The film starts with a narrator’s voice illustrating events that have happened before the start of the film and sets the scene by explaining that a couple have just left a wedding reception on February 11th 2005. His words are written in orange on a black background, slowly moving forward then fading. He then speaks of brutal event which occur in America such as violent crimes, which gives the audience a sense of what the film is about, and making it more realistic. The picture then fades into an image of a house and then out to another, moving from day to night. The tracking camera motion gives the impression of a car driving down a road. However the visual image seems out of focus in parts, such as blurred street lamps. Whilst the images are shown there is a light swishing noise which occurs with the fades as well as instruments, acting as a kind of sound bridge. This scene creates a more mysterious feel and a wanting to see where the images are leading. The audience are then taken to bright day light where there is a tracking, long/ wide shot of two boys standing at the end of a drive. As they move towards the door we see a medium-long shot, and as they enter and begin to look around there are a series of close-ups. At this point the audience are in suspense of what they are about to find. This is apparent mainly because of the non-diegetic telephone call between a police officer and Jordan (main character). The call has been made hyperbolic to emphasise what they are saying and how scared Jordan is. In the call she is giving information about what happens in the film but before it actually happens, and without giving everything away, she also seems very disturbed and panicked which shows the terror in which she has faced. The close-ups are of a record player, a ring with rose petals, a knife, and a blood splattered wall, finishing with a medium close-up of a shot gun. These images are shown with a slightly fidgety effect as if with the use of a hand held camera. All the items link to points in the film and show the audience objects which will occur and there importance. These are being shown over the phone call which ends in the line “there’s blood everywhere”, where the screen fades to black. This leaves an unexplained situation which makes the audience feel tense and want to continue watching. The title then appears with the sound bridge of the light swishing noise and then fades back to black again to start the first scene. The effect of using the end of the film at the beginning ,showing the affect of the events which are going to take place in the film make the audience want to watch the film as they must see what happens to Jordan, and why the objects have been chosen, and have been left in the manor. The opening sequence of ‘The Strangers’ gives a slight overview of what is going to happen in the film showing the danger and terror which the characters go through.
http://www.thestrangers.net/
'Saw 111'
The scene starts with a grey background with a brick effect as if like a wall. It has whit text across the middle with a dark light covering the middle of the word, which then moves to the end with a swishing noise, which gives a mysterious vibe. The writing fades in and out and is as if moving towards you. As this is happening we hear a woman’s voice say “game over” (which is a very symbolic line from the film), followed by a man screaming in pain and shouting aggressively to the woman with sentences such as, “I’m going to kill you”. The screen then fades to black to start the action. The room is dark with the only light from a torch which is pointing at an object which takes a second to come into focus. As this scene starts there is eerie music playing of an instrument which makes it intense and interesting. We are then introduced to the main character with an extreme close up of his face. As we are shown his body with a tracking movement we see he has a normal hair style, no extensive make-up and day clothing, except with blood stains. The room is only shown with the light of the torch therefore hard to identify the location, however we do see that it is secluded and remote. The scene is as if being shot with a hand held camera as it intimately follows his every movement and consists of close-ups, medium close-ups and medium shots which show the room isn’t very big as we do not cover a lot of ground. It could also show the man’s isolation. The sounds are hyperbolic with the heavy breathing, screams, yelps, fumbling, throwing of a brick onto his ankle, and the bone breaking, even the throwing of a saw, this makes it seem very realistic and excruciating for the audience to watch as you feel the pain the man is facing, and the scary and confusing atmosphere he is in. The scene then fades to black and the title slowly fades in with the swishing noise returning. At this point the audience is hooked and would want to watch more as you have a need to see what happens to the character. The opening sequence does not give too much away however you get to see a character and a tone is set for the rest of the movie.
http://www.officialsaw.com/
Time Line of tiles from 'Saw 111'
Time Lime Comparison of 'House of Wax', 'The Strangers' and 'Saw Three'
From viewing opening sequences from other films in the horror genre we have decided that the titles we are going to use are the production company name, the associate, the composer and the title of the film. This is because all the films contained similar titles for example placing the title of the film at the end of the sequence as that is how the comparisons were. We have chosen to use a black a screen for the background as we preferred this look, and is the same style as most of the horror sequence’s we have looked at. We have chosen to hold the titles for four seconds, other than the main title of six seconds, because our opening is shorter than the films so cannot be held for a really long period of time. The title is held for longer as we decided it to be the most important for the viewer the read and remember. All the titles will fade in and out as this is a popular pattern for horror films as it seems more mysterious.
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