We researched numerous films, mainly horrors, from a range of eras and directors and watched the opening scenes to see how and what successful horror films had done in the first 2 minutes to help and give advice to our production.
Touch of evil (1957) Orson Welles
Establishing shot of close up of a bomb then tracking shot of a man running with the bomb.
Genre- thriller
Music- non diegetic with quick pace to add tension.
Narrative enigma to who the man is who had the bomb.
No anchorage to where film is set.
Jazz music becomes diegetic, over exaggerated and loud.
No cuts yet, one long shot.
'Stop' sign in English narrows down to where its set, Anchorage.
Focus changes from car to pedestrians.
Target audience- Men and female as they both feature and both attractive so has sexual appeal.
Jazz signifies older audience post teen.
Characters go off screen for a small time, unusual if you tracking characters.
Psycho (1960) Alfred Hitchcock
Titles are cross cutting signifies slasher.
Also signifies a-list star in film.
Either says a film by.. or Alfred Hitchcocks shows directors cut.
Production companies and producers name also on opening sequence.
Jerry Braickenheimer famous as a producer of action films, can buy box set of his films which is unusual for producer.
Music is called score.
2 shots dissolving on each other.
Trick or treat (1985) Ned Morehead
Narrative over the titles
Black screen white titles signifies cheap, low budget film.
Slight lower angle shot to make actor look fierce.
Heavy metal rockers, bare chest long hair, make up.
Dark voice follows our cultural expectations of scary.
Font - Sharp edge
Starring Ozzy Osbourne and Gene Simmons.
Target audience male more likely then female.
15-24
Books in background called Rock and Rock-on.
Studded belt and wristband, fake skull.
Judist Priest poster and Wasp, classic rock metal band.
Large speakers, audio and turntables.
School setting, anchorage.
Bride of Chuckie (1998) Ronnie Yu
String music to signify horror, clear anchorage conotes genre
Font, uneven letters suggests chaos.
Drum and guitars makes heartbeat beat faster leads to an alteration in your mood, audience feel tense.
Universal pictures present... associated with horror.
Producers name
Directors name
Sharp abrupt noise
Blue conotes supernatural and cold.
American flag signifies its a public building.
Dutch angled shows somethings not right.
Never have high hopes from police, never intervene never solve case always die.
Source of light from lightning.
Inter textual reference to Friday 13th with a hockey mask, links into post modernism.
Inter textual reference to Halloween mask worn by the Shape in Halloween.
Fast pace editing signifies target audience -15 to 24+
Depth of focus- Dutch angle.
Name dropping of sony erricson product placement.
False scare
Representation, using stereotypes or counter types like 2 opening sequences.
Leprechaun (1993) Mark Jones
Titles offer black background Incorporated in opening scene.
Misleading signifiers that its a fantasy which sounds like child leprechaun.
Celtic style writing.
Stereotypical Irish drunk.
Stereotypical Irish name O'Grady.
Trainspotting (1996) Danny Boyle
Young characters so reflects in target audience.
Represented as stereotypical drug addicts, poor house working class.
Women represented as counter types as not there for males gaze as drug taking.
Contrast song "lust for life" playing to actors actions.
Set in Edinburgh mise-en-scene to phone number 013 Edinburgh code.
Binary opposition to the outfits there wearing.
Social realism film, shaky camera fast pace editing suggest younger audience.
Cross over appeal by song as older songs appeal to older generation.
Only male characters named so male target audience.
28 days later (2002) Danny Boyle
20th century fox.
Documentary style.
Narrative enigma to what’s going on.
Animal liberation group.
Denoted it’s a laboratory by white coats and glasses.
Dutch angles and blue tinted lighting to signify something’s wrong.
Counter-type of woman, she opens the cage door over the man, braver then the men.
Piano music playing signifies horror.
Scream (1996) Wes Craven
Siren noise signifies danger.
White writing changes to red, signifies blood or danger.
Font changes.
Phone links straight into action, no titles.
Quick editing signifies young target audience.
The use of the phone in slasher films comes from ‘when a stranger calls’ 1978 inter-textual reference.
Sound of prison door shutting.
Long drawn out string notes, inter-textual reference to Psycho.
Sound of a heartbeat makes your own heartbeat beat irregularly .
Light flashes same speed as heartbeat sound.
Blonde and busty character, background out of focus so she’s the main character.
Narrative enigma to her and his identity.
Brings in Propp, he’s the villain, she’s the victim.
No exposition.
Close up to show emotion on her face, tracking shot makes you think she’s being followed.
Deep and sinister male voice, Basic stereotypes for male.
No curtains even though its dark, glass signifies vulnerability.
Pan across her face, Close up.
Swing is swinging by itself, supernatural.
Middle class, large detached house isolated.
Woman say’s her favorite horror film is Halloween, then picks up a knife inter-textual reference.
Freud, psychologist thinks a knife is a ‘phallic’ object.
Saying she doesn’t have a boyfriend shows she’s sexually available.
300 (2006) Zack Snyder
Smoke shows gritty era.
Warner brothers style changed to fit in with the film.
300 sign written with blood signifies death and danger.
Lightning signifies danger.
Skull denotes death.
Close up on baby to emphasis vulnerability and innocence.
Framing cuts of head, makes him seem like a monster.
Jarhead (2006) Sam Mendez
Blank screen, no titles voice over.
Talking of war signifies action.
Youth target audience 15-35 more male audience.
Opening shot close up of character hint of main protagonist, commutation test if no close up was used then protagonist wouldn’t have been noticed.
Conote from eye movement he is unsure about something.
Font like a type writer, connotes serious and formal. Also, looks like a documentary style.
Exposition of his father by saying he used to be in the army too.
Comic effect by whistling music over violent act.
Irobot (2004) Alex Proyas
No titles.
Water effect is futuristic, working with robots being futuristic.
The music gets louder and quicker to create tension.
A part of the story is explained, exposition.
Cuts to alarm clock, false awareness.
Target audience, 15-45 mainly males as full of action but Will Smith is a well known attractive actor so brings in sexual appeal. He has a positive representation of black males.
Hybrid genre, not fully explained.
Wakes up with a gun next to him, narrative enigma, is he a criminal, gangster or police man?
Equilibrium and disequilibrium conflict between Will Smith and Robots.
Sin City (2005) Frank Miller
Based on a graphic novel.
Red title signifies death and blood.
Well known actors.
Caricatures link to comic books.
The film is based on 4 stories of Millers work.
Complex- multi layered narrative.
Narrative enigma to why he killed, who are they?
Only the females dress and lipstick is in colour - red signifies violence and blood.
Inter-textual reference to Kill Bill and Saving private Ryan.
Shot in Black and white.
Music is piano, slow and calm you don’t expect something bad to happen.
Constant sound of police sirens in the background denotes there’s a lot of violence and crime in the city.
Gladiator (2000) Bradley Scott
Slow and quite sounds which signifies something bad will happen, music gets louder increases heartbeat.
Slow editing - older mature audience.
Woman speaking over the top over action signifies death and in his head.
Gold letters connotes class. This is also applied to the producers logo’s and Universal logo. Signifies genre of the film.
Russel Crowe creates cross over appeal to woman in a generally male targeted film.
Action on screen creates preferred reading of a action/war film.
‘Set in Germania’ creates exposition.
Dark blue world (2001) Jansverak
Dark screen links to title.
Text is in font of WW2 propaganda style.
Music ‘big band’ what was listened to in 1940’s and 50’s. Denotes set in past and creates cross-over appeal to a older audience.
Read tint creates polysemic meaning, romance or blood.
Wimbledon (2004) Richard LongCrane
Music is cheerful suggest’s rom-com genre.
Cross over appeal from rom-com as based on tennis players.
Pathetic fallacy as weather reflects mood of characters.
Product placement.
Follows male gaze theory by young actress, Kirsten Dunst.
High school musical 2 (2007) Kenny Ortega
Close up of school clock with over-exaggerated ticking sound.
Music links in with genre of film.
Sequel so already got large fan base.
Title of film gives anchorage to genre.
3 shots fade into each other.
Names of actors come up in white serif.
In obtrusive editing.
Not much exposition to story of film yet.
Accent provides anchorage for setting.
Skull in school classroom is inter-textual reference to hamlet.
Over sized clock emphasizes students are more interested in the time than there teacher.
Clock gets bigger shows time is important.
John Carpenters' Halloween (1978) John Carpenter
Opening music similar to exorcist.
Builds tension.
Slow zoom.
Serif font.
Characters names' link to other films.
Blue tinted lightning, conote something is wrong.
Hand held camera.
Verisimilitude- creates a sense of realism within diegetic world.
Friday the 13th (1980) Sean S. Cunningham
Slasher, sci-fi, comedy
Hybrid genre to appeal to a wider audience.
Inter-textual reference to WWF by moves used, and to Lara Croft by using 2 guns.
Aspect of post modernism.
The Warriors (1979) Walter Hill
Each character is individually introduced.
Repeated inter cutting, sense of movement.
Small conflicts between gang members.
Derogatory comments about women.
Anchorage by close up on train stops.
Inter cutting shows sense of fast pace editing, so reflects target audience.
Our research into film openings shows us that it is expected to see a number of cuts to give exposition to the location, characters and target audience. For example. The Warriors used close ups on train stops to give anchorage to the location of the film, the characters are all introduced individually, again giving exposition to the location from their accents. Their ages, genders and ethnicity reflect the target audience.
There are many parallels between the horror films i have researched these include Narrative enigma, Non-diegetic music and sexual tension.
There is always narrative enigma in the opening sequence, as the audience is unsure who the characters are and what their role in the film is. Narrative enigma is used to grab the audiences attention and get them engrossed in the film. This then makes the audience want to carry on watching in order to know more about the film, therefore answering the questions that the opening sequence has aroused.
In the majority of horror films, the non-diegetic music over the opening sequence is long drawn out notes, which adds too and creates suspense and tension. There is also a beat which mimicks the sound of a heartbeat, gradually getting faster. This then makes the audiences heartbeat beat in time, as a result also getting faster. This brings the audience into the film making them feel part of it. This subconsciously makes the audience feel tension as they feel part of the film, and therefore making them feel subject to the dangers that may befall the other characters in the horror film. For example, this occurs in the beginning of Scream just before Drew Barrymoore is on the phone. The non-diegetic music creates tension in this way. As it creates tension which signifies to the audience that a scary moment is about to occur, the audience having this knowledge, creates tension in itself.
Sexual references are also made in the opening sequences, for example in Scream when Drew Barrymoore is on the phone to the killer, there is flirting which coincides with the popcorn that's being made, as it's bubbling up. This represent the sexual tension building and the heating of the popcorn mirrors the heat the characters are feeling. In the opening sequence of Halloween, Micheal Myers walks in to his sisters room and kills her whilst she is topless just after she has had sex with her boyfriend. These are strong sexual references as they appeal to the target audience of the youth audience.
We noticed from The Warriors that they had used titles which were red therefore looking like blood. We thought this was a really good idea as it signifies to the audience that the film is a slasher genre. We decided to use this idea with our titles.
The writing we used for the Title saying Dead End was a sharp Serif font. We used this as it is similar to Halloween.
To decide on the title of the film we looked at other films and how they got there title. Sin city is a nickname for Vegas due to the various forms of adult entertainment. Halloween got it's name as everyone knows what Halloween is therefore its accessible and all audiences can relate to it. We decided on the title Dead End as it is predominantly filmed in a cul-de-sac and it links in the the narrative of the film as the protagonist comes to a dead end.
