Five Thriller Opening Sequence

 To conduct research on my genre, thriller, each member in my group has been assigned to study the opening sequence of 2 films each with the view that we are successful in aiding to our audience. We understand the audience of thriller is primarily composed of older adults (25 and up). Younger audiences tend to not understand the mature twists and turns in the storyline and miss key details.  I watched David Fincher's 2014 Gone Girl and Niels Arden Oplev 2017 Flatliners. 

Flatliners

Cin 

-the first shot is of looking out of the window of a moving car in soft focus. The camera itself is still. 

-Shot 2 is a behind the head full shot of a blonde girl. Behind the head shot creates a mysterious effect since the view is unable to identify the character.  

-Shot 3 shows another single shot close woman driving from a behind angle. It is another behind the head shot slightly because we are unable to see her face as well. This contributes to the building tension and the unknown of the characters 

-Shot 4 is a two shot of both females in the front seats of a car. The camera is placed on the left side of them. The shot gives us a close up of the women in the driver’s seat (dark hair) face. She is slightly out of focus while the blonde child in the seat next is her is in shallow focus. Their faces are now visible which decreases the tension within the opening. 

-shot 6 changes to a single eye-level medium close –up shot of the dark hair women driving. 

-The camera switches to a single eye-level close up of the young blond girl. 

-In shot 9 the use a dolly in on the young blonde girl in the passenger seat. This is to convey something is about to happen to her.  

-Shot 10 is a single shot close up of the dark-haired women. They use a close up to emphasize the look of panic she has on her face while glances to her lap and back to ride like she is distracted.  

-The next 6 shots (11-17) show different angles of a car crashing off the side of the road. They use pov shots from the front windshield of the car. They also use low angles and full shots of the car flipping over the bridge.  

-Shot 18 and 19 were close ups of what looks like an operating room. This gives insight to film that it relates to a hospital that experiences a lot of life and death. 

-Shots 19 and 20 use a cut-in from a full to a close shot of a dead body on an operating table.  

-shots 21 and 22. Show various aspects of a cemetery using eye-level shots of the tombstones jump cuts. 

-Shots 19-25 are jarring, very quick jump shots. 

-The outer edges of the shots of blurry making it pay close attention to what is in crisp focus. 

-Shot 28 is a pan up at the foot of a Mortuary table.  

 

 

Editing 

-The first 1-4 shots cut away to credit scenes and back to the main storyline. 

-The credits screens are a plain black background with off coloring of the font. There are slight green and blue streaks quickly appearing and disappearing. 

-Shots of (11-17) are jump cuts of the car crashing. 

-The title of the opening zooms out. The font looks as if it is beating to the beating like a heart. 

-Shot 25 transitions to 26 using a zoom in dissolve effect almost going from a full shot of a cemetery to a close up of tombstones  

-Shot 26- 27 use a flash transition of a close up of casket to a tombstone. 

-shot 23 to 24 transitioned using a flash 

-All the flashes provided anticipation and tension in the viewer.  

-At the end of the opening the flashes to a black screen, which adds to the building tension. 

MES 

-The first scene had a light gray tint. Light gray in films typically relates to loss or depression.  

-A young blonde girl wearing a pink sweater is traveling in a car with another woman with dark hair who is driving. In Shot 5 and 6 They both seem to be happy and smiling.  

• The blonde’s hair is lightly moving to the wind. Behind the head shot creates a mysterious effect since the view is unable to identify the character. 

-The first shot you can make out trees and ln pass them. They are traveling.  

-In shot 6 of the women driving, she looks happy. 

-In shot 7 the young blonde girl is wearing pink and smiling looking over the women in the driver seat. This conveys that good have a good close relationship.  

-the title is revealed after the car accident. The title is in white font, with what looks like blurry glossy lights in the background. There is also a heart Montor line going through the title at a vertical angle.  

-The light grey tint changes to an almost orange yellow-Ish color. This makes the audience uncomfortable. Orange tint typically makes the feelings of caution or warning arrive.   

 

Sound 

-non-diegetic eerie music is playing, raising the tension in the sequence. The music increases as the sequence goes on.  

-In shot four, diegetic sound of the young girl screaming “look out” before the crash adds to the suspension and tension. 

-When the faces of the characters get revealed, the music eases up on the tension feeling until shot  

- -In shot 11 the young girl has a diegetic screams “Courtney”.  

-shots 11-17 we can hear the non-diegetic screeching of the car’s brakes. 

-the also provide diegetic sounds of the crash smashing. This creates a sense of emergency and tension in the viewers.  

-The use a diegetic sound of women crashing into the water which adds to the tension and emergency within the scene.  

-during the car crash the music stops and lets the density play.  

-A fast paced high pitch music sounds playing during the title reveal.  

-the music in the background also has a kind of heart type of rhythm to it. (non-diegetic) It can be assumed that this film has a lot to do with life and death. The sound of a heartbeat in a thriller is often used to convey a character is near death or shaken up. 

-After the title, non-diegetic whispers start to play over the music. This dramatically increases the tension. The whispers appear to be talking about seeing something due to something happening to their body. They use words like “lifeless” and “out of body experience” contributing to the shots they have of cemeteries and operation rooms. From this you can interpret that the film has a lot of as to do with death and loss and making these high-tension situations.  

-At the end of the opening. One of the whispers on the black screen goes “I'm sorry” which build tension and disturbs the viewer. (non-diegetic) 

 

Gone girl 

Cin 

-The first scene is a POV shot from a man’s perspective, it’s a shallow focus close-up shot of a woman laying down on his chest. The women look up at the man, or camera, which is position at a higher angle above her. This mans the man is looking down at her. Like she is frail and weak. This contributes to the relationship dynamic.   

- There is an establishing shot of what looks like the sea with the shore. This typically conveys calmness. Right after an uncomfortable close-up of the women from scene 1.  

-Scenes 3-16 of abandoned places. Showcasing isolation in town.  

-The scene 18 is a knee-level shot of a male standing in front of a house looking lost.  

-Scene 19 is a long shot to the left side of the man continuing to look lost. The shot appears to be slightly low. This could be to signify the power of man.  

-Scene 20 cuts back to a knee-level shot of the man turning around facing the house. 

-Scene 21 he starts to walk towards the house in an extreme long. 

 

Editing 

-The open credit names fade in and out for about 3 seconds or less (before the scenes start and after the first scene with the women.) 

-the first scene fades in at the beginning and fades out at the end. 

-The second scene also begins with a fade in. 

-Scenes 3-17 are jump cuts and cut-in of abandoned buildings 

-The rest of the sequence is composed of match cuts 

-The prologue begins with a J-cut. 

 

 

-Mes 

 

-The first scene is of a blonde woman laying down getting her hair stroked slowly by the hands of a man. This represents a relationship dynamic; the male has the power and control. She appears to have no makeup on and laying in comfortable or lounge clothing.  we suspect this from the lighting, conveying it could be early morning. (1) 

-The opening credits appear on a blank screen centered with white lettering. 

-The title of the film appears on a beach or shore background, still with white lettering and the three seconds. You can see a ship or boat in the distance. The sky appears to be a deep blue and pink color, signifying it’s either around sunrise or sunset time.  

-Shots 3 through 17 cut around to different abandoned buildings and outside areas. This could be showing isolation or emphasizing the abandonment element of the setting or characters. 

-She lifts her face showing a very serious expression staring blankly directly at the camera.  This could be interpreted that something is bothering her, or something could happen. (2) 

-The last scene is a man wearing a gray t-shirt and jeans.- gray conveys compromise, neutral, control, practical. His plain clothing or the color of them give no insight or a neutral feeling to him to give him to add a mysterious affect. Or to show just how normal he really is. 

-very low lighting conveys tension.  The tones used are very dull blues, grays which gives a fickle feeling.  

-The light blue tint that is there throughout the whole opening sequence represents the feeling of isolation, passivity, and calmness. (what does light blue tint signify?). It's another element that contributes to the disconnected and mysterious feeling.  

-lots of shadows that contribute to the mysterious feeling. 

Sound 

-music has a very sinister effect.  

-The male voice over (non-diegetic) talking about breaking his wife’s skull gives the viewers a psychopathic or a deranged background on the character which contributes to the prologue type of opening. Since prologues conventionally go with flashbacks, it’s likely that the first scene on the blonde woman was a flashback.   

-During the prologue of the first scene we know that It’s a husband talking disturbingly about hurting his wife to see inside her head or understand her thoughts.  

-The eerie non-diegetic music gets louder and higher pitch as the sequences continue. The contributes to the tension factor of the sequence. 

Run

My group member, Jeremmiah Arcus, conducted his research on the 2020 horror thriller movie "Run" and "The Women in the Window"(2021). 

The 2 minutes and 20 seconds opening sequence is a prologue using the conventional flashback method. They use a total of 5 shots with a cut to black screen at the ending with words slowly appearing. In shot 1 the setting is a gloomy hospital with low-key lighting with enough to see the doctors working. the camera slowly gets closer to build suspense. They use L and J cuts on the high pitch music that builds up to it's highest point and goes back to the beginning of the track to make it smoother. You can also hear a heart monitor beeping. The heartbeat slowly fades away and muffled talking take over. This continues until the second shot. The second shot was a continuation of the doctors from the first shot until another doctor appeared. There was only silence at first until stringy music play an \built up until the mother sees her newborn baby. Uplifting music starts to play when the mother touches the glass the child in.  The camera is placed on a Steadicam. In shot 3 the lighting gets brighter with more lights. There is a slow tilt up as the doctor is pushing a mother and her child. Deep eerie music starts to come back as the mother asks "will she be okay".  Transitioning into the last shot using cut on action, the lighting goes to back to lowkey to build suspense an give and eerie vibe. There was a the camera is steady, but the mother gets closer as she wishes to see her child. During the majority of the opening sequence were just simple cuts. 

The Women in the Window

MES- The opening sequence is a prologue of 2 minutes and 54 seconds. There are 20 shots in total. Shot 1 did not have very much light besides the little balls of light which are used to get the viewer to feel lost or unaware of where they are. Shot 2 had brighter lighting most likely to make the eye pop out more during this specific shot. The lighting in this shot makes the scene look more angelic and eye opening. The third to fourth shot is a pan the begins when the light fades away and it look like the scene is slowly dying. In the fifth shot the lighting is lowkey but light slowly creeps in as a stairwell is revealed. The lighting then becomes lowkey key once again in the next shot but brightens up right after the shot shifts to a pan of a room with lighting that looks to be morning. In shot 13, the lighting is lowkey slighting tracking the cat which slowly leads into a pan into a living room with brighter lighting. We then see the woman looking at the man outside bringing in boxes early in the morning. After the back- and forth shots, the camera is looking at the woman's back with the setting going back to the living room with lowkey lighting and a bit of sunlight from the window the women is looking at. 

CIN- In the second shot there is an extreme close up on the character’s eye. Third shot is a landscape shot also known as a long shot. The still camera then goes into a pan still in the same shot. Fourth shot is a slow tilt up to reveal a very tall staircase. Fifth shot is a pan going into the sixth shot with a medium shot as well as a pan. The seventh shot is very brief but is a close up on the woman’s hands grabbing pills. The eighth shot is a continuation of the last shot where the woman takes the pills. Ninth shot is a zoom in on what looks to be a bedroom. Shot 10 is a close up pan of a kid drawing on a chalkboard. Next shot is a close up of the woman letting in the mail carrier for a delivery. Eleventh shot is a medium-close up of the man dropping the package off. Next shot is very brief, but it shows the woman giving the mail carrier the money through a little slot in the door. Shot 13 is POV shot as well as a tracking shot as the camera is in the eyes of the woman, and she is focusing on the new neighbor bringing in boxes. The next shot is a close up of the woman’s facial expression while looking at the neighbor. Then in the next shot there is a long shot of a living room with the woman on the left side. 

Editing- There is a quick cut from the first shot of black with white speckles. From the second shot there is a cut that is so smooth you can barely see it. All the way until the seventh shot I believe. There is a cutting on action from shot 7 to 8 the woman grabs the pills, and it cuts to her swallowing the pills and drinking water. Near the end of the opening scene there is back and forth editing from the woman staring at her neighbors to the shot with the neighbors moving boxes in. For the rest of the opening sequence there were just a series of cuts and quick cuts. 
Sound- In the first shot the camera is twist, turning and spinning in sort of a galaxy setting and near the end you can hear a woman breathing heavily. The breathing gets deeper, and the woman is taking deeper breaths. There is also very high-pitched stringy music in the beginning as well as a subtle wind sound that builds up when the first shot is close to ending. In the second shot the woman gasps then begins breathing with a much faster pace. Third shot you can hear children playing and a deep eerie music that is constantly playing throughout the next few shots. Then the music builds up and stringy instruments jump into the mix making the next shot even more uncomfortable. You can then see and hear a computer beeping. The sounds of the kids come back into play, but this time when they are playing you can hear one little kid that screams. The music continues, but then you can hear a voiceover between a mother and her child. Then the conversation goes to the woman and her husband as the kid runs calling to his dad for a pumpkin. 

Get out

Shonna Lauriston, my fellow group member, completed an opening sequence analysis on the 2017 horror thriller "Get Out". 

The opening sequence is a convectional prologue type using a the flashback method. There are only 2 shots in total. The first shot at the beginning is the camera zooming out. It goes into a long shot as the character moves into the frame to a medium shot as he walks closer to the frame. The camera then does a close up when he is looking for an address which we know from the dialogue of his phone call. The camera then goes back to a medium shot which is used through out the rest of the shot. There is a tracking used as the character get abducted. The character wears a blue shirt with a leather jacket and jeans. A very natural casual outfit. The setting is night time with only streets light giving off light. From the houses in the neighborhood, it appears to be a suburban community. There is non-diegetic sound of crickets to covey it is late at night. As he notices the car stopping by him playing the radio in the car, the music switch from being in scene on the car radio to then transition louder to a voiceover playing the music.  This intensify the tension within the scene. The other person was wearing an all black jacket and mask, masking their identity. The end of shot 1 goes into a extreme long shot.

Cutting on action is used when the abductor is dragging him into the car, this would show what's going on from a different on.