A Scanner Darkly-opening sequence

I found this opening sequence very weird, and because of that it really stood out to me. It immediately shows the film makers intentions for the whole film, and indicates to the audience what to expect from the rest of the film. This is such an important factor in an opening sequence. They use close-ups a lot to show the main detail of the clip, the bugs, which break up the clip to make it more interesting. It also draws detail to important aspects that will crop up in the rest of the film. This was another reason i thought this was a successful opening sequence. It is very important for the rest of the film aswell as being an introduction.

I love the animation in this film. It is a process called rotoscoping, where in post production animators trace over live-action film movement, frame by frame. It is also used in the film Sin City.

Individual Possible Problems

For our shoot I tried to work on certain things to help me to be a better group member and to enhance my contribution to avoiding the possible problems of filming. These were:

• Be organised - Charging up equipment, bringing all equipment etc.
• Bring Props - remember to seek out and bring important things for our shoot
• Be a good/serious actor - trying not to laugh and trying my hardest to act
• Helping with other actors - so they are happy and not complaing/suffering in silence
• Communication - being in constant communication with everyone involved

Overall everyone in the group contributed well on both the test and the real shooting weekends and the only problem we thought we could not solve was the weather but the rain was not too bad in the end and conditions were fine enough to enable us to shoot.

Title Sequence - The Titles

For my Title sequence I should include titles for most of the following:

• Film Title
• Actors
• Production Companies
• Director/Producer
• (Based on Novel?)
• Screenplay adapted by
• Music
• casting
  

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Opening Sequence

For me this film was a sort of inspiration for our idea. In the opening scene the characters are established well as druggies and I believe there are many interesting techniques used in this film that i believe we could try and adapt to our own project. I really like the narrated voice-over throughout the film, as Johnny Depp's hallucinations are explained to us although we do not always see them ourselves.

There is a lot of eerieness created by the weird characters that I belive could also work well in a thriller, since it could create a lot of enigma and suspense around our main character.

I really like the very last shot of this clip. It is a Close-up of Johnny Depp's face and it actually looks quite scary because his character is on so many drugs. Therefore I think with darker lighting and possibly some sinister music, this could really work well in the Thriller genre.

Thriller Sub-genres

The Thriller Genre is made up of a range of sub-genres.
These include:

• Spy Thrillers
• Political Thrillers
• Military Thrillers
• Conspiracy Thrillers
• Technothrillers
• Eco-Thrillers
• Erotic Thrillers
• Legal Thrillers
• Forensic Thrillers
• Medical Thrillers
• Psychological Thrillers
• Horror Thriller
• Disaster Thriller
• Serial killer Thriller
• Romantic Thrillers
• Supernatural Thrillers
• Action Thrillers
• Crime Thrillers

I am particularly interested in the Psychological Thriller Sub-genre. Films I have seen like Psycho, Memento and The Talented Mr. Ripley have inspired me to possibly focus on this sub-genre of thriller. I really want to see Fight Club as soon as I can and I have been advised by Jennifer to see Mr. Brooks.
These Thrillers strongly focus on character and there is usually an emphasis on the characters mind, what they are thinking and their mental state.

The Thriller Genre

Genres allow us to place a film into a category and to create conventions. They are very helpful to both the film industry and audiences. Genre conventions allow the film industry to know what is successful in a particular genre and to give familiarity to the audiences. Audiences use genre to help make a guess of what they will and wont like. If an audience liked a particular genre, then they can make decisions easier on what films they think they may like. They would like the familiarity of genre conventions, and would begin to have expectation of a genre based on genre conventions.
Conventions can be broken down into the categories:

• Characters
  
• Narratives
  
• Themes
  
• Iconography

Typical Thriller Characters:

• Psycho
• Detective
• Assasin
• Victims
• Criminals

Typical Thriller Narratives:

• Death (pre-determined, murder, accidental, suicide)
• Red Herring
• Being Watched
• Being Followed
• Deception

Typical Thriller Themes:

• Entrapment
• Isolation
• Voyeurism
• Revenge
• Gain

Typical Thriller Iconography

• Shadows
• Street Lamps
• Confined Spaces
• Running Water
• Bars on Windows
  

2005/2006 Thriller Projects

I've been watching the Thriller projects from previous Latymer media groups. They have been a big help in my initial ideas to my own thriller opening sequence. My favourite was called 'Exposure'.



I think my first main attraction to it was the use of sound. All the sounds are very exaggerated, and really emphasise all the small details bringing our focus to every small action creating suspense. The fact there is no speech also really adds to the suspense as we do not know whether the character is our protagonist or antagonist. The emphasis on his fast breaths, quick footsteps, the rustling of keys, and him shoving clothes into the bag adds to the mystery and suspense since we wonder what has caused him to want to get away so quickly. Also his actions are typical conventions of running away, packing his bags in a hurried mess, running to the medicine cabinet etc. I especially liked the very fast paced short sequence where there is a montage of clips where he zips up his coat and puts his bag down etc. which then stops at him with his hand on the door ready to leave. This hesitation brings great tension at this point, Why has he stopped? At this point the music then starts and the pace becomes very slow. The eerie music mixed with this unexpected slower pace also brings suspense and the camera tracking his footsteps adds to this and makes us ask the question, Where is he walking to? The suspense also builds when we (the camera) enter the room but it is too dark to make out anything. Once the light is flicked on, some of our questions are finally answered and the story of the film has been set, without giving much away. I love the idea of all the photographs in the room, and i also love the lighting in the room, it looks very unnatural and makes the scene look quite eerie.
Overall I think this is a very good opening sequence as the techniques were carried out very well, and the thought going into every small detail makes you want to watch on, completing the task of an opening sequence.