Evaluation- Forms and Conventions of Thriller title sequences: Question 1.

Also shown in my pervious blog 'Intertextuality shots' i am going to compare 9 shots from from our thriller opening and our inspiration 'The Black Swan.'

 

This shot was inspired by Natalie Portmans character in the Black Swan as she stretches before her dance class. Our mise-en-scene was a dance studio that I regularly attend, so i got permission from the dance teacher to use it. The mise-en-scene is established so that the conventional idea of introducing location was successful. This shot is intertexualised purposely in order to show a clear link between our thriller and the Black Swan.

This shot establishes the character as in a typical opening you must introduce the key characters so that the audience get a feel of the film, genre and storyline. This positioning of the dancer was on purpose copied by Natalie Portman as she releases her arms backwards and tilts her head forwards, again emphasising the type of genre it is, supernatural and a dance based film.

The classic ballerinas ballet shoes are one of our key motifs throughout our opening, the ballet shoes prop establishes not only who the character is wearing them, but also wear she is, in a dance studio. Our location isn't specified so that everything can stay secret, she could be dancing in New York, Paris, London or Russia, we've left it to the audience to decide.

Inspired by her worried blood shot eyes, this extreme close up of the eyes creates suspense and tension as the audience are wanting to know what is going to happen next. We were going to use red eye contact lenses to make her look blood shot, anxious and stressed, however we thought this would be over the top and may take away from the shots. We have put a twist to it to make it more scary rather than dramatic, so instead of red eyes, we have just adjusted dark lighting and light lighting to each side of the face. this establishes the character and makes the audience aware of who she is and her situation, the eyes can tell a lot about someone, especially if they are bloodshot, it could suggest tiredness and issues.

In this long shot below we have used it in order to show the dancers whole body and clear movements of the arms flowing from up to down, and feet are on pointe. This is used in Black Swan as she dances as the white swan at the beginning, emphasised by the spoltight, however we didn't have the equipment to make it look as good.




Our titles are in conventional order as the Seven opening, however we have gone conventional as te title isn't near the beginning its right in the middle, which works for our opening as it clearly separates the two different scenes.