The Happening

The Happening

I was unable to find the correct youtube video for the opening sequence of this thriller, however I managed to study it by watching the first 3/4 minutes on DVD. The movie begins with a background of relatively clear blue sky and the titles of the movie and production crew and cast appear one by one by fading in and fading out.

There is music in the background which is non-diegetic and appears to be soft percussion which begins to play along with an ambient sound of wind which makes it feel more realistic to the audience.

As the sequence of titles continues with a variety of low angle shots showing the sky, the colour of the sky begins to fade from blue and clear, to more cloudy and darker shades of blue suggesting something bad is going to occur as the atmosphere is getting eerie.

The lighting in this shot is a lot darker than the natural lighting in the first shot of the opening sequence foreshadowing the bad things that are about to occur. The non-diegetic music goes onto a lower key in this shot as well which builds tension for the audience aswell as there being fewer ambient sounds such as the wind and birds in the background suggesting something unnatural is going to happen.

The pace of the music begins to increase at this particular point in the sequence which begins to build tension and curiosity within the audience as it becomes quite frantic with many clouds forming a mist in the background which can be seen as quite spooky.

The colour contrast between this shot and the first shot in the title sequence is huge as there were clear blue skies in the first shot and in one of the final shots the sky is an extremley dark grey or blue and there are lots of clouds clustered around the titles. The music continues to get faster and louder towards the end of the sequence, and after the final title, the sky background fades to complete darkness and as the title fades to black too, the music comes to a sudden stop which gives the audience a sense of relief although curiosity as to what will happen next.

The opening sequence footage begins in a familiar location of a park as there is grass and nature in the background of the low angle mid panning shot showing a man walking a dog which are typical scenes which we expect to see in the location where it is set. The sound is diegetic and reflects the natural environment such as ambient sounds of footsteps and the wind in the background. The scene starts off as a normal every day setting suggesting to the audience that the film will appear to be more realistic to them.

It then changes to a long establishing shot showing a busy path of people walking dogs, strolling through the park, going to work and cycling which all appear to be normal things, which contrasts with what we would expect from a typical thriller. Titles fade in at the bottom of the shot in the centre position informing the audience of the location 'Central Park, New York City' and the time '8.33AM' which gives the audience a bit of background information on the scene and allows them to relate with the setting and the idea that people will be going to work and taking their children to school and this explains the crowd of people in the long shot and their different roles such as a jogger, business man and mother of children. The audience are able to hear brief dialogue between some of the characters in this shot and childrens laughter can be heard which suggests the happiness at the time. The background is very natural and typical to a park such as trees, benches, fences and grass which reminds us of the reality this scene is trying to portray.

The next shot is an upwards mid shot of the sky with a surrounding of many trees and leaves showing the natural environment of the location again. We can also see the sky scrapers in the distance which are out of focus which sets the location as New York as this is where they are ususally associated with. The shot shows the wind blowing through the leaves which is a calm scene and suggests the idea of 'the calm before the storm' which then builds tension for the audience as to what will happen next. The sound is diegetic of the wind whistling which adds to the calm feeling of this scene building more tension for the audience.

A long shot is used showing two young woman dressed in casual clothes such as t-shirts sat on a park bench talking so dialogue can be heard, discussing the page of the book which one of the woman is reading showing her intelligence. The sound remains similar to the previous shots with added dialogue and a scream can be heard which leads to the other woman turning to the side dramatically. An eye line match is then used from a long shot of the lady looking to the side to a frantic pan shot of her point of view showing natural scenes of people walking etc yet there are less people around than before suggesting the rush hour before work has settled down a little. A side angle close up shows the emotion on the womans face which is worried and scared and her dialogue 'That's funny, it's weird, those people look like they're clawing at themselves. Is that blood?' suggests she is unsure of what is happening in the direction she is watching, and as her friend does not react, its suggest her characters insanity.

Another eyeline match is used as a long shot point of view shows people in the distance and one man is walking backwards which is unusual behaviour for anybody which shows the start of the spooky events which are about to happen. There is less diegetic natural noise such as conversations and footsteps in this shot which creates an eerie and tense atmosphere. Another scream is heard and the female character looks to the other side and her fear increases shown by a close up of her reaction, followed by another eye line match of the previous busy crowded path however everybody is stood asif frozen and one man walks backwards towards the character.

A long shot shows a a male and female in casual clothes stood still like statues however a pan shows a dog continuing to act normal running around the suspicious behaving humans. The only sound which is heard is the dogs footsteps on the grass which is diegetic.

A mid close up shot shows both female characters in the shot at the same time emphasising the lack of reaction from the other woman in comparison to the main character's worried emotion. Her dialogue repeats 'Claire' showing her concern that she is the only person seeing these unusual actions from the other people in the scene. The sound in the background is a low tone which builds tension to the atmosphere as she waits for a response from Claire

A close up is used to show the lack of emotion on Claire's face as she finally responds to the other lady with dialogue in a slow and simple tone 'What page?'. The shot expresses her concern as she asks the question as she appears to be unsettled about something and not making eye contact with her friend which you would expect in normal conversation. The quiet and eerie non-diegetic sound which represents the wind getting stronger can still be heard.

Claire raises her hand to her neatly tied up hair and a close up shows her forcefully pull out a silver stick which we are unsure of it's purpose. The slow motion effect of her actions builds more tension on what she will use the prop for and the silence other than the continuing wind sound creates an eerie atmosphere.

 An over the shoulder close up shot is used to show Claire from her mouth to her shoulders and the focus of the scene is on Claire however we are able to see the other female who appears to be the main character in the background who is slightly out of focus. The eerie non-diegetic sound can still be heard, and as Claire pierces the silver prop into her skin, we hear the exaggerated sound of it entering her neck. This adds a gory and scary element to the opening sequence suiting the genre of the thiller. This opening sequence ends leaving the audience curious as to what has happened and what will happen to both of the females afterwards.

 

Titles

Twentieth Century Fox presents

In association with UTV Motion Pictures

And Spyglass entertainment

A blinding edge pictures production

Mark Wahlberg

The Happening

Zooey Deschanel

John Leguizamo

Betty Buckley

Frank Collison

Ashlyn Sanchez

Spencer Breslin

Robert Bailey JR

Casting by Douglas Aibel, Stephanie Holbrook CSA

Costume designer Betsy Heimann

Music by James Newton Howard

Co-producers Jose L.Rodriguez, Deven Khote

Edited by Conrad Buff A.C.E

Production Designer Jeannine Oppewall

Director of Photography Tak Fujimoto ASC

Executive producers Ronnie Screwvala and Zarina Screwvala

Executive producers Roger Birnbaum, Gary Barber

Produced by Sam Mercer and Barry Mendel

Written, produced and directed by M.Night Shyamalan

The titles at the beginning of the sequence are presented in white capitals in a relatively large and bold font which enables them to stand out from the background of the sky which darkens as the titles continue to fade in and fade out.

Casino Royale

Casino Royale

After watching the opening sequence above showing the titles to the film, it is easy to establish the genre of the film as an action/crime thriller due to the typical conventions such as weapons, blood and gambling being crime related and the shooting scenes that are editing onto the sequence show action and as this is a sequial to previous James Bond movies, the audience have the pragmatic understanding that the films fit into this genre.

The beginning of the title sequence starts with a long shot of James Bond who is easy to recognise due to previous Bond films and he is also the first character we see exaggerating his importance in the film as the main character. His costume suggests he is of a high status as he is wearing a sophisticated black suit with a white shirt and bow tie, showing his sophistication. He is holding a gun which is a typical convention for action thrillers and also relates to crime as it is a weapon. The editing which follows this shot is an old fashioned technique called an iris in, where the images around the shot of Bond, begin to spiral in on him and represent a gun barrel which are typical to the James Bond movies. As the iris in takes place, it emphasises Bond's independence and isolation as he is alone on the shot and the idea of a gun barrel getting closer to him suggests he is a target to others involved in crime. As Bond fires the gun, a non-diegetic sound effect is used of a gun shot to emphasise the power and danger of the shot.

 

The editing which then follows is the image of blood trickling down the screen, suggesting Bond's opponent was shot by him which also tells us he is professional at using weapens and targeting the correct people, showing his high status in the film. The music in the clip fades in and begins to play as this edit takes place and it is a dramatic style of non-diegetic music which fits in well with the idea of action thriller. The music continues throughout the title sequence and builds tension as the sequence progresses, the song used is a version of 'You Know My Name' performed and co-produced by Chris Cornell of Soundgarden and Audioslave fame, and was arranged with David Arnold's orchestration especially for this title sequence.

 

As the blood continues to wipe down the screen, details of the production company fade in on top of the edit in a clear white font which is easy to read. The shot above shows this happening, along with the use of editing approaching the shot by using the theme of casinos and cards, the shapes of the hearts off the cards begin to spiral round the information. These shapes continue to spiral and more are added such as spades from playing cards which are typical conventions to a casino, fitting in with the title of the thriller well. The next text we are presented with is the main characters actors name, 'Daniel Craig' showing his importance and success as his name is shown before the title of the movie.

The colour scheme of the shots are red and black which suggests danger as red is usually associated with blood and black is usually associated with the antagonist of a thriller. The editing continues for the next few shots with the playing card symbols spiraling round key information on the film, until it gets to the main title shot.


 After the shot above, the colour scheme changes to a more colourful scheme however still keeps the red and black continuous throughout. The editing continues on the screen through a pan shot of special effects which were produced through a computer software. Bond appears on screen again and is within the special effects so there is contrast on reality and computer. A close up shot is used to show Bond's hand as he places a 'bullet' in the shape of a spade into a gun and this then changes into a mid shot of Bond sat casually showing his familiarity with the weapon.

The background shot represents the theme of the film as it is a Jack which is usually seen on a playing card, which are used in casinos. Bond is shown in a long shot using a gun representing the film as a crime and action thriller movie. There are then many shots of guns firing arrows or darts across the screen in slow motion and one hits a person and they dissolve into pieces. The opening sequence then continues with animated action scenes between bond and another person in a sophisticated suit like Bond suggesting his importance too. Every person that Bond fights in the sequence of action, dissolves showing his power and destruction to others.

The editing continues to combine the conventions of the genres casino and crime by having targets that are associated with guns and shooting, slowly spiral and fade into casino roulette wheels. Low angle, pan shots are used to show the opponents of Bond lying on the floor injured or dead with the symbold of playing cards stuck in them representing bullets or perhaps daggers.

The action continues and shows Bond's skills in the sequence as he avoids bullets and danger suggesting he is not easily defeated. At the end the graphics in the background continue through editing and the music begins to slow down in pace as we see a silohette of Bond walking in slow motion towards the camera, until we are presented with a close up of Daniel Craig's face showing little facial expression although looking very powerful and serious. The opening sequence finishes through the use of a fade as sections of Bond's face turn to black and then the whole shot fades to black as the music comes to a dramatic end with upbeat drums and then silence.

Tension is created throughout this opening sequence, through the use of slow motion on the action and editing as it builds up the adreniline of the fight scenes and the audience are left in suspense. The music also builds tension as it is of a similar pace throughout the sequence until the end where it gets faster and louder with more drum beats, then as we are presented with a close up of James Bond, the music fades to silence which has a powerful effect on the audience and leaves them curious as to what will happen in the rest of the film.

Titles in the sequence

Albert R. Broccoli's Eon Productions LTD. presents

Daniel Craig

Ian Fleming's James Bond 007

Casino Royale

Starring Eva Green

Mads Mikkelsen

Giancarlo Giannini

Caterina Murino

Simon Abkarian

Isaach De Bankole

Jesper Christensen

Ivana Milicevic

Tobias Menzies

Claudio Santamaria

Free running stunts by Sebastien Foucan

with Jeffrey Wright

and Judi Dench as M

Associate Producer Andrew Noakes

Production Executive David Pope

Camera Operator Rodger Pearce

Second Unit Assistant Director Terry Madden

Script supervisor Jean Bourne

Publicity and marketing Anne Bennett

Promotors Keith Snelgrove

Assistant producer David G.Wilson

Sound recordist Chris Munro

Electrical supervisor Eddie Knight

Stills photographer Jay Maidment

Makeup supervisor Paul Engelen

Hairdressing supervisor Christine Blundell

Wardrobe supervisor Dan Grace

Visual effects and miniture supervisor Steve Begg

Supervising art director Simon Lamont

Property Master Ty Teiger

Construction manager Stephen Bohan

Post production supervisor Michael Solinger

Unit production manager Jeremy Johns

Second unit production manager Terry Bamber

First assistant director Bruce Moriarty

Casting Debbie McWilliams

Stunt coordinator Gary Powell

Special effects and miniature effects supervisor Chris Corbould

Main title designed by Daniel Kleinman

Second unit director Alexander Witt

Costume designer Lindy Hemming

Editor Stuart Baird A.C.E

Director of photography Phil Meheus B.S.C

Production designer Peter Lamont

Music by David Arnold

'You Know My Name' performed by Chris Cornell written and produced by Chris Cornell and David Arnold

Executive producers Anthony Waye and Callum McDougall

Based on the novel by Ian Flemming

Screenplay by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade and Paul Haggis

Produced by Michael G.Wilson and Barrbara Broccoli

Directed by Martin Campbell

These titles are presented in the colour white to enable that they stand out on the title sequence background and the majority of them entrance through a transition such as fade in and exit through a fade out. The fonts are simple to read and are of a small size apart from the ones at the start before Casino Royale, where they are larger to express their importance.

 

Black Swan

Black Swan

The opening sequence of Black Swan begins with titles which are not shown within the following clip, however after watching the opening of the film via DVD I was able to watch the complete sequence. The film begins with a black out and the titles fade in accompanied by a non-diegetic eerie piece of music which sounds mysterious, and also reminds the audience of ballet as it is an acoustic piece of music which ballet dancers often perform to. This immediately gives the audience an idea of the genre of film they are watching which appears to be dance and thriller combined to make a unique film.

The title shots fade in from the darkness and remain on the screen for a small amount of time, before fading out line by line to give a spookier effect as they disappear. The music seems to get quieter and a quoet evil laugh can be heard as the title of the movie 'Black Swan' appears in shot which also gives it an eerie vibe before fading to black once again. From this point, the shot fades in to a long shot of a ballerina performing in a spot light, however the image is not completely clear, holding on to the mysterious feel of the start. The audience can establish that the actress is a ballerina through the mise-en-scene in the shot as she is wearing a traditional ballet outfit with a tutu, leotard and tights and her hair is neatly scraped into a bun. The lighting is dark with only a dim spotlight on the character suggesting that it is a ballet performance. The position of the character is central showing their importance and grace as a dancer.

 

The shot then changes to an over the shoulder shot of a figure walking towards the innocent looking ballerina. The music begins to get louder and builds tension as the mysterious and dark figure approaches her.

 

As the figure comes into the spot light, we are able to identify them as a male with stern expression suggesting he is going to harm or upset the ballerina, causing tension to the audience as they are unaware of his purpose in the scene. A close up shows the scared expression on the ballerinas face and a sound effect of her exaggerated gasping is heard emphasising her fear towards this unknown person.

 

Special effects are then used to change the costume of the male into a scary looking creature which adds further mystery to the performance and suits the thriller genre as it may be scary to some of the audience. The non-diegetic music begins to suddenly pick up the pace at this moment and this is where most of the action takes place in the scene.

 

A mid shot is used throughout the performance where both the ballerina and creature are together and the camera follows them through their routine to add a sense or mystery to the scene and the build up of the music as the moves get faster creates a lot of tension. The performance becomes more frantic at this point in the sequence and the ballerina's costume changes into white feathers suggesting she is a swan such as in the title of the film.

 

The non-diegetic music then becomes much calmer as the male creature is absent from the camera shot and a close up is used to show the emotion on the ballerina's face which appears to be sad and worried.

 

The instruments in the music then become less frequent as the ballerina 'flutters' off into the distance as the camera zooms out until eventually fading to black just like the begging of the sequence suggesting a cycle in the scene as it ends as it started. This may represent somebodies dream as the fades could represent them going to sleep and then waking up. This suggests the lack of reality within the storyline and the music fades as well as the shot.

Titles

Fox searchlight pictures presents

In association with Cross creek pictures

A protozoa and phoenix pictures production

Black Swan

The titles are written in white on a black background which enables them to stand out and also represents the contrast of the graceful swan and black creature in the opening sequence. The titles are written in a bold and clear font and the fade in and fade out transitions of the titles make them appear to be mysterious.

Thriller Research

Thrillers

The thrillers which I am going to research are:

 

Black Swan

Casino Royale
The Happening

 

 

I am going to research the opening sequences to these thrillers and note any textual analysis, connotations, how they portray tension and any typical camera shots and effects used throughout. This will help me understand the genre of thrillers in more depth and give me inspiration of different opening sequences. I need to be careful not to confuse opening sequences with the movie trailers as these are two different things.

 

Trailer

Movie trailers such as the one below which is the Black Swan Offical trailer

 

This is an example of a thriller movie trailer as it is created to advertise the best moments of the movie in a short space of time usually lasting around 2 or 3 minutes or in this case 2.09minutes. The trailer consists of the best parts of the movie in order to entice people to go and see the film as this would be shown at the cinema or on TV to persuade the audience to go and watch the film. The scenes in the trailer are not chronological to the actual film sequence as the editers often change them around to create a dramatic trailer which leaves the audience wondering what happens which will then entice them to go and watch it to find out. In this trailer, the music is non-diegetic and it is eerie which builds up at the end as the shots get faster to build tension for an audience. The trailer does not tell the whole plot of the film, however it gives the audience some understanding as to the basic idea of the film and the genre of the movie through typical conventions, such as the scars in this trailer suggesting a supernatural person or creature haunting them. The trailers are also used to portray to the audience the actors and actresses they have used in them such as at the end of this trailer where the main stars names appear e.g. 'Natalie Portman', which allows people to see the talent of the actors involved. This trailer in particular suggests the idea of a psycho thriller as nearer the end the shots change frantically and the emotion on the actresses face show fear and confusion suggesting a psychotic story line.

 

The footage I am researching is not trailers, however they are often mixed up with openining sequences. I have now established the difference between them and am able to research only the opening sequences of the thrillers I have chosen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prelim Task

 

Planning

I have decided that I will work best on this topic in a group with two other students in my class, and as a group we sat down and began to plan any ideas that we had related to the task brief we were given which was:

 

A short film around one minute long which included the following actions:

Somebody opening a door

The door opening

A conversation between two people sitting down- around four lines of dialogue

Somebody exiting the scene

 

This footage had to include different camera angles and movements and was to be edited by us.

 

Our group started off the prelim task by creating a mindmap of various ideas we had individually and putting them together so everybody had contributed their opinions and possible ideas for the content and filming of our short film. We looked at the many different sections and noted down any thoughts we had for the task.

My Story Board

 

We then decided to each draw a story board on our own to show our own ideas of what the footage should look like with the plot, camera shots and sound. Each of us had to include shots of somebody opening a door, sitting down with somebody and around 4 lines of dialogue must be shared between them. I decided to use the plot of a girl character running away frantically at the start of the footage as it leaves the auience wondering what she is running away from. I then decided to use a flashback effect to the previous action that had led her to run away. I then did a shot of her hand opening the door followed by an action match of the door opening, where she walks to a bench and sits down to have a conversation with a male character who's role is a thug. The idea of the plot is that the girl owes the boy money and he is threatening her if she doesn't bring him it. This then makes sense as to why she is running away at the start.

 

Laura-Jo's Story Board

 Laura-Jo took a different approach to the similar plot we had of the girl oweing the thug money, however her story board started with a pan of the girls feet walking towards the door which would then open, and her scene ended with a chase unlike mine which started with a chase.

Nikki's Story Board

 

Nikki's story board is very similar to Laura-Jo's with the structure as the pan of the feet to start with and then ending with a chase scene.

 

After we had all drawn our ideas on to a story board, we sat down as a group and discussed which elements we liked best on them for our film. We decided as it was the majority vote of the group, that it was best to start off with the pan of the girl's feet walking towards the door and ending with a frantic chase scene filmed using handheld camera. We then continued by discussing the different locations in which we could film the plot we had agreed on and decided that the picnic benches outside lower site cage would be best as it is a quieter location for filming and the door scene could still be shot there. We then discussed what the characters needed to wear and decided that casual clothes would be good for the age of the characters, and therefore decided a costume wasn't necessary as the actors would already be in casual clothes when we film it at sixth form. We came up with the different camera shots which we liked from the three different story boards and decided which shots would be used in a particular order.

 

Filming

The first decision we had to make as a group was the actor and actress we wanted in our film. We decided to ask a boy in our year to play the thug and Nikki from our group played the girl as she had the correct outfit and image for the role. This left me and Laura-Jo to using the camera and filming the footage, which we took turns in doing e.g. Laura-Jo would film the first shot with mine and Nikki's input and advice on different angles and movements, then for the next shot I would film with help and advice from those two. We also included a scene which was through hand held camera to allow Nikki to film some footage as well.This allowed us all to have equal roles in the production of the footage and we all had input on the final shots. The day which we decided to film on was snowy so we had to change the scene where the characters sit on a bench as it was covered in snow and unrealistic to sit on it, so we changed the scene to two characters standing sharing dialogue. We had to do more than one shot of each scene as the focus was incorrect or we hadn't got the correct angle on the image and this then benefited us in the editing stage as we were able to chose which shots worked best together. I enjoyed using the cameras and filming the shots, however if we were to do it again, I would use a tripod for the camera to ensure that the shot was steady and clear. I would also try and record the sound separately as the dialogue is difficult to understand.

 

 Editing

The editing stages were the most difficult in my opinion as I was using a software which I wasn't familiar with and therefore had to experiment with the different options before beginning to edit the clips together. We took it in turns to do a section of the video and edited it to the final idea that we had come up with, however some sections we changed due to the options the software gave us for example we added a transition between shots where Nikki was running, to give the impression that she had ran for a long time which had an exciting effect on the final video. As a group we had a few issues with editing such as sections deleting half way through which meant we had to edit the shots again and sort out the order of the footage. We managed to solve this problem quickly together and continued with the editing, I found the cropping option hard to get used to at first but now I feel confident when using the tool and can make footage link together smoothly. We decided to change the song from the original idea as the song we chose 'Me and You' by Nero which was more exciting than 'I predict a riot' by Kaiser Chiefs as it was more upbeat and matched the running scene better. We made final changes such as adapting the volume of the different scenes to allow the dialogue to be heard more clearly over the ambient sounds. 

 

Our final video

 

 

Evaluation

I am happy with the final result of the prelim task as I think it came together well and we followed our original idea and plans well. I think we followed the brief well although had to make changes to the sitting down scene due to weather issues which were out of our control. To improve it I would use dubbing at post-production for the sound to enable that it is clear and easy to understand. I would also use a tripod for a more stable camera shot on the still shots such as the mid shot used for the dialogue scenes.