Thriller Opening Sequence Notes

The first opening sequence we viewed was from Die Hard 4.0. For this, I mainly observed the camerawork. I noticed that throughout the sequence, there were remarkably few establishing shots, despite featuring quite a varied amount of locations. The first shot, served as both an establishing shot, and using a long sweeping track, to a mid shot of the character, which served to tell more about the character, as a university student, than the location itself or its place in the narrative. Most of the rest of the opening sequence was composed of close ups of characters on computers and extreme close ups with lots of very fast movements like tracks and zooms of their computer screens. This serves to create an intense and hectic atmosphere to the hacking and the rest of the opening sequence. The nature of the opening sequence changes upon an establishing shot, and a location change, to the FBI headquarters in Washington DC. From here on, there are fewer camera movements, and are much slower, with more medium shots and long shots to show the larger number of characters in one shot. However, when the computers are hacked, a lot of close up reaction shots are used to show the surprise of the FBI characters at this event.

The Interpreter was the second extract we saw. This extract was almost completely different, with the camera still for most of the first half of the extract, composed of mainly very long shots with the main character being the only movement in shot. It also used focus pulls, which adds to the slow feel of this opening. Also, the character walks quite slowly and casually, implying that this is a normal action, removing most of the tension from the opening sequence. She is the only one in this shots, however, which implies a sense of isolation, coupled with the night time setting, creates a slightly suspicious atmosphere as well. When she overhears the conversation, the tension builds as she runs. An enigma is also used as the audience cannot hear this conversation, so what the main character overhears is a mystery that we assume will be revealed, making the audience interested in finding out just what made her so shocked. Also, as she leaves, the camerawork repeats the same shots and angles that were used as she came in, only with more camera movement following her running, increasing the pace and tension in the sequence.

The last extract, from The Usual Suspects, mostly focuses on its use of enigmas. The camerawork in this sequence is, like The Interpreter, very slow, but also uses a lot of close ups, only really showing the location through establishing shots about halfway through the sequence, this helps add to the mystery, but also creating a more personal feel with the dying man, despite knowing little about him. This, along with the fact that we do not see the face of the other man leads us to side with the dying man, and also be confused as who the other man, a use of enigma. Also, the very end of the opening sequence, a police interview, seems to be taking place at a completely different time to the previous scene, leading to more confusion as to what is happening.