Opening sequence analysis - Miss Georgoiu

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

Introduction:

The purpose of an opening sequence is to give the audience a taste of the intentions of the film, foreshadowing what could happen, setting the scene and theme of the film. It is also to intrigue the audience and give us an understanding to the type of thriller weather its a murder or psychiatric film etc. It is there to introduce the narrative, the opening sequence should contain the credits of the cast, producers and directors etc. It should also contain iconography such as weapons/blood and the 4 micro elements which is; sound, miss-en-scene, cinematography and editing. Although these things should be added, it should be to a small extent as you shouldn't give to much information away, just enough to keep the audience wanting to watch more.

Cinematography: Throughout the opening sequence, Cinematography is used to create the 4 main elements in an conventional thriller such as; shock, surprise, suspense and tension for the audience. It involves using different camera shots/angles to create them 4 elements, to engage with the audience. Throughout the sequence, P.O.V. is used to show the perspective of the antagonist, this has been used to make the audience feel although they are in the antagonists shoes, for example as he enters the house, he goes into the kitchen and grabs a knife out of the draw, this creates suspense as, we as an audience don't know who the antagonist is or what he looks like. A high-angle shot is used as the camera zooms out, this is to reveal who the antagonist is after he had killed the victim, it revealed to be a little boy standing in his clown costume, holding the bloody knife he used to kill the victim, looking startled as his parents arrive home, with the audience seeing how shocked they were by their facial expressions, this left the audience completely shocked and surprised as we didn't expect the outcome, a little boy who killed his own sister. Using the high-angle shot in this case was effective as it gives the audience a more shocking reaction as it makes the boy look smaller, powerless and innocent. Also at the very end, the camera zooms out to show the mask that the boy was wearing, which was used to shock the audience as the mask looked quite frightening and then the camera moved across to the boys face it the two things don't add up which is shocking.

Editing: Editing in a thriller film is vital as it helps to create more suspense and fear on the audience, if a thriller scene lacks it then the audience would find it harder to feel the tension and fear that the film is trying to show off. Many different editing styles are used in the opening sequence of Halloween, one of them is Slow-editing. Slow-editing was used as the antagonist was walking up the stairs towards the victim's bedroom, this builds tensions and suspense and the audience have an understanding as to what was about to happen to the victim. After the antagonist killed the victim, he left her bedroom, this then changed to fast-editig as the pace of the film started to increase. The antagonist then runs down the stairs and out of the front door to where he he takes a firm holt, stopping as his parents car pulls onto the drive. This is coventional to a thriller as the different editing styles builded tension for the audience, as it changed from slow to fast editing, it tells the audience that possibly the antagonist is starting to panik as he's relised what he's done was wrong, you can also hear his heartbeat which shows his adrenaline was picking up.

Soundtrack: At the beginning of the scene, diegetic sound is used coming from the victim and her boyfriend as the antagonist is staring at them through the window. As the antagonist start walking towards the door to enter the house, eerie music starts to play, turning the sound into non-diegetic as the antagonist and victim does not speak, this is conventional to a thriller as the eerie music sets the tone of a thriller, making the audience aware that something bad may about to happen. The eerie music then stops as the antagonist pulls the knife out of the draw, this is to create suspense and tension as the sound all of a sudden goes silent, all you can hear is the sound of the antagonist slowing picking the knife up, scratching the knife on the surface. This is conventional as they want the audience to see and hear how sharp the weapon is and that we know that there is going to be blood and almost certainly death. The music starts to play again, hearing the victim humming and the clock chiming in the background as the antagonist enters the bedroom. The pace of the music speeds up and becomes louder as the knife slashes her body. The antagonist then panics running down the stairs to the front door only being able to hear his heartbeat, this is conventional as it shows possible the antagonist is starting to panik and has reliesed what he has done was wrong; creating shock and suprise for the audience.

Conventions: Many different conventions are used in this scene. The first one is low-key lighting, this was used throughout to create a conventional sequence, I think that it is also used because the murder takes place on Halloween night and halloween represents dark, evil and hidden identities. The only time when the light starts to brighten, is when the antagonist enters the victims bedroom, this was possibly done to give the audience a warming or sign that something bad was going to happen to the victim. Another convention used was P.O.V camera, throughout the scene it was filmed in the antagonist point of view, watching every move he made through his mask. This is conventional to a thriller because it is unclear who the antagonist is and what he looks like until the very end, where the camera goes from P.O.V to a close up of the antagonists face, this was done to shock the audience, building tension as we were waiting for the killer to reveal himself.

Characters: The antagonist is an unknown character and holds a hidden identity until the end of the scene, with the camera remaining in P.O.V throughout. This is conventional to a thriller as it creates the 4 key elements; suprise, tension, suspense and shock for the audience as he pulls off his mask in front of his parents, standing in shock as the boy stands there holding the bloody knife. This creates enigma as the mystery of who the antagonist is, is unravelled at the end. This is conventional to a thriller as the whole idea of the scene being a mystery makes the audience fear as we don't know what to expect, with the victim also being a young blonde female, making it conventional as it makes the victim out to being innocent and vulnerable. Male victims are hardly used as they aren't conventional in a thriller, this is because we as an audience don't feel as worried for them and feel less sympathy to them being murdered.

Narrative: The narrative of the film was based on a halloween night which make sense with the plot as the antagonist is wearing a clown costume with a mask, hiding his identity, this all assosciates to murder and death. This was created to shock and suprise the audience, by the end of the scene it had created suspense and enigma as the mystery of the killer was finally revealed. I feel that this films target audience should be set at 15+ as it contains blood, death and nudity.

Conclusion:

Overall, the sequence informs the audience of the conventions of a thriller by the evidence of what goes on in the scene, all of these conventions fit together to make a successful thriller film, even though it was the opening scene, it contained almost every convention that i had listed such as; antagonist, female victim, knife, blood, low - key lighting and eerie music. This is all evidence to inform the audience that the film we are watching is a thriller.

Summary:

This analysis will help me on planning my own thriller as i will try to use all of the different elements listed above, i know that i will need to use as much of it as possible for my thriller to be successful such as editing which is a key element for creating suspense, miss-en-scene, cinematography, different types of sound and the most important which is a narrative. I need to make sure that my thriller sequence does in fact contain all of these elements.