Analysing Opening Sequences - The Others

The Others

The piece opens with two company logos, to advertise the companies and also to  fulfil the institutional needs of the company.

The piece cuts to the opening credits where a narrator talks over the visuals. The voiceover is used to give insight into the story and to set the tone of the film because the voice is slightly creepy, letting the audience know it is going to be a strange film or a thriller. During the opening credits, illustrated drawings are shown, with very interesting usage of lighting. Lighting is used to draw attention to certain parts of the drawings. This is possibly used to foreshadow certain events and also to highlight some key images that might be relevant later on in the film. Most of the time, the whole image is not visible, only a slight portion of it is, to make it more mysterious and also to add to the atmosphere as you don’t know what you are going to see next.

At the end of the credits there is an establishing shot, to show the location of the film. The establishing shot is shrouded in fog, giving the shot an eerie and mysterious feel to it. As well as showing the location of the film, it also shows us the time period that the film is set in. In this case we know that it is set in the 20^th century, immediately after the events of World War 2, by the style of the house and also the date that it gives us.

The establishing shot is not the only shot that hints at the era in which it is set, but also the style of the drawings and the clothes that the children are wearing in the drawings also hint at this time period. Also, we see a drawing of a candle in a tray being held, indicting that the source of lighting in the house or film, is most probably going to be from candles. We can also see this by the way the light on the drawings is flickering, which is quite an iconic way to show that something is lit by candle.

During the opening credits we see many different close ups of significant parts of the drawings, for example a key going into a key whole. This in itself creates a sense of mystery as it leaves the viewer wondering what is in the room, why it is getting locked or why it was locked in the first place. This could possibly be a significant room later on in the film. Rule of thirds is used a lot to make the shots seem more interesting and to keep the viewer engaged and also to make the viewer look around the photo rather that just in the middle. Almost every shot in the opening two minutes is a panning shot. Panning shots, along with clever use of lighting, creates a sense of tension and also keeps the audience engaged, as they want to see what is coming next. The reason it works so well for the drawings is because we get to see the whole image, but we see it bit by bit, rather than just being shown the picture as a whole, and allows us to pick out relevant parts with ease and still get the full idea of what is going on in the photo.

 The opening two minutes ends with an extremely canted angle, and a close up of a woman screaming. When put together, these shots create an intense feeling of confusion, disorientation and in some ways distress as the screen has been flipped completely on its side and we can clearly see the terror on her face, leaving the audience slightly in shock.

Overall

Now that we have established our genre I need to start researching this more specifically. This film is useful for showing how a mysterious atmosphere can be created without a great deal happening. the sound is very key in this and is something we will have to think about carefully. The overall look of the location is also very important, so we will have to bear this in mnd when choosing a house to film in.