Opening Credit Analysis; Se7en (Jodie)

Our film opening starts with looking at Crime Scene Investigation photos of the murder related too our story line. However one problem we face is deciding the ideal transition between each photo as well as how they should be displayed to the audience. Therefore I (Jodie) relooked at the opening credits to Kyle Cooper's Se7en as we had already looked at it in class. But this time I then focused more on the use of photography and images.



Analysis of the opening as a whole;
- The credits use a non diegetic soundtrack which which build up as the opening progresses. This would suggest it is building up to a form of climax
- Although the main sounds which are heard (such as the scratching of a record) are irregular, there is a back ground beat which graduall gets faster as more images are seen. This could present the audience heartbeat
- The opening is mostly in dark shades of black and whitte to give the opening a gothic feel however in some shot a red wash has been used. This could represent blood or death but alternatively represent the development of the photos on screen
- The opening shot of the pages of the book sugggest that a story is about to be told
- The non diegetic sound of thunder prophesies that something bad is about to happen
- Hands are often seen which makes the audience question whos they are. However the hands also seem like they are the audience's hands which makes the opening as a whole seem like it is from the audiences point of view
- There are many close up of dangerous objects such as needles, scissors and razor blades which could hint to a murder or some form of injury.
- the hands which can be seen have bandages on the fingertips. This could represnt any emotional or mental injury this person has
- Some images flash up on screen to make the audience confused about what they have just seen. ThiSs would then lead to feeling uncomfortable and scared.

Then after this I took some stills from the opening of the images used and then analysed them induvidually to get some ideas on how we can porttray the photos our group will use in our film opening.

Still 1
The use of red in this image could suggest death, murder and blood. The black contrasts well to teh red as although the image is blurred the black shadows create the image of a man's face. The use of blurred image can also make teh audience feel confused and scared. This technique could be used in our own opening as we are trying to make the audience question whats the photos on screen are of.

Still 2
It can be seen that this image is of a person lying down which hints to the possibilty of death. Also it is in black adn white which may be a Crime Investigation photo. There is also some form of liquid splattered over the image, This could be blood or water but it is unclear because it has photographed. Finally the thumb next to the image makes the audience see the picture from this person's point of view.

Still 3
There seems to be a spotlight on this image showing that it should be in focus of hte audience. Also this image is different as it looks like it has been drawn. This could be a police suspect drawing however the eyes have been scribbled out to suggest that the person who the drawing is of has been hurt or about to be. Finally the having the image in the background of hte credits is effective becasue it makes them stand out without taking theri focus away.

Still 4
As the audience is looking down on the image it makes it seem like a point of view shot from the person in the opening. Also as the picture is partly in shadow it suggests some is looking over it blocking the light.The red line down the middle of the drawing is effective becasue it stands out between the black and white shades. The drawing of the hands is intersting as it shows that hte fingers are crooked. This could suggest that they are deformed or have been broken. The detailing of the sketch shows that they are elderly male hands becasue of the wrinkles and shape.

Still 5
This photo used seems like it was taken at an old fashioned photobooth because of hte size and layout. It is effective as the subject in the picture is out of focus. In my opinion it seem that is a small child sitting down and posing. The dark background in the photo makes hte subject stand out and the black and white shades make it seem nostalgic. This image is different ot the previous as it is not to on a flat surface but it is being held by a hand which makes it feel real. This could be used in our own opening as we could have the police officer's hands picking up the photos to look at.

Over I felt looking at this opening useful as I discovered many ways i can portray images instead of just having them on screen. It also found it interesting the effect that drawn images have so i may suggest to the group looking into this. We will look back at research when decided how we are going to show our CSI photos in our film opening.

Analysed still from Silence of lambs (Thea)

This still is from Silence of the Lambs by Jonathan Demme, 1991.

This shot is particularly effective because of the eye contact which i find very intimidating. The fact it is a close up draws the viewer in and they feel very involved with this character and are questioning his story although they may not know anything about him. The fact that the bars infront of his face and the wall behind him is out of focus draws further attention to him. Also, the white shirt (innocence, purity) contrasts greatly with the black bars (imprisonment, death).

In regards to our project;

- having a close up of our protagonist with the background out of focus could be an excellent way to draw the viewers in and focus their attention on the protagonist

- The direct stare from this character is very intimidating and although we want the audience to be slightly scared of our main character (as he is mentally unstable) we also want the audience to geel sympathy for him so perhaps this direct and intimidating shot may not be as effect in our 2 minute clip.

The Production Company (Jodie)

Any authentic and realistic AS media studies film opening needs a production company to "create" their film. The production company's name and logo will be included in the opening credits just like a typical film. However, because of the wide range of production companies who create different films of different size and genre, our group needs to research which one is ideal for our film opening.

As a group we first looked at production companies and distributors at our group movie night. When looking at the opening credits of our list of films on youtube, we noted down who they were made by. From this I (jodie) looked at some of them more in detail.

New Line Cinema
Films created; The Butterfly Effect, Se7en, The Mask, Austin Powers
New Line Cinema produces a wide range of genres within their company as well producing some of the world's most well known titles. This production company would ideal for a film which is hoping to become a world wide blockbuster hit.

Dark Castle Entertainment
Films created; Gothika, Ghostship, The Reaping, House of Wax
Dark Castle entertainment focuses on specific genres within its company. Although it originated with specialising in horror, it now creates films which come under the thriller and action genres. Dark Castle Entertainment are also known to collaborate with distributors such as Warner Brothers and Columbia.

Spyglass Entertainment
Films created; The Sixth Sense, Memoirs of a Geisha, Bruce Almighty.
Spyglass entertainment is a american film and television production company who create works from many different genres. However even though they created the Sixth Sense which is considered one of the best psychological thrillers, Spyglass' collection of this genre is small.

Twisted Pictures
Films created; SawI, SawII... ect., Dead Silence
This company mainly focuses on the horror genre but sometimes branches into thriller. Although they have created a small number of films, the success of their Saw series has made them a well known name in the film industry.

After speaking as a group we decided that we see our film not as a big blockbuster but a film which would be screened at niche cinemas to our select target audience. Also we felt that we should pick a company who specialises in our gerne in order to portray our film in the right light. Therefore I feel we shuold use Dark Castle Entertainment as they specialise in horror and psychological thrillers and this is what we are looking for in a production company.

Looking at Advertisement (Jodie)

One idea which our group came up with to make our mise en scene quite interesting, is to use advertisement in the background of the shots. The products and services being advertised would not only be related to what is on screen at the time but to the overall storyline too. According to wikipedia.org, this is called Covert Advertising;

when a product, service or brand is embedded in media and entertainment.

To decide what we would be advertising, Kathy and myself (Jodie) started by creating a mind map with the main branches coming off covering the key themes and issues we thought of when analysing our film opening idea. From these we thought of all the possible companies, products or services which could be related to them.

The Mind Map

Then I looked around the internet for possible ideas for posters we could use relating back to the mind map. Here are some I found;

Mind
Mind is a leading mental health charity who helps those who suffer from a mental disorder. I felt advertising them in our opening would be appropriate as our media deals with the concept of psychological disorders. While researching i found it difficult to find an actual poster for this charity but i have contacted them to see if it would be possible for them to send me one. If this can not happen we can use just the logo instead.

The National Blood Service
The National Blood Service is an organisation who encourages those who are eligable, to give blood. As our protagonist is dealing with the issue of blood on his hads I thought advertising this charity would be intersting and clever for our mise en scene. The NBS also does not have any official poster but once again I contacted to see whether they could send me anything. However there are blood donation posters on the interent for other charites so we could maybe use them.

I feel advertising charities in our mise en scene would also be beneficial to the charities themselves because we are helping get their point across. By promoting them our group is doing our own part to help the community :)

Dog Walking Services
We could use a dog walking advertisement in our mise en scene because it is a dog walker who reports the dead body to the police in the first place. Therefore the advertisement has been been placed by the caller which would be interesting for the audience to notice and also this creates the link between the protagonist and this dog walking character. This type of advertisement would be easy to create ourselves using various computer software.

Police Recruitment
Advertising Police recruitment could also be another positive piece of advertisement. It relates to the openng as it suggest that our protagonist is running from the police because they may have commited a murder. This could put the police is a negative light as they are not doing their job of catching him but by advertising them this can couter act this light through promotion. Also if we decide to make the protagonist notice the posters while running this one could scare him as to suggest he can not run from the police.

Missing Persons Poster
Missing persons posters often comes up in films associated with solving a crime about a death or murder and therefore could be consdidered a code and convention of our genre. However the main issue is whether the poster is to be of the person in the previous CSI photos or to be a character we have not met yet. I am still unsure whether to include this type of advertisement in the film opening as if the poster was of the person in the CSI photos it would be too early for missing person posters of them to be up. However if we as a group decide to use one, they can also easily be created through computer software.

Amateur Macbeth Performance
This links to our other intersting idea of incorporating characterists from Shakespeare's play Macbeth. As we noticed the washing of the blood off the hands is similar to Lady Macbeth's actions in the play, having a poster of an amateur performance just enhances the theme throughout. Also the poster may make the audience notice the similarities between the opening and the play if they have not already. However one problem with this is they may expect a modern day remake of the play but this not our film opening idea.

Overall advertisemnt in our mise en scene can be very intersting as it can affect the audience's expectations of the film. Also we could use the advertisement as a prop for our protagonist to work from. However the main result I wish to get from the advertisement is for it to be subtle so that the audience does not notice it the first time round. This is because personally i enjoy films where you notice subtle items in the background which relates to the story line. Our next step is to decide on our final poster ideas and create any which need to be made by ourselves.

The Final Location (Jodie)

After coming together as group and looking at our research on location, as a group we deicded we are going to use the station toilets as our filming location. These will either be the ones at sevenoaks station or the ones on platform 3 at Tonbridge station. Either of these have the all the facilities we are looking for in a location but the main issue is seeking permission to use them in the first place.

Thea spoke to Sevenoaks' station manager who told her to contact the general manager in orpington who over sees all the stations in the area. At this moment in time it seems that we will will need to write letters and make phone calld but if we approach this straight away i feel it can be achievable.

However if worse comes to worse and we are not given permission to use the any station public toilet, we will consider filming in them anyway but at quiet times of hte day so that we are not disturbed or being seen as in the way.

Pictures of the Blood (Kathy)