Genres

The genre of my film is a Thriller/Fantasy/Horror - here I will be looking at the conventions of most Thrillers, and if possible, look at openings from Horror and Fantasy films. In this post I will be looking at the opening of Thrillers, Horror's and Fantasy's

Thriller Film Opening: As I mentioned in a previous post - I loved the opening to Fight Club, I plan on using a few similar techniques in this opening to my own opening -




Analysis of Fight Club opening - Despite the fact that the majority of this is CGI extreme close ups on nerve endings, muscle tissue etc. Are used well to build up audience tension, at first it isn't clear to the audience what they are watching however slowly when the shot pans out to reveal Edward Norton with a gun in his mouth. The performance of acting used here adds humour despite the very serious situation. Although this type of humour isn't a common convention in Thriller films, dark humour does appear to be used in the majority of thriller/horror films. I will be using this technique in my opening.

Horror Film Opening: Currently my idea is that the Assassins in my film are vampires, because of this I need to research Horror films because vampires are more commonly seen in horror films. To research, I watched the opening of Saw -





Analysis of Saw opening - Very little is seen during the opening - we are only introduced to the protagonists and other characters are begin to become familiar with their situation. To add to the Horror genre dark lighting, dark, scary music as well as other things (such as the story line) Despite the fact that I will have Vampires featuring in my opening I don't plan on making them gory/horror Vampires - I want to make them my own.


What I have also noticed in Thriller films, is the protagonist (not always the hero) is introduced with in the first five minutes - what I have also noticed is that the opening titles usually have their own feel to them unlike in romantic comedies where the names of actors, directors etc. are part of the shot instead of having their own 'scene' for them. I plan on breaking this 'rule' as it were - by keeping the opening titles as part of the shot, however I will be using a technique often used in Independent films; for example, a character may walk past a black wall, however when they walk past it the title of the film would be revealed. I like this look as so will be attempting to keep this in my idea, however it may be subject to change.

In the typical horror films the opening scene opens with the people involved, who get affected by the murder/bad guy. they're usually young, attractive and have the all round likability factor for the audience (these characters are the one's who usually end up slaughtered) in my opening I will play into this typical technique however with a series of cuts and transitions into different scenes, I will allow the audience to realise that the young, attractive teenager is not the protagonist.