Wednesday, 2 March 2016

Horror film opening credits

Film: The eye (2008)
Synopsis: The violinist Sydney Wells has been blind since she was five years old due to an accident. She submits to a surgery of cornea transplantation to recover her vision, and while recovering from the operation, she realizes that she's having strange visions. With the support of Dr. Paul Faulkner, Sidney finds who the donor of her eyes and begins a journey to find out the truth behind her visions.


Notes on the opening (first 4 minutes)

  • We first see what appears to be flashbacks of boys running through a field at night however it is unclear as the montage editing it blurred and fast paced. We hear diegetic sound which could be in a foreign language. The boys appear to be repeating what could be a gang name (as it is spray painted on scrap mental- 'Bruja') whilst throwing rocks at an isolated and derelict house. The woman inside the house appears to be nervous and panicked as she ties a noose for herself and stands upon a chair. We see a close up of the chair as it wobbles; if the chair falls she will die and so at this point the audience are on edge. We then see a distorted figure appear from the shadows, followed by a reaction shot of the lady crying because she is scared. The figure then runs at the lady, making a screeching sound. We do not see what it does to her however we are presented with a low angle shot of the chair flying across the room, followed by her legs dangling as she is strangled and killed by the noose.  As you see the production synagy  names come up on a black screen, you can hear the sound effects of the rope swinging to which she is hanging from.
  • We then see a jump cut to a sunny day, where we hear positive atmospheric sound. At this point we assume the character is wearing sunglasses like various other characters in the background however we later discover she is in fact blind.  
  • This is how the credits are given to us as an audience, they appear where there is no real important events occurring, this enables the audience to focus on the names featured as they are often well-known actors. The credits appear when there is no diegetic sound however the location does change from the street to the theatre. The credits then stop when diegetic sound occurs.
  • The camera often switches to various shots of a boy skateboarding, we then are given a close up shot of the traffic light going red warning people to stop (colour representation as red symbolises danger). This foreshadows that she may not stop however the skateboarder comes along and nearly skates into the path of a moving train. The lady stops him and inevitably saves his life, the skateboarder uses diegetic sound in "thanks, I didn't see that" where our main character then replies "me either". We then switch to a long shot of the lady and with the use of props we are now aware she is blind however fully aware of her environment. Blind people are stereotypically vulnerable however she goes against this. 
  • We then see an establishing shot of the theatre where an orchestra are playing. Our main character is playing with them which shows how she has adapted to being blind and is not at a disadvantage. This is the equilibrium as everyone appears to be happy.  This positive environment contradicts the previous scene.
Credits include;
  • costume designer
  • edited by
  • music supervisor
  • casting by
  • music by
  • production designer
  • line producer
  • executive producer

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