Opening Sequences

Opening sequences-

How is it engaging and how does it conform to traditional codes and conventions?

Vertigo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdfJhxe5Ogc

From the very start of the film a menacing music begins to play, low and intense. This makes the film immediately engaging as the audience is pulled into the movie, questioning why such music is playing. It also highlights a traditional thriller convention of suspenseful music often used in this genre. The sequence opens with an extreme close up of a women's lips in black and white. Although it is in black and white the audience can still recognize the low lighting the shot employs which is also a common convention of the thriller genre. The extreme close up also draws the audience in even more as the intensity of the shot causes them to focus on the simple image of the women's lips, evoking a strong sense of curiosity to the mystery of why the image is so enlarged. A camera shot then tracks to the women's eyes before moving to an even more extreme close up of the left eye. This shot interests the audience even more as the constant zoom of the close up makes it seem as if the audience is literally being pulled into film or into the mind of the character shown. After, the image on screen goes red and the women's eye widens in panic. This then creates suspense as to why the women is suddenly so traumatised. The element of surprise creating suspense is an extremely traditional code of the thriller genre. This shot also engages the audience even more as the colour red has strong connotations with danger making the sequence suddenly seem life threatening and therefore intrigues the audience further. Lastly the film's title (Vertigo) appears before a constantly rotating swirl pattern consumes the screen. The swirl pattern captures the audience's attention as it is the first edited graphic to appear on screen apart from previous appearing titles. The swirl pattern also grabs the audience's attention in a similar way to the zooming of the extreme close ups. As the audience follows the swirl it creates an illusion like they are literally being pulled into the movie, as the swirl evolves the audience becomes even more engrossed in the graphic on screen and therefore the movie itself. The lack of setting throughout the sequence also conveys a strong sense of mystery, another common theme of the thriller genre.

Divergent:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaSiHmbFXfQ

Divergent opens with a range of sharp non diegetic sound which occur with the opening titles. The sound then merges to create the beginning of the sound track which includes a low bass sound and a choir of some sort echoing 'os' . The building of the sound's features mirror the lighting and visuals shown in the sequence. The lighting beings quite low the proceeds to brighten especially when the movie's tile (Divergent) appears on screen. Once the Movie title clears the audience sees a grassy but empty landscape. The camera then pans along finding a ruined ship then skeletons of gate-like structures. Next the pan moves to an abandoned decaying city before a populated, cluttered city square appears. These three elements create an evolution feel, like the sound, lighting and visual are evolving themselves. This sense of evolving is further highlighted through the constant pan of the camera creating a long and slow but orderly shot, like evolution is explained to be. This causes the audience to be extremely intrigued because it can be related to their own life and how they themselves have 'evolved' since being a child to an adult. It also reflects society as a whole as it has also evolved in some shape and form, form the skeletons of the past a fuller more advanced future is formed. This sequence then conforms to traditional thriller sequences as in employs an aspect of low lighting, especially in the very beginning. It also employs another crucial convention of a thriller genre and that is the element of mystery which builds not only suspense and tension but a sense of danger. The constant show of decay through out the opening creates the mystery as there is no explanation to the decay. This is then highlighted when people are seen living next to and even in the inner city of decay because it causes the audience to question why much of the decay is left abandoned to rot, why people are seen normally living in these conditions and, furthermore, is it safe to live in such conditions.

North By Northwest:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBxjwurp_04

The constant loop of music makes the opening sequence of North By Northwest conforms to the tension building style of thrillers. Also the building of the visual image in the movie from the cross hatching, gate-like graphics that grow into a gate overlooking a busy New York arena which then focus on the actual overly cluttered streets of New York. The sequence is strongly showing a mystery of directions that builds suspense- a common code in thrillers. The audience is drawn in by the repeating sound that makes the music resonate in their ears whilst the constant cross hatching and joining lines plauge their eyes forcing them to actively engage in the film as it is too busy to miss. Also the hectic amount of action that takes place during the sequence makes the audience almost dizzy as they try to take in all the action at once, this again reinforces the traditional tension building convention of thrillers. Another traditional element is that of danger, as the audience almost feels anxious for the constant streams of busy people clashing with each other with a change of physically crashing into each other. Also, the fact that the titles emerge from all directions makes the audience feel a sense of tension as they are uncertain of the direction of the title and therefore highlights the overwhelming sense of danger also.

Pulp Fiction:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LI1yt38A9-E

Pulp Fiction's opening begins with an upbeat song which, compared to most of the films previously noted in this post, is traditional, especially because it follows a loop sort of effect. The starting music is accompanied by a sudden image of an aggressive women holding a gun with a man in the background mimicking the women's ready-to-fire action with the gun. This sudden image hits two major thriller conventions- tension and danger. Because the image was so surprising it instantly causes the audience to feel anxious and therefore creates tension. Also, because guns are being used as a weapon danger is too associated with the sequence. Although the image misses the thriller convention of low lighting, once the image is gone the background of the graphics remain pitch black which reinforced the traditional dark lighting feature of thriller movies. When the movie's title appears, it is shown in yellow and red- the colours of danger warnings and danger itself. This then engages the audience as many will subconsciously be more intrigued with the movie as it warns them to an element of danger, which is fascinating to many. The sudden change in music also intrigues the audience as it is unexpected and therefore evokes curiosity from the audience. This is also a common convention used by thrillers as surprises often help create more suspense which is a vital element to the thriller genre.