Opening Scenes of Thrillers

Analysis (First 2.20 minutes):

The first opening of 'The Butterfly Effect' is very conventional to thriller movies. Once the 'NewLine Cinema' title has been displayed, along with it's patented music snippet, the next title is revealed; 'Film Engine', but accompanying it, we have a much darker, tense music piece, playing. It sounds as though you can feel pressure building in your ears, before a louder noise kicks in as 'Film Engine' slides onto screen. The non-diagetic tense music can then be heard again, as we see a quotation of the famous Chaos Theory on screen, and then we hear very eerie, suspenseful music play. The next shot is the start of the actual film, the picture on screen is deliberately dark, typical of thriller movies as it makes viewers feel uneasy if they can see less clearly. Whilst this is happening, a slow musical piece is building, just a straight forward noise, like a long breath; it gets louder and louder and then we see a man in the corridor outside of the room (the camera is inside of the room remember), he is only partially in view, as the shutters in the room are drawn, so we can only see parts of his face at any given time, this is typical of thrillers again, as viewers cannot see clearly who he is or what he is doing... this is very suspenseful therefore. The camera follows the man as he moves round to the door, and then the camera fixates on the door. By this point, the tense musical pulse has reached a climax, again building immense tension in the viewers, very conventional to thrillers. Then suddenly the musical pulse is broken by the diagetic sound of the door being kicked open and the man from outside the room running into the room. This is again conventional to thrillers as the audience may jump or at least snap out of their suspense in very sudden instance. Instantaneous to the door noise being heard, very fast paced, non-diagetic music kicks in. The man then barricades the doors, indicating he is being pursued by someone/something. The audience are again gripped in suspense, as the man then proceeds to hide under a table in the room. He begins to scribble something into a notebook, before the camera shot changes to show men (in uniform similar to that of a security guard) shining torches into the room from the outside, clearly looking for the man hiding under the table in the room. Accompanying that, loud shouting dialogue is heard from outside the room "Evan, Evan!" (Evan is the man under the table). The guards then begin to force their way into the room. The camera then switches back to a close up shot of Evan under the table, he sees the door being forced open and speeds up his writing rapidly. We hear him speak what he is writing, and then the camera switches to a point of view shot of the notebook from Evan. He finishes what he's writing, and then the page fades away into a graphic match of several butterflies made from the paper Evan was writing on. The picture around the butterflies has faded to black by now, and the film title 'The Butterfly Effect' is shown under the butterflies. Two of the butterflies fade off screen, though one stops central screen and transitions into a graphic match of an X-Ray image of the human brain, with the film title displayed on top. Graphic matches are conventional to thrillers as they present a way of changing what is shown on screen without losing any built up tension in the viewers. The titles then fade away to show a serene suburban road within an equally suburban neighbourhood, and children are riding bikes along the  road, we then see in the next shot, a young boy playing with a dog, and at the bottom of the screen we are shown "thirteen years earlier". This is conventional to some thrillers, as the start of the film, is the end of the story, which means the viewers are now going to see what has built up to Evan being pursued by guards at the start of the film.




Analysis (First 5.26 minutes):

The opening credentials of 'Air Force One' are actually NOT very conventional to thrillers. Mainly because there is nothing tension building about them. They fade onto screen very ununiquely, and fade of much the same. The non-diagetic music also does not build tension, it seems very patriotic and meaningful, but does nothing in the way of creation tension or suspense. However, once the credentials pass, then the tension building blooms like a flower in Spring. Immediately, to mark the end of the credits, the music drops from the loud orchestry, to a quiet drone, interrupted only by the occasional two beat of a drum. This starts to build tension as the change in music indicates a change of atmosphere; that something is about to kickstart. This is very thriller conventional. We can now see mist against a night sky, misty being thriller conventional as it clouds the vision, building suspense, as viewers want to be able to see clearly what is approaching. We then see little shapes in the sky (the camera is looking up at them) which are gradually coming closer. We can then make out that they are parachutes. Next we are shown a close up shot of one parachuters. He is dressed all in black and has a oxygen mask covering his features. This is thriller conventional as viewers do not know who the man nor his comrades are, and this comes across as very indimidating. The next shot we see the mans entourage. Now viewers are assured that they are all working on some sort of break in as they are are all dressed stealthily, and parachuting in the dead of night, and in when the camera shows an establishing shot of the presidential palace of Kazakhstan; viewers are assured that the four parachuters are aiming to make some sort of attack on it. This is thriller conventional as thrillers are often associated with violence/crimes. The next shot reveals that there are soldiers patrolling the buildings roof, meaning that there will most likely be violence very shortly. Again conventional to a thriller film. Then when we see one of the parachuters pull down a pair of goggles, accompanied by the diagetic sound of electronics, we are then given a point of view shot through the mans goggles. The view is in green, revealing the goggles to be night vision, indicating that the parachuters are well versed in stealth operations, and are likely well funded (presumably government of some sort). To confirm the violence, we next see one of the soldiers from the palace roof again, but this time he has a red dot on the back of his head (the targetting laser from a gun), this build suspense immediately as viewers anticipate the mans death for a few seconds before we hear the sudden diagetic noise of a silenced gun, followed by the man collapsing dead. The camera then shows one of the parachuters wielding a gun, identifying them as the killers. When the parachuters land, they start speaking instructions amongst themselves, in cryptic yet professional speech, confirming that they are indeed highly organised soldiers, clearly on a mission not a random skirmish. This again is thriller conventional as it verges on the side of politics, meaning that we have already witnessed two thriller sub-genres (action and political). What follows this is a series of killings by the intruders, as they break into the building, and storm the interior. We see a mixture of extreme-close ups and point of view shots from the intruders, all the while they kill soldiers from the palace with accompanied gun shot sounds. High octance, fast editing of course present, meaning yet more conventional thriller ideas. They then take a prisoner (clearly their target for the mission, some kind of leader as he sleeps in a huge majestic bed and is shown to be the palace owner, therefore the president of Kazakhstan). The proceed to escape the building, boarding a helicopter on the roof. More gunshots are heard, palace soldiers attempt to stop the fleeing assailants, before a quick switch to an extreme close up of an explosive device shows it flash (about to detonate), then we are shown a long shot of the palace roof, as a diagetic blast is heard with the sight of flames engulfing the roof, sending all remaining palace soldiers flying. The helicopter with the parachuters aboard, then flies from the area safely, with the city outline shown in the same shot as the chopper. A graphic match then occurs, as the city outline, switches to the outline of a different city within the same shot. The helicopter has faded from screen however. Then we see on screen, text saying 'Moscow, three weeks later.' This is thriller conventional as we know time has passed since the palace raid, and the audience is in suspense as to what has come of the attack.




Analysis:

Everything in the opening scene of 'My Bloody Valentine' is thriller coventional. The opening titles come up with suspenseful, daemonic non-diagetic music, which carries on into the opening of the film. We are shown a variety of newspaper clippings, accompanied by dialogue from television news reports, from which we can gather that there was a mining disaster, in which many miners died. Through the headlines, we garner enough info to know that it was at first suspected the deaths were caused by an official forgetting to cut 'the blood lines' which caused the miners to run out of oxygen and die, but we are then shown that one miner escaped alive by some miracle. We then see that this miracle was actually the fact that the miner killed his comrades with a pickaxe to save oxygen within the mine, and that he is now in a comer and has been for one year. This is all very thriller conventional, as it sets the scene quickly and effectively. It also indicates that this film will be some sort of crime/horror thriller, as murders have taken place, in a very dark and secluded place; a deep underground mine. The music throughout this still the same daemonic type that is present in the opening titles, and this is very thriller conventional due to its suspense filling qualities. Finally, the headlines fade away, the music dies down to a quiet background drone, and we see an establishing shot of a hospital. Inside the hospital, we see a man (revealed to be the murdering miner) lying in a hospital bed. We are shown his memories through a series of fast edited scene switches on screen (we are meant to be looking into the mans mind and so we see his memories physically). The last memory we see is an explosion within the mine, before we are taken out of the memory and suddenly see the man in his bed, open his eyes very suddenly, in an extreme close up of his face. This is thrilling as all of a sudden, a murderer has awoke from a year long coma, and we want to know what he is about to do next. The next shot, we see a nurse go over to the bed, pull back the curtain, only to find an empty bed... as she backs away, we see the man sat in the dark corner of the room, unknown to the nurse. The man then stands up and turns to face the nurse, is she about to die? Well as the thrilling music heats back up to a climax, as the film title explodes onto the screen 'My Bloody Valentine'. This is very thriller conventional, as you are not there shown if the nurse has been killed. Yet you know for a fact that she has. The title works to signify the end of the opening scene, and the start of the main body for the film. Successfully achieving the goal of leaving a suspenseful audience, awaiting their thrill.