Openings of Films Research

For our research we conducted some studies on the openings of films. We began by analysing openings to films with different genres e.g. crime, comedy, horror, so that we could understand the possibilities of our main film. We looked at what is represented, types of Mise-en-scene, the use of the camera, sound, narration, other genres, target audiences and titles.

Film Study 

What did you think of these films?

Out of our 3 film studies, I really liked 'Se7en' because it just made me want to watch the whole film, and because we've chosen horror as our genre I found it quite inspirational, so I would like to try and include something similar to these titles in our main film.

The reason why I want to use something similar to the opening of 'Se7en', is because it's quite mysterious and since the plot of our horror is about people being picked off and killed in the woods I like the idea of ours being enigmatic and perplexing.  -

Horror Studies

I found the horror film study quite useful, because I feel it's given our group different ideas into choosing what kind of opening we'd use. I found that 'Sweeney Todd' gave me an insight into how we could incorporate a dull atmosphere whereby we chose a specific day on which to film where it's raining or cloudy, even foggy, so it adds a type of realism to the film.
 'The Blair Witch Project's' opening sequence uses hand held cameras, which I find really effective because it makes it more realistic, in a way that you gain the perspective of the people filming. This is definitely something we're going to use in our main film.
When I watched the opening sequence to 'A Nightmare On Elm Street' I was properly scared, and in my opinion, it was because of the music and how it gained intensity as the sequence got more action based. Without sound effects and music in a horror film (especially in 'A Nightmare On Elm Street'), it would be easier not to get scared, especially at a jump scare because there's usually a lead up.

Overall opinion

Out of all of these openings the one that frightened me the most was 'A Nightmare On Elm Street', because it felt like a typical traditional horror film whereby someone's being followed and it turns out badly for them, however it didn't make me want to carry on watching it as much as 'Sweeney Todd', because with that opening there wasn't much of an explanation into what was going to happen or about the plot, which entices me into watching it. 'The Blair Witch Project', didn't make me want to keep watching for some reason, but I think it's because at the start there wasn't much action or anything scary happening, and that doesn't tend to make me want to watch on, however I do like the idea of using hand held cameras.