opening scene anaylsis-Miss georgiou

How does the opening sequence of Halloween, inform the audience of the codes and conventions of a thriller film?”

 

 

 

The purpose of an opening sequence to a thriller film is that it builds up tension for the audience, and gives the audience an insite of what the main bases of the film is about. It would give the audience an idea of the narrative by usually showing what has happened, which is where genre is introduced. The opening scence has to be packed filled with things to interest the audience, otherwise they wouldent continue watching, usually mise en scnece is a main point. Followed by creating enigma and introducing the characters.

 

Firstly, in the opening scence of halloween, editing is used when the camera is outside the house. The shot changes quickly from a shot of the upstairs bedroom window, where the girl and boy are, to the bottem of the house. Which then the camera pans around the house, this isfirstly a monatga eeffect which then leads to panning. The montage creates excitment as the fast shots of the house allows the audience to interprete that the person behind the camera is going to go upstairs. Also tension builds when the camera is panned round the lower of the house as the audience wonder weather the person is going to enter the house, this also helps the audience understand the setting. Timing of shots is used when thepace of the film slows down before the death of the sister, this adds emotional impact as the audience are then aware of what is going to happen, but also creates suspense as there is still a chance the sister could make an escape. Lastly continuity editing is used throughout as this gives the impressions that the edits are really whats happerning on screen and makes the film more realistic.

 

Sound is also a big factor which is used when creating the opening scence. We see in halloween that contributing sound is used when the girl is humming and singing while she is doing her hair, this juxtaposes the killer as this shows that the girl is happy and content, where as we see from the killers point of view that he isnt, building tension for the audience. Off screen sound is used when the clock is ticking when the killer enters the house, this creates a countdown to the girls death and creates a fear factor for the audience as the sound of the clock stands out, another source of off screen sound is used when a high pitch noise is used while the camera is outside, and then a lower pitch when the killer enters the house, allowing the audience to think that something bad is going to happen.

 

Conventions are used to help increase the fear factor of the film and to relate it back to a typical thriller. Loud fast music is used while the killer is outside the house and when he enters, this helps the audience relate to the victim and also raise there heart beat as the music is fast so they can feel like the victim is, in a vunerable postion. The film relates to a typical thriller as the theme of obsseion is used when the camera shots are based of the sister, where ever she is in the house. This shows that she will be the main point of the storyline. Also sterotypical to a thriller film there is a blonde victim, this is the little boy outside when the mask is taken off him although the audience are lead to belive he is the killer, he is blonde showing his innocents and vunerablity.

 

Cinematography is used when there is the zooming out of the house once the killing has taken place.The camera zooms out from the little boy and his parents, for the audince to see the characters. Zooming out shows the huse to be small, showing that a vunerable death had taken place and it allows the audience to see which characters were involved. Also the lighting around the house is dim and there is a light on the house, showing that the house is a main point to the scence and showing that it is not good.

 

The narrative of the opening scence allows the audience to understand what the film is going to be about, although in halloween it confuses trhe audience making them unsure who the killer is. The house is in a american suburn location, giving off a flase sence of security as you would believe it is safe but the killing juxaposes this. In the narrative we hear the kill asking where her little brother is, and the killer is seen to be tall a man like while he follows the sister to her deathy, although when outside and the killer is unmasked we see that is a yound boy, sterotypically in a clown suit at halloween showing how young he is. A mask is used to change the killers idenitity, which could link to the killer as it could of been a man once the mask is put on but then a child is framed to be the killer.

 

Lastly the representation of characters allow the audience to interpret what they belived to have happened. We see after the killing and the child is unmasked, the parents are confused to why he is outside holding a knife and wearing the mask, causing the audience to be unaware if he is the actuall killer. We then see the teenagers as being a sterotypical couple as they are oblivous to there surroundings, and the mystery man as we see when the boyfriend is living he looks at the killer, but contiues to leave, leaving the audience to belive it is the little brother as the boyfriend does not hesistate.

 

The target audience to watch halloween would be anyone interseted in a thriller film, as this s a typical thriller because of the types of conventions used. The sequence informs the audience of conventions of a thriller as it has the 5 main things all thrillers need and builds tension throughout, even once the murder has taken place as the audience are still unaware of who the killer is

 

From anaysising Halloween it has allowed me to look further into what i will want to do for my own thriller and if i would like to base it on this. I like the idea of the hidden identity and the audience being unaware if the killer is an man or yound child as this builds tension and causes the audience to be interested further into the film.