Research for Thriller Openings - One Hour Photo - Jess D'Alvarez

The Main Character:

• Has short, blonde hair, wears glasses, looks around 50's which if you read this description you would think that he was a 'normal' person.
• He is wearing plain coloured clothes, very minimal which also indicates that he is just like any other person and that he is 'normal'.
• He seems very calm whilst in the interview room, almost as if he doesn't think he has done anything wrong, but he must've otherwise he wouldn't be at the police station.
• I feel that, if the character is guilty of a crime, he didn't mean to commit the crime. From the questions he was asking the police detective such as: 'Do you have your own lab?', which are general questions, but ones that you wouldn't really ask a police detective, I get the impression that there might be something wrong with the character, maybe a mental illness?

Opening Credits:

• The opening credits were accompanied by rather haunting music.
• Movements represent those of a photo be developed, starts to build up the theme of the film.
• Sounds to match those of a photo developer were used to match the action and make it seem more real.
• I found that there was also a noise that I heard that I think could've represented a heartbeat.
• At the end of the opening credits, the title 'One Hour Photo' was illuminated in many different colours.

The Setting:

Interview Room:

Bright, white, very minimalist room with one table and two chairs.

From the above description you can tell that it is an interview room as interview rooms are usually seen to be very plain, boring and minimalist and that is all they really need to be.

Garden:

• Very bright, distinct colours: green, yellow, red.
• Everyone looked happy, smiling
• Children were talking, playing and laughing, just having a good time.
• There was music that played whilst the garden scene was showing and this music was happy music. It makes the audience feel joyful. However the children's laughter, at times, overpowered this music, which I think was used to make the audience feel happy and make the atmosphere of this particular sequence happy.
• Camera focuses on a young boy, man and women. This makes the audience wonder who they are. I think that the young boy could be the main character as a child and his parents or that the young boy could in fact be the main characters victim, if he has committed a crime.

This is a close up, group shot, of the scene in the garden. The boy, seems to be the birthday boy, and his parents look very happy. Makes the atmosphere of the garden scene happy and different to the scene of the man in the interview room.



Camerawork:

• At the beginning of the opening sequence there is a big close up of a camera. The video camera then focuses on that camera and as the music starts to build up, the flash of the camera goes off. The music builds up to the flash and in some way makes the audience jump because they do know what to expect, well at first it made me jump. Then shows the picture that the camera has taken.
• Before the flashback, the camera focuses on the main character. I think this is done to show that he is trying to remember something from his past. As well as this, music begins to get louder and louder, building up to the flashback.