Shot log of Silence of the Lambs opening


The opening to silence of the lambs establishes the character of Clarice, portraying her as capable, by showing her running and completing an obstacle course. And as intelligent by demonstrating that she is part of the FBI, with the labelled building she enters, and especially showing her intelligence, as her opinion is sought after by a senior member of the FBI, especially as someone so young.

Opening to Skyfall
Skyfall is a thriller film that continues the James Bond series, so employs the tropes of a Bond film, such as danger, women, and violence.
It starts dramatically with a shot of a figure's silhouette stepping into a darkened passageway. The shot is un-focused and dark, placing a lot of emphasis on the figure as he is the only clear shape in the shot. Tension is created by the use of quiet distant chords which create an ominous atmosphere for the scene. And built up slowly as the figure nears the camera, blocking the light from the window.
An element of mystery is also introduced in the delay of revealing the figures's identity, which is done by having a slither of light hit his face, revealing the man to be Bond. And then immediately racking the tension back up with Bond pulling out a gun.
Once Bond's identity is confirmed, the pacing becomes much quicker. There is a slow pan that follows Bond and his gun into the room and reveals two dead bodies, and a third soon to be the same.
The angles then start to change rapidly to display different parts of the scene, such as long shots of Bond and the scene, and close ups of the man in the chair bleeding out, and the broken computer. The music changes to a quick tempo beat and diegetic sound is introduced for the first time, in the form of Bond announcing this man has not got long to live. Bond is also shown from multiple angles as he moves around the room, to demonstrate his inner struggle between obeying orders and trying to save the man's life.
When Bond enters the corridor, he once again becomes a silhouette with the same foreboding chords but now at a much higher volume, to create a sense of danger to his movements and exit from the building.
Once outside a wide shot is used to establish the bustling city scene. And music is used to create a sense of the culture, and establish the setting in a foreign country. A mid shot of Bond getting into a moving car, creates a sense of action and continues the fast pacing, letting the audience know the excitement is far from over.

Mad Max Fury Road Opening
Mad Max is a thriller/action film about survival in a future vision of our world where society has collapsed. It is an exciting, awe-inspiring film with achingly beautiful cinematography.

The very start of the film cleverly establishes the world that the film take place in thorough narration over a black screen. There is one strong core narrator's voice and several others that phase in and out between muted sounds of explosions. Most sound like news reporters or politicians, but at the end there are comments from a few characters that show up later in the film. The history that lead to this damaged world is presented through these key phrases which can be summarised as; "Oil Wars", "Water Wars", "man-kind has gone rogue", "our bones are poisoned, we have become half lives" and as Max puts it "my world is fire and blood". Only one shot is used during this section which is a harsh black and white image of trees being blown down by thick dark smoke timed to match a voice saying "nuclear extermination". All of this takes place in just over half a minute but provides all the necessary information to understand how the world got to this point of anarchy.

The first real shot of the film is of an incredibly vibrantly coloured desert landscape with Max and the car drawn attention to by their darkness in contrast to the setting, almost silhouetted against the landscape. It is from high up amongst mountains or hills, and this vantage point presents the desolate and vast emptiness of the desert.

Tension is mounted in this scene by the stillness presented, which is at odd with the asynchronous voices and whispers of women and children who are not really there, but are an auditory representation of Max's hallucinations. The only movement is that of a two-headed lizard in the foreground scuttling closer to Max.

This stillness is suddenly shattered by Max stomping down on the lizard with his foot. This like all the diegetic sounds in this scene is exaggerated to be much louder and echo, increasing the drama and again presenting this sense of vastness and emptiness of the desert.

After puncturing the stillness with the death of the lizard, the scene becomes a flurry of movement with several close ups edited into a rapid pace. Starting with a close up of Max swallowing the lizard, then the items being kicked and shoved into the car, the car door slamming, and tires screeching as the car drives away with thick black smoke billowing from it. The suddenness and speed creates a sense of excitement and rush of adrenaline for the audience.

There is a brief sense of calm after a mid shot then long shot show the car driving away and the dust settles. Then suddenly three motorbikes and three cars race past the camera in a convoy, the placement of the camera making the audience feel like they are among the action as they seem to drive right around and over it. This makes sense of Max's abrupt departure and creates even more excitement and anticipation as this is clearly now a pursuit.

Note: This video continues after the clip of the first scene. I have written about the scene that ends at 1.57

Gone Girl Opening
Gone Girl is a thriller that follows the disappearance of a woman, Amy, from her home, the suspicions that are cast on her husband, Nick, and the shocking truth as it is slowly revealed. It is an incredibly gripping film and the opening lays the foundation for the sense of mystery and suspense that is maintained throughout.

The film opens with non-diegetic sounds of a voiceover of a man (Nick) speaking and long drawn out chords, which are unsettling and immediately create an eerie, tense atmosphere. The screen changes from black to the image of Amy (Nick's wife)'s head. This tense atmosphere is built on by his calmly delivered statement "I picture cracking her lovely skull", which is in sharp contrast with the slow pacing and calm movements on screen, setting the audience on edge.

The extreme close up of Amy's face builds intimacy between her and the audience, and creates the idea of a very real person. This makes the threat of violence against her so much more alarming and provokes genuine fear from the audience for her well being, especially given the juxtopositon of the content on screen as she looks completely relaxed and unsuspecting.
It also creates fear and suspicion for the unseen character of Nick, who is narrating.

The sequence then continues to a several of long shots of landscapes, in the area Amy and Nick live, in the early morning, they are empty but waking up and full of the promise something will happen soon. The sound here is contrapuntal, as the music continues, gaining volume and ominousness, while the images of landscapes are calm and pose no visible danger, however the music cast a suspicion over them that makes them appear sinister.

The camera then stops moving between long shots of landscapes, seeming to focus on Nick standing outside his house. The audience is made to focus on him, by the change in camera angles around him, from a mid shot of him from the front outside the house to a wide shot of him from the side, which is the first time multiple angles have been used in the film. His actions are also made to feel important as the camera pans to follow his movements as stands in front of the house and then walks slowly back inside. This creates a lot of suspicion about Nick, as his simple actions are made to feel crucial, leaving the audience to question what he is about to do inside the house. And, as demonstrated by the views of the nearby area, he is the only one awake and up at this time, leaving the audience wondering why.

Watch it here

Sin City Opening
The opening sequence is very stylised, using chiaroscuro and having the main source of light come beaming through windows that are far away, creates a secluded atmosphere and also gives everything a very un-real looking texture, almost like a drawing. This effect is added to by setting everything in black and white except for the woman's dress and lips which are a bright scarlet red. And by switching from footage of the actors to a black and white silhouetted drawing when the two kiss.

The pace starts very slow with the first image as a black screen with sirens sounding distantly, which fades gently into a long shot of the woman standing at a balcony over a darkened city. The scene is made intriguing by the non-diegetic sounds of a solo saxophone and voice over of a man poetically narrating the woman's actions. Diegetic and non-diegetic sounds are used simultaneously as the saxophone continues throughout, mixed in with the diegetic sounds of the man's footsteps and the sounds of wind and rain as a gentle storm starts around them. The narration also continues, pausing to allow the conversation to take place then picking up again.

Anticipation is built up by the use of weighting as the man approaches from the shadows in the upper left part of the screen, making the viewer focus on him and become curious.
The long shots switch to close ups and over the shoulder shots as the two start to talk. With an extreme close up used to create drama when the woman's eyes briefly gain colour and turn green when talked about before fading back to black.
Though the audience has been made to anticipate something happening, they are also lulled into a false sense of security, just like the woman is, by the smooth voice of the narrator saying soothing things. This sense of safety is broken suddenly when just after the narrator says "I love you", there is the sound of a muted gun shot. The gun, highlighted and shining white comes into view, as the woman slumps against the man and the floor dead.

The audience is left with a long shot zooming out slowly of the woman dramatically in red against the black and white of the man and the ground as rain fall on them, and a burning curiosity to know why and what will happen next?

Thriller Genre

A thriller film is one that creates an atmosphere of suspense, keeping the audience on the edge of their seat, and aims to 'thrill' the audience. 

There are similar genres such as horror, but these differ in the way that the aim of a horror film is to create fear whereas a thriller aims to create an adrenaline rush and can still be positive. 

There are many sub-genres to thriller such as:

Action Thriller -Which builds up its atmosphere of suspense and danger through physical action in chases, stunts, and battles.
For example Kill Bill


Psychological Thriller -These create suspense through clever concepts and threats to the mind rather than physical ones. They often use devices such as an unreliable narrator and make the audience question the reality of the events playing out.
For example The Girl on The Train


Film Noir- This can also be a genre in itself. They create atmosphere with black and white colouring and harsh lighting. They became popular in the 1940s-50s and have incredibly intricate plots which use flashbacks and narration to explain.
For example Sunset Boulevard


Crime Thrillers -These put a crime plot into a thriller's style, filling it with a sense of danger. They tend to centre around the criminals rather than the heroes and create tension by doing so.
For example The Fugitive 

Practical Task: The Package

In a group of three we produced our first practical filming task, called The Package, with the aim of creating suspense around the simple task of delivering a box from one place to another.
We decided to do this by creating the idea of two teams, displayed with the contrast of white coats and black coats. And by having one long shot of a member of the black coats change into a white coat ,just out of view of the leader of the white coats, to get into her building and deliver the unknown contents of the package.
We faced some challenges when making this film. Such as the time constraints of a week to get all the footage, and having to film during lesson and break times, so often only have 45 minutes or less to do as much as possible. Not having a clear run of time also presented the difficulties of people wearing different outfits on different days, which we tried to combat by using long coats that covered most of the clothing.
In the next project I would like to use more of the sound equipment, such as boom mikes as I've never used them before, and would like a chance to properly understand them.
I would also like to draw out a proper story board for the next project as the one made for this was more of very rough sketches and a list of what we wanted to happen in each shot.

No Through Road

No through road is a short student film, which is a combination of the horror and thriller genre. It takes place almost entirely inside a car, with only 4 characters, and only one camera, making it very low budget, but this is used to their advantage to create a very real feeling to the film that makes it actually believable that it is found footage and much scarier. The low key lighting surrounding the boys and the car in darkness creates an isolated feeling that provokes fear in both the characters and the audience. The shaky handheld movement of the camera, as people pass it round, leave it on the dashboard or walk with it, also cements the element of reality. It also makes the ending full of confusion and panic, as the person holding the camera is running away from what is presumably an unknown, unseen attacker.
There is an atmosphere of tension throughout the film, as it starts with the message that this is found footage from a camera of four boys who were murdered, so right from the start the audience is on guard knowing something bad must happen. The viewer is temporarily lulled into a false sense of security as the start of the actual footage features the boys talking and laughing as they drive around. However things slowly start to go wrong as the boys become scared as they get more and more lost. Strange things start to happen more and more frequently such as, finding a bizarre old archway, the radio station playing creepy music, and a particular sign keeps reoccurring as they end up on one particular road no matter where they drive. The worse things get the more often the cuts to other footage on the camera happen, as though they are recording over an old tape and old pieces of footage show through as they have not been recorded over properly. This increases the sense of fear as it makes the film disjointed, and highlights how bad the situation has slowly become by showing footage of them, possibly just earlier that day when there was nothing yet wrong.
The ending of the film is made climactic by the sense of relief just before the worst happens, where the boys appear to be safe as they find a road leading to Stevenich and seem to be safely on their way home. When suddenly the lights cut out, the radio turns itself on playing the strange music from before, somehow they are back where they started by the strange arch and there is a figure approaching the car. The footage then becomes a blur of movement with only sounds heard are frenzied shouts and then a much worse silence, as the person holding the camera runs away. It ends with a shot of the camera's glass breaking and what could be blood staining it. This in itself wouldn't be horrifying but the tension has been so built up throughout the film, so as to leave the viewer on the edge of their seat that this ambiguous shot seems terrifying and leaves little doubt in their mind that no-one survived even though no bodies or proof of this is offered other than the message at the beginning.
The film cleverly plays on an experience almost everyone has had of driving though the countryside and getting lost, it is very plausible and the sense of fear that can arise from the unknown in situations like that is easy is empathise with. It also prays upon common fears like isolation, the dark, and the wilderness and the strange things that could be out there. Because of the sense of reality continued throughout it even when the implausible begins to happen it feels real, making any fear experienced feel justified as the viewer worries for the safety of what appear to be very real people.