Camera
- Wide shot of top of the buildings – establishing shot (shows the setting, background and introduces storyline)
- Wide shot then pans across the tops of buildings in that area – to keep the audience’s attention focussed on that
- As the central building slowly gets further out of the centre, the shot is faded out then reappears again to put the buildings back in the centre – keeping it in full view – slightly closer wide shot
- Camera pans to the right more and establishes more of the surroundings – other buildings, a road and the sky – to show the main location – still wide (master) shot
- Camera then fades out this shot then reappears (same effect as earlier) but panning at a faster pace and is now more zoomed in – attention to detail – mid shot
- Then very slowly it begins to zoom is while the panning is still going slowly to the right – this is deliberately focussing the audience’s attention on the centre of the shot – but then the camera keeps moving closer and more to the right which makes the audience confused and start searching themselves for what the camera is heading for – mid shot
- When the camera finally shows what it has been focussing on (the building with the main characters on) it again fades out and reappears into a much closer view of it – mid shot finally turning into a close up, then extreme close up before the camera zooms in entirely it is difficult to make out what is going on
Sound:
- Before images are even shown on the screen, a massive, shocking sound of the beginning of the music starts – which is extremely tense and is created by string instruments and a great deal of effects – makes audience suspenseful in the first few seconds – willing to carry on watching
- This music then continues for the entire 3 minutes of the opening and only stops after the second character has completed their first dialogue of the movie – this could represent the power that the character might have as they have managed to stop the music, although it didn’t stop straight away which could then suggest they are the victims. Having the creepy music playing while they are introduced could also suggest them as characters, meaning they might be creepy and mysterious themselves
- Music is very high pitched, edgy and more suspenseful before the first shot is shown, and then after the first shot is shown of the setting, the music changes into a slightly calmer, hazed effect – the beginning could represent what is to come, but then the music changes to calm the audience so that they know nothing that dramatic is going to happen yet
- The music still continuing, even though not as dramatic, could be as sign to the audience that even though they think that everything is much better, it’s not – creates tension and drama and worries the audience for what could happen
- The music is also a great representation of the genre of the film and can set the tone of violence and bad nature within the first few moments of hearing it – audience understands easier
Editing:
- The first few minutes of the opening is purely just the credits appearing in edited ways against a black background, accompanied by some scary music – so that the audience is aware of the actors, institutions, directors and producers of the film and if they approve then they would carry on watching
- Against the black background, the credits appear in quite basic, normal white writing which put opposite the black suggests the film is about some extreme disruption as the colours contrast dramatically with each other
- Lines are used as an editing effect in a grey colour, which is really dull and almost lifeless suggesting the events of the film, and they also make the opening credits abnormal and slightly crazy which could be because of the main character and the title being ‘psycho’
- The fact that none of the credits are left normally to appear and then disappear, as they all either dissolve, sliced into pieces and put back together, fall apart or some other murderous effect show the craziness and abnormal qualities of the characters and the events and represent in a way of all what is going to happen to the victims
- Once the opening credits have finished and the first shots are introduced, after a while some more titles appear which introduce and tell the audience about the setting, the time and the date, and these all appear by zooming onto the screen then zooming off again which could suggest the fast paced, action of the film and the fact that they don’t want the audience to dwell that much on the writing and for them to concentrate more on the shots
Mise-en-scene:
- The white writing against the black background suggest a deranged and creepy nature of the characters and plot and because they are opposite and contrasting colours, they suggest a disturbance of some sort
- The bottoms of the shots that are shown are quite blurred and dark in some places (shadowed) which could represent the mystery of the film and the eeriness that they are trying to create
- The sky in the background shows that the day is a very average and gloomy day as the sun isn’t seen to be out, but then it isn’t stormy, so this could again suggest the disturbance that is going to happen against the averageness of the setting
- Showing the tops of buildings and only showing the setting from a very high point of view could suggest that the following characters we are about to be shown are quite weak and helpless, and could be regarded as the victims
- When getting to the shot of the opening window and as the camera is zooming in, there are lots of shadows and dark lightning inside of the window which could mean there is danger inside or it’s not a nice place to be
- The fact that the opening finishes with it zoomed into complete darkness, with just the tiniest images of something inside that is impossible to make out, it makes the audience guess where they are and what is being shown, which involves them more and makes it more interesting
Opening in 9 Shots:
WHY HAVE WE DONE THIS?
I chose to analyse this one for my genre definining film because this is such a good example of a famous and worldwide known horror and thriller film, and because it fits so well with my own genre for our film I thought it would be a good idea to analyse it for some ideas for our own.
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