Foundation portfolio: Research for Thriller Openings - Arlington Road

Camerawork and Editing:

This opening uses an effect where the shots are blurred for the first 15 seconds of the opening, showing a figure and then someone walking. This effect keeps the audience wondering and guessing who the person might be.
Then cuts to an extreme long shot of someone, which is also slightly blurred, but the identity of the person, is not yet revealed.

As it cuts to a close up of the persons eye, it now becomes apparent that the person is in fact a young boy. From this extreme close up of the boy's eye, we can see that he is not in a fit state and that he looks very drowsy, due to the redness under his eye. This shot reveals a lot about the character, even though we have not seen a full shot of him yet we know that he is not in a normal fit state.

Shots of the young boys surroundings are then shown, however they are shown in a distorted fashion which means that this shot could represent what the young boy is seeing and therefore would be a point of view shot.
The next shot is an extreme close up of the boys feet and we can tell from this shot, again, that he is not in a normal fit state because it is clear that he is unable to walk in a straight line. We also see that he appears to be trying to walk down the line in the middle of the road, which is a key feature in this shot.
There is an extreme close up of the boy's mouth, along his breathing, which seems to have been used in order to emphasise the fact that there may be something wrong with him.
From a shot of the boy's mouth to the boy's eyes where he is looking up and the camera then does an eyeline match where the camera follows what the young boy is looking at and then we see, again in a blurry and distorted fashion, that he is looking up to the sky and then he looks ahead of him.
Shots of different body parts of the boy are shown, very fast and then the camera focuses on the young boy's feet and shows blood now dripping on them.
I think that they have specifically chosen not to show the boys injuries until the man gets to him because the events leading to the revelation of the boys injuries builds suspense.

Music/Sound:

At the start of the sequence the music (non-diegetic sound) is quiet and represents quite peaceful music, which doesn't fit the typical stereotype of a thriller.
Can hear things such as: 'Come on' 'Do it' 'Chicken'. I think this is non-diegetic sound because it is sound that only the audience and the young boy can hear as I think this 'voice-over' represents what the young boy is thinking.
In a certain shot, the music becomes louder and the shots get quicker, showing different parts of the boys body, which builds suspense, until we are faced with the shot of the blood dripping on the boy's shoes and the audience wonder what has happened to him...
The young boys walking pace seems to speed up, then the shot of the man in the car driving round the corner is then shown and the music gets louder and faster which builds suspense as the audience think that the man may be about to hit the young boy.
Pace of the music increases when the man is driving the boy to the hospital, again this builds suspense and has the audience sitting on the edge of their seats as they ask themselves: Will they get to the hospital in time? What is wrong with the boy? Is he going to be OK? (Enigma Code)

Enigma Code:

I think many questions in the audiences minds are raised, when the man shouts out to the young boy and he does not reply. We now ask ourselves questions such as: why is he not responding? What is wrong with him? Along with questions such as: Who is the boy? Who is the man? Where are they? Is the boy OK? etc.

Characters:

Young Boy:

Man:

Early 40's
Wearing white shirt and black tie, has a pen in his pocket, maybe he has just come from work, on a lunch break?
Confused at why the boy is not responding to him
Distressed by the injuries of the boy and wants to help him
Takes boy to hospital; shows that he is a caring man
Seems to be the hero at this moment in time (protagonist)

Iconography:

The boy has been hurt, therefore a weapon may have been used. Even though we do not see whether a weapon is involved in injuring the young boy, the audience may expect a weapon to be introduced further into the sequence.
There is no police or scene of crime and investigation, however this again ties into how the boy became injured and if a weapon was used at all then there may be a police investigation.

Inspirations:

I liked the idea that the identity of the person was not revealed right at the start of this opening sequence and that only parts of the boys body were shown, in order to keep the audience guessing and create intrigue.
This is something that I would like to use in our thriller, where you show different parts of a character, in order for the audience to build up a picture of that character first, in their head, and then to have the character revealed to them.

Monday 8 February 2010