The Secret Window Thriller opening analysis (own choice)

As Part of our research and analysis we have to analyse a Thriller opening of our own choice. The Film I have choose to analyse is the Secret Window (2004), directed by David Koepp. The codes and conventions that make up a thriller include; dark or low lit settings, increased tempo in music, sinister upbeat music, threats, and a build up in tension and suspense. I will be looking at how the technical aspects like; camera, sound, editing and mise-en-scene create the opening of the thriller.

       The clip begins with the Columbia production company logo, immediately as the opening starts the music begins. The editing is done very cleverly as the scene opens with a car (jeep) parked outside from what we can see is a house, this then fades into rippling water; this confuses the audience and makes them think about what is going on, it plays with our minds. The camera then pans up to an establishing shot to see the setting of a forest surrounding the lake with house situated at the middle (centre of the forest). There is then an edit where the scene fades closer to focus on the house; the camera is then slowly zooming into the house on a crane shot. Still on a crane shot the camera is swung around, zooming into a small window on the side of the house, the audience is left to think about what this is leading up to. The camera is then panned around to focus on a laptop at a desk.

       Still on a crane shot the camera zooms into a man sleeping in pyjamas on an old sofa. His dressing gown is ripped at the seam of the shoulder, we then think of him as of a lower class and tatty in the sense that he can’t afford to buy a new one. The camera is then left at a medium shot of the man on the sofa for a couple of seconds. There is then a black out as the opening sequence ends. The transition of cuts and editing flows nicely, the fading into closer shots of the house works well and effectively without disorientating the audience; instead leaving the audience work out what's going to come next.  

Vertigo Opening Analysis:

       For Our Media film analysis, we have been asked to analyse a Saul Bass thriller title sequence opening. The film I have chosen to analyse is Vertigo, a famous 1958 Thriller by Alfred Hitchcock. From studying the opening of the film, I think the title sequence is good as it makes the audience feel disillusioned; it gives us a sense of dizziness. The strange ambient backing track adds to the lexical field of suspense and disorientation, leaving the viewer wondering what is going to happen.

       The opening begins with an extreme CU of the bottom half of a womans face in black and white (the audience does not see anything before this, and is left puzzled to what is happening and who this person is).  The Camera then swings around from the right to the centre of her face, keeping the extreme CU shot and zooming into her darkly coloured lips. The camera is then tilted upwards to focus on her eyes as she looks to both sides. Notice that she does not blink, this also adds to the tension and suspense. There is then a zoom in to her left eye and her eye then widens, also as the camera zooms in the colour changes from black and white to a blood red colour, this increases suspense as the colour of the red, is adding to the connotation value of blood.

       After the zoom in of the eye, a rotating, spinning, spiral appears from the centre of the eye, enlarging after every rotation keeping the same circular shape of the eye (Iris wipe). This is clever of Alfred as it shows he has thought about his opening; (the word vertigo refers to dizziness, where there is feeling of motion when one is stationary) he has incorporated the meaning of vertigo by adding the spirals and disorientating images, focusing on the dizziness referred to the word Vertigo, and using it as his opening giving the sequence a lexical field of disillusion. This also adds to the denotation meaning, as the audience then associates the symbol of the spiral and dizziness to the word Vertigo.  The spiral images continues leaving the audience waiting in suspense wondering what is going to happen, leaving them puzzled to question themselves. The last spiral then focuses back to the eye, and the blood red colour, rotating to the shape of the eye. The scene then fades into blackness, leaving the audience wanting to watch on. 

 

( Image taken from - www.google.co.uk/images )  

Research and Planning!

Week 1:


During the first week we learned how to set up the Tripods and how to use each part on them. We also used the cameras and set them up on the tripods using the clip attached to the top of the tripod. We looked at the features on the camera and got used to using the Cameras. We had to insert a film into the Camera, and then rewind the film as unfortunately the films had already been used.

Week 2:

Continuity exercises and ideas were discussed. We watched some continuity exercises and learnt about the different camera shots and angles. We then in our groups took shots of the different Camera shots and angles, using the Cameras and tripods. We did this as a short exercise to get to grips with the Camera shots/ angles.

Week 3:

During this week we decided what groups we would be in do our continuity piece.We also discussed what roles we would be doing within the group and brainstormed some ideas we were thinking of including.

Week 4:

In this week we learned how to draw up a storyboard. This was important as it was a plan of what we were going to do in our continuity piece, the location and mise - en - scene of where we was going to film it, the camera techniques; angles and shots, and what parts each person would be doing. We came up with many ideas of what of title could be for our continuity piece, but finally decided on 'The eyebrow' which was an idea we thought of. Here is an example of a storyboard:
 

Week 5: 


Filmed continuity sequences using a variety of different camera shots and angles. Unfortunately I was not here during the lesson in which we filmed our continuity pieces due to a trip in another subject. This was not an issue as I participated in the editing process of the piece and managed to catch up on what I had missed. My group then filmed our continuity sequence during the lesson the film included a wide range of shots including close up (CU), big close up (BCU), and establishing shot (ESTB). The only issue we had whilst filming the film was that pupils in the School would walk past whist we were filming. We had to do a lot of preparation before filming; we had to make sure that camera were fully charged, that the films in the cameras had been rewound being as the films had been used before and that any marking out of positions were marked before filming.


Week 6:


We discussed in our groups what went well during the piece and what didn't go so well. We discussed on improvements we could make in our continuity piece, and what could be done to make the piece flow better. We then uploaded the clips using a firewire and began the editing process using imovie.


Week 7:


HALF TERM!


Week 8:


We finished off the editing of our piece. We then watched the piece back whilst other groups made comments on it suggesting improvements for when we film our Thriller pieces. Also we looked at Thriller opening sequences of Vertigo and Psycho by Saul Bass (who we are currently studying). Vertigo is a famous Thriller by Alfred Hitchcock, its famous for its shower scene. The opening title sequence of Vertigo is very successful for its criss crossing of lines and the orange and black effect used. 


Week 9:


During this week we wrote out the narrative to our Thriller piece. We also planned and completed our storyboard to our film. After this we went to the location of where we are going to film our piece and took some location shots, for various scenes in the film.