Analysing students' opening sequences of Thrillers- Unorthodox.

Emma Snow

Tammy Harris's, Isobel Humphriss's, and Emma Snow's Unorthodox. in my opinion is what a classic thriller opening sequence looks like. Although there are some aspects which I am not particularly fond of, the opening sequence contains numerous conventions which allow it to resemble an opening sequence for a film of the thriller genre.

The clip opens with an introduction of studio production company, which in my opinion, is the most popular way of starting any film, not just thrillers. The video which is used for this part of the opening sequence is also very impressive as we see almost an extreme close up of a girl opening her eye. This fits in with the semantic field of 'vision' which is what this group has chosen for their company's name. 

My attention is immediately drawn to the writing and the font; of which I am not particularly fond of, though I understand why it may have been chosen; It almost seems 'scratchy' and perhaps psychedelic which could symbolise the behaviour of certain characters in this film (or opening sequence). Another point which I would like to make is the positioning; the text seems a little bit off centre, though not drastically. I will hopefully avoid this when it comes to making my own thriller opening sequence if I choose to centre my text.

Furthermore, the black and white colour filter is reminiscent of the older, classic thrillers and perhaps is an indication of the nature of this thriller, being psychologically related in some way; as were many of (e.g) Hitchcock's films.

Another close up is used to put the viewer in perhaps the point of view of the protagonist and thus allows the audience to form opinions on the character's habits; in this case, the sequence makes the audience focus on the character's possible drug use. It may also be an indication of the character's mental or physical health, in this case, the audience may assume that the medicine is to do with the character's mental health as he seems rather psychologically disturbed through his expressions etc.

In addition to this, the audience will see an over the shoulder shot while the character looks into the mirror. This further strengthens the theme of psychology.

A point which I cannot provide a screenshot for, rather a time, is the flickering and jittering of images switching from colour, to black and white. This is done at 1:10 where the character is looking at his wall of, what the audience may assume to be, victims. Perhaps the short sequence through when this is happening, is done to disturb the audience and raise awareness of the significance of that specific wall and it's contents, however, I feel that this is rather too much and perhaps 'over-done' as we've already seen clips of the wall flash on screen beforehand. I would personally avoid using this technique in my own opening sequence.

Lastly, the sound is used very effectively, especially in the beginning, when we hear a sound bridge occur between the establishing shot and the shower shot, as well as another layer of sound for the rather unsettling music. I will aim to use layers of sound such as this in my own opening sequence.