Genre Research

Recently, i have watched a few opening sequences of films to help me and my group come up with a genre and an opening sequence, the films i have watched are :

• Dirty Harry


• The Usual Suspects
  
• Dawn of the Dead
  
• Blair Witch Project
  
• Zombieland
  
• Paranormal Activity

All of these films have action/ horror / thriller connatations and this type of genre is something i would like to try in our production. Also, these opening sequences are also very good for camera angles and movement and i have fully analysed the opening sequences of Dirty Harry and The Usual Suspects.

Dirty Harry Notes

From my research into the opening sequence of Dirty Harry i found out that both digetic and non digetic is very important and effective in an opening sequence of a film. In Dirty Harry the non digetic music is effective because it is idealogic so the audience get a sense of what is about to happen and this builds up tension. Also, digetic sound in Dirty Harry is effective i.e. the girl splashing around in the swimming pool. It is effective because it clearly shows to the audience she is in trouble and the sound of splashing exagerrates and emphasises this.
From watching Dirty Harry i have realised that mise en scene and the framing of a scene is going to be important in our own opening sequence. Don Siegel has clearly thought about where to position the camera and the actors for example obscuring the killers face.
Also i have learnt from Dirty Harry that an establishing shot in an opening sequence is very important and that you can't really have a good opening sequence without one.


Usual Suspects Notes
The opening sequence of this is very effective because it clearly establishes the setting, genre, characterisation, visual style and mood. I believe that we will need to do this in our opening sequence because the audience will need to get a feel of what to expect after the opening sequence.
Like in Dirty Harry, the camera shots create a bit of mystery about a character which i think is very effective because it leaves the audience wanting to know who the character is.
Also the music is effective in The Usual Suspects because it is ideologic and lets the audience know that something is going to happen .


Empire Reviews
I have chosen to use empire film reviews as my chosen reviewer because they are well known and usually very accurate when it comes to film reviews. All the films i have studied and/or watched recently have at least 4 star reviews which shows that i will be getting good inspiration from these films as they are 'excellent' or 'outstanding.

Zombieland ****

Dirty Harry ****

Dawn of the Dead ****

The Usual Suspects *****

The Blair Witch Project ****

Paranormal Activity ****