The Wickerman
Begins with a black screen with an old styled font thanking producers who helped produce the film, creating realism.
Titles run throughout opening shots keeping the old styles fonts
Diegetic sound of seagulls
Daytime- aerial shot of aircraft in the sea
Cuts to close up of propeller spinning
Panning shot of aircraft gliding over water
Non diegetic sound - Scottish music begins to play
Tracking high angle long shot follows the aircraft as it glides over the water, speed increases
Continues to track as the aircraft takes to air
Cuts to close up of a pilot, the first introduces character
Cuts to a point of view shot where the aircraft dissolves into the Scottish highlands
Cuts to a high angle shot of aircraft flying over the highlands, then starts to track
Titles continuously showing throughout sequence
Dissolves again to a close up high angle of aircraft flying over a loche
Non diegetic music is playing- woman singing a Scottish song
The Hitcher
The film begins with a black background and red writing. We often associate black with negative connotations and red with blood and evil. Typical colours to use in horror movies.
We then hear a match light, we can hear it before we can see it, it then cuts to a close up of the match that’s lights up a hand leaving us in suspense as we are unaware of who the character is. It then cuts to a close up of a man face (first introduced character) which is lit up by the flame
Slow music starts to play in the background which continues throughout the opening
Close up of character showing anxiety
Shot changes to a long shot, camera panning then shows a car overtaking him, changes to a point of view shot man looks annoyed and fed up. This is a negative representation indicating that young people have no patients.
Gunning sound of car engine implies the cars determination to overtake him, the car speed is further emphasized by the noise of the repetitive beeps and the screeching tyres
Cuts back to a point of view shot after car disappears into the distance and also emphasizing his lonelyness on the road
Extreme close up of man getting increasingly tired, highlighted by his tired eyes, and lousy and careless body movement
Cuts back to an extreme close up of character smoking a cigarette representing rebellion.
Cuts back to point of view shot, camera focuses on the sun rising, and the dark setting. Character starts to fall asleep whilst driving, showing us he’s unsafe and at risk.
The point of view shot only allows us to see the car lights and road markings which slowly start to dim. This technique is often used to build a connection between the audience and the character and to make us put ourselves in their position, we almost feel like we’re falling asleep like the character.
The sky and surroundings are dark and dingy, there are no other cars on the road and no other people around, we can only see the car lights from a distance in the hills, again emphasizing his vulnerability to danger.
He puts the radio on “it’s 4.15 on a Saturday morning” telling us the time and day
Character smokes another cigarette and drinks his flask (which could maybe suggest he’s bin on the road for a while) we assume this is to keep him awake
Lightening and heavy rain (pathetic fallacy) is used to create a negative mood and atmosphere, it’s preparing the audience for something bad to happen. The character looks worried by this.
Then cuts to a long shot of the dark sinister hills - titles continue
Extreme close up of character again falling asleep, then cuts to extreme close up of his eyes closed
Suddenly his face brightens up, then cuts to a point of view shot of the truck lights coming towards him
Cuts back to him waking up
Cuts back to a point of view shot, of oncoming lorry
Cuts back to man taking control of the steering wheel panicked
Key events underlined by specific sound effects, the car sounds (revving of the engine), the sound of the match and cigarette, and the radio
The Others
Begins with a black screen usually connoting negativity
Woman’s voice says “Now children are you sitting comfortably, now I’ll begin” - diegetic sound
As she continues to tell the story slow music starts to play. Illustrations emerge from a story book, where we establish the era the story is set in. Pictures then start flickering in candle light.
She starts to speak about god, and the creation of earth, the pictures reflect this, maybe indicating the film is about religion.
The voice stops and the images change into pictures that show us two children in a house.
The camera then pans over the book as more illustrations appear. Shadowy effects are used here to emphasize the sinister storyline.
The illustrations are disturbing immediately telling us the genre, and show us the book is not a regular children’s book. Titles continue to appear over shots in a white font, again hinting to the audience that the film is about religion.
Illustrations are old fashioned and the character clothes are Victorian again showing us the film is set in the past
An illustration of a large country house in the book, slowly fades to a real life establishing long shot of the same picture. The weather looks foggy and dim preparing us for something bad to happen-pathetic fallacy always used in horror films to reflect to the mood
The house appears to be family orientated, indicated by the warm furnishings
The large house, with a garden and swimming pool tell us the family are wealthy
Writing appears in the bottom left corner where we establish the setting “Jersey, the channel island,1945” which is when the second world war ended, so we assume the film has something to do with the war.
Suddenly the camera cuts to a close up of a woman screaming showing us the character is worried or scared. Her facial expression also emphasizes her fear and seriousness. We hear screaming as soon as the shot changes. This is a bizarre way to introduce the first character as it makes the audience curious as to what is happening, and what has caused this-suspense. She is established as the woman telling the story from the titles.
The film starts with an explanation of the story (brief history), this appears on the screen using graphics(titles), the background is black and the writing in white. We often associate black with negative connatations and white with goodness and innocence which is an effect that contrasts with traditional films, and could suggest that there are positive and negative things that will happened throughout the film. The screen then cuts to a black screen and we start to see a shaky effect of the camera zoomin out and we hear a girl introducing herself, this shows us it's hand held and from the characters point of view. The camera then cuts to a close up of her face, showing us her emotion and emphasizing her importance.
I chose to write about films that are produced in different decades so I get a clear understanding of how technology has changed and how horror films have adapted over time. I’ve chosen to analyse four contrasting films, The hitcher and the wicker man which are both classical horror films, and the blair witch project and the others, both modern films. I believe that it is important to research films that are produced at different times, so that we can incorporate valuable information, and combine classical and modern conventions together. We can adapt these and use them in our film opening to create something more unique and unpredictable.
