Cape Fear opening is basic but indeed very effective in creating mood and atmosphere, the music at the start is quite scary and dark like a horror movie but then changes into bass instruments as the bird of prey comes into shot, this represents danger and also death, we see the bird from a low angle which makes it looks like its going swoop down and snatch us(it's prey)with its talons.
The font that comes up is initalics and is in a rippled effect, probably because it's on top of water, this may be an enigma code to film, or of what is to come.
The eye in the water that comes into shot looks surprised and also scared and the pupil is darting around the screen as if it's looking for someone or something.
Then we see a figure in the water, a shadow of a man, this then fades away into the droplets of red water of where it once was, this shadow is quite sinister but then disappears in a flash, we then see a close up of eyes, which keep on changing colour from red to blue, we start to wonder why they have put them there, this is another enigma code.
This is a clip from the opening sequence to 'Cape Fear'
The opening sequence is taken from “The
Secret Window”, staring Johnny Depp and written and directed by David Koepp.
The
genre of “The Secret Window” is a psychological thriller; a psychological
thriller isa fictional thriller story which emphasizes the
psychology of its characters and their unstable emotional states. In terms of classification, the category is a
sub-genre of the broader ranging thriller category, with similarities to Gothic
and detective fiction. A psychological thriller is also used to create
suspense, set up enigma codes and it is a taster of what to come throughout the
film we are talking about.
In the opening of “The Secret
Window” there are a lot of close-ups of Johnny Depp whilst he is in the car;
there is also a voice over telling Johnny’s character “Mort Rainy” turn back
and go back to the block of motels where his then wife “Amy” is in bed with
another man.
Mise-en-scene; the location is in
a block of motels in the middle of winter, I gather this information from the
snow on the ground and it is pouring with sleet/snow on Johnny Depp’s character
as he is walking in to the building to get the key from the manager’s office
where the keys are hung up on the wall, as he walks into the manager’s office
we all get a warm vibe as he walks in because there is heater right beside the
door.
Sound; the opening sequence of the
titles of “The Secret Window” is quite a scary sounding piece using chello like
instruments which gives it a mystery feel. At the end of the film the is
cut-scene of a lake with a chello instrument playing over as the camera pans
across the lake on a high angle, so we see the extent of the lake.
Conclusion; I think that this is a
typical thriller opening because you have suspense and a taster of what is to
come throughout the film.
A thriller film mainly consits of a battle between the Protagonist(The good guy) and the Antagonist(The bad guy). The aim of the Protagonist is to restore justice, while the Antagonist seeks to destroy it.
Conventions of a thriller are;
Low key lighting
Quick cuts
Shadows
Tension Music
Digetic sound of breathing
Black and white shots
Montage of shots
Protagonist is in the mercy of the Antagonist
The Antagonist is usually a brave and strong male who seeks out to restore the equlilibrium,
the Protagonist will usually have a secret identity that the audience will discover the film goes on.
The storyline is actually quite realistic, so the audience will thinks it could happen to them, which makes them feel vunerable.
Editing of a thriller
The director will include quite a lot jump cuts because there will be a lot of things happening that the audience will not be aware of, but we need these for the film to make sense. In our film we will have jump cuts because if we want to see what the main character is looking at, e.g shot of my face then shot of something that i'm looking at.
Music in a thriller
Music is an important part to any film, to understand the mood of a particular character in the film or just to add suspense to a particular scene.
Vertigo was made in 1958, and it was directed by Alfred Hitchcock, Vertigo is a detective mystery thriller, romance and drama. It starts off you see a woman's face her lips and her cheeks, it slowly pans up to the top of her face where we see an "EC" of her eyes looking around the room as I someone's watching her. Saul Bass uses the titles well in the opening titles, because they are well positioned on the screen, so everyone can see. As soon as the title "Vertigo" comes up the whole pauses so you can get a good look at the titles. The whole scene then goes in to a blood red colour, and we start to see a spiral emerging from the centre of her eye(pupil), the eye then starts to disappear and we just see the swirl, the swirl then changes colour to blue and we start to see names appear on the right hand side of the screen, again well positioned. There are a number of swirls then we start to see her eye appear again. This is a very good sequence as he has created a lot of enigma codes to fit the movies genre.
