BALANCE STUDIOS

Identifying elements of my opening:

-Mise-en-scene

The Murder weapon which is a wire, is also commonly used in other thriller films as a means to kill someone. In my opinion this weapon is an a lot better choice over the gun or knife, as it seems to be a lot more sinister way of killing someone. using the strangler to kill some one will be an a longer and a lot more painful way of dying. this use of weapon can also be a way to draw the audience's attention to the film. i intend to have the actor use a lot different facial expressions to create emotion as he struggles to stay alive. this effect will make the experience a lot scarier and can also build a lot of tension in the scene for the audience.

One of our other props is a car. i have managed to obtain a car in our title sequence. This car is a modern type as most political thriller movies have big jeeps as a means of transport for important people, often a person who works with the government. I made a few phone calls and was able to get a BMW X6 Jeep, Crome black.

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I also went into great detail about the location as well. Whilst researching potential locations i decided to make an alternative location, just in case our original plan did not work. Our first location was going to be at the Business design centre Underground car park. However the manager said we couldn't use it so we stuck with our alternative location which was Woolf mews car park. This location was great for an opening scene because it set the right mood and atmosphere i wanted our film to have. A few great elements from the location i took to build suspense were; the condensation from the chimney, this gives the opening a cold and harsh feeling and makes the audience expect something bad is going to happen. The barbed wire almost reminds the audience of a prison, It makes them feel as if they are trapped and there is no way out. 

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-Sound elements

Whilst editing footage in Premiere Pro, I realised i could create even more suspense by editing the volume and sharpness at points in the non-diegetic sound. At the point where the killer drops the bin bag, the non-diegetic sound becomes louder and the beat becomes faster. This effect adds suspense because it makes the audience suspicious of this character and it makes the audience anticipate that something bad is about to happen. From the point where the killer has broken into the victims car and the picture fades out, i placed a riff point and set the volume to medium low, the second point i placed was at the moment when the victim is strangled and set the volume to its highest. Throughout this end part of the opening, tension is being built all the time, the audience cant notice it but the music becomes louder and louder and builds more and more suspense till the victim is finally killed. I also focused a lot on the titles and tried to sync the non-diegetic sound along side them. Every base drum beat that is made the title flashes on screen, The drum beat is sharp and quick therefore the animation on the titles need to be sharp and quick.

-Camera and editing

I used many different camera angles to create suspense. I used a few low angles of the tall buildings surrounding the car park in the establishing shots. These buildings almost seem to hang over and shadow to car park setting a dark claustrophobic atmosphere. The condensation from the chimney also gives the opening a cold harsh feeling which also builds tension and suspense. I also added a blue filter on the whole opening to further exaggerate the cold harsh atmosphere.