it cuts to the mans face we see he is angry or upset, with some scratch marks on his face indicating he has been in a fight. The close up of the bullet and the glasses with blood on them also connote this, this gives the audience a sense of danger and makes them feel scared, as well as wanting more as they want to know why all of this has happened.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I have decided with support from my research that I will use close up shots, and non diegetic sound for the soundtrack, this will set the atmosphere for the scene and will convey a dark tone. As well as this, I will use low-key lighting to demonstrate themes such as revenge and the colour red to suggest anger as my thriller opening will revolve around this. I will attempt to be as vague as possible in my opening to make sure I do not reveal too much narrative. From my research I have learnt that conventional openings do not portray a direct narrative or reveal a lot of information about the film itself, therefore I will be applying this and I will attempt to leave the audience quite confused and therefore wanting to watch further than the opening. This is how I will know I have made a successful opening.