3.4 Shot List For the Opening Sequence

Shot List

1. Establishing shot of a dark room, setting the scene
2. Over the shoulder shot of the listener (however you don't see the charaters face)
3. Close up of the listener
   
4. Extreme close up of girls eyes
5. Flashback -Long Shot of the girl running up the stairs
6. Over the shot of the listener and the girl
7. Flashback of the girl running through the corridor and the chaser, chasing her behind. 
8. Flashback -medium close up of girl running into a room while the shadow of the chaser goes by.
9. Shot reverse shot of the listener and then the eyes of the girl. 
10. Close up on the woman's feet running
11. Close up on the chasers (man) feet running
12. 
    

3.2- Studio and Marketing

"The Strangers" is an American thriller film which was produced by Nathan Kahane, Doug Davison and Roy Lee, and directed by Bryan Bertino. The thriller stars; Liv Tyler, Scott Speedman, Gemma Ward, Kip Weeks, Laura Margolis, Glenn Howerton. This film was inspired by an event from the directors childhood.



Distribution: Rogue Pictures



Budget: $9,000,000



An advertisement for the film was released on the internet in August 2007. The trailer began running originally in theaters attached to Rogue Pictures sci-fi film Doomsday in March 2008 Television advertisements began airing on networks in early-mid April 2008.



Box Office:

The Strangers opened in the United States and Canada on May 30, 2008 and in its opening weekend the film grossed $20,997,985 in 2,467 theaters, ranking number 3 at the box office and averaging $8,514 per theater.

The film has an impact on the target audience because the film is a certificate 15, which means that teenagers under the age of 15 cannot watch the film even if they enjoy that sort of genre.
People who enjoyed watching the film "Lord of The Rings-The return of the King" may enjoy this movie because it stars Liv Tyler, and some of the targeted audience may like the actress.


Audience:

The target audience for this film are people who enjoy watching horror/thriller films, that keep you guessing until the end.

The opening sequence addresses the target audience by making them think in their heads about the murder scene; "what has happened to the victim?", "Are they dead or alive?" or "what is going on?"

3.2- Analysis Of The Opening Sequence For The Thriller- " The Strangers"

The Strangers

The Strangers is a 2008 thriller/horror film, directed and written by Bryan Bertino. It is about a young couple who are terrorized one night by three masked assailants in their remote country house, this film was marketed by being inspired by a true story

Deconstruction of the titles

Relationship with sound: A non-digetic voice over is heard from a male character talking about the true facts that are happening in America during the time of this film and also describing to the audience some things that will happen during the film.
- The sound of a car engine starting is heard at the beginning of the sequence, however the audience cannot see anything at this particular moment.
-Non-digetic mysterious music is playing along side the noise of the car engine.
-As the opening sequence begins, the audience are introduced to a telephone call between an emergency operator and a young character called Jordan, who is describing what he can see, while crying. This technique sets the scene and makes the incident that has happened realistic.
-The title of the film appears in orange writing, with the sound effects of thunder, this symbolises a disturbed uneasy feeling, and gives the audience a scared feeling of not knowing what is about to happen.

Symbolism: The opening of the film begins, shots of different houses in the American suburbs.
-The house symbolise a suburban surrounding, and a quiet /pleasant neighbourhood.
-Shot of a big house and the sun setting behind it, while the car is driving through the neighbourhood, symbolises the day is coming to an end.
-Shot of a field with a country house in the middle of the field, suggests the person in the car might be driving somewhere out of the suburbs, into the country. This symbolises idleness and tranquility, although everything is deserted with just the houses and fields.
-The last shot in the opening sequence is dark with a pair of house lights on a random country house.
-The name of the title at the "The Strangers" is shown in an orange font, with a black background. The two colours both contrast each other because, the orange shows a sense of vibrant upbeat colour, whereas the black background gives that sense of mysterious, uncertainty.

Shot Types: The sequence starts with the camera fading in from black, into a shot of houses in the suburbs of America.
-Pan shot of different houses while the car is driving (although the audience cannot see the car, but they automatically know that the character/person is in a car, this is because of the sound of the engine starting at the beginning of the opening sequence.)
-Pan and also a fading of one section of houses to another, while the car is traveling through the different stages of the journey. As the car is moving through the suburbia into the country, the sun starts to set and gradually the day turns into night.
-Close up of the car with a gunshot in the screen, suggests that the incident took place recently, because of the close up of the smoke steaming from the car.
-Long Shot of two kids on their bike (the audience can see the two characters through the whole in the front of the car window (from the gunshot).
-Establishing shot of the deserted surrounding, with the sun beaming on the yellow grass and broken car. This suggests destruction
-Close up of the vinyl record spinning around on the turn table, shows the incident happened recently and gives the audience a disturbed confused feeling, which makes them want to keep on watching the film.
-Close up on the red flower petals and jewelery box laying on the floor.
-Close up of a blood stained knife laying on the table, with a red petal next to it, symbolises destruction, murder.
-Close up of blood splattered on a white washed wall, symbolises to opposites; White wall, clean and red blood; pain, death, murder.
-Close up of a shot gun, maybe used as well in the incident to cause harm.
-The title of the film appears in orange writing and then fades away into the black background.
As the close ups of all the props are seen e.g shot gun, blood stained knife etc, the emergency operators voice is still heard by the audience talking to the young character over the phone, about what they can see. The young boy "Jordan" sounds distressed, traumatised at what he can see. He cries; "There's blood everywhere!"


Mise-en-scene:

• Houses
• Trees/grass, sunlight/sunset behind the house
• Garden Gates
• Field with 1 house in the middle (sense of idleness)
• Car with gunshot through the middle of the front window screen
• Kids in the background on their bikes
• Smoke coming out of the car
• A house with an door open
• Two Kids walking up the stairs to the house
• The two kids with rucksacks on their backs, both dressed in white shirts and black school trousers.
• Vinyl record spinning on a turn table-Symbolises the incident has happened recently
• Red flower petals on the floor next to a jewellery box
• Knife with blood on it- Someone has been hurt severely
• Blood stains on a white wall
• A shot gun on the table

Lighting:As the voice over is speaking there is factual information in the screen, informing the audience about what is happening in America. This is shown in a black background with an orange writing font.

-Natural lighting is used outside while the audience get a view at the different areas and houses.

-The sun is used as one of the lights.

-As the night falls lighting from the houses are turned from the outside, this suggests to the audience that time has moved on and night has fallen.

Editing: Mysterious echoing sound effects are used while the names of the presentations are being shown.

- The film opens with a voice over of a man describing what the audience is about to see, and informing the audience that this film is inspired by true events.

-Although there is a voice over talking about what is about to happen, the audience can also see sentences of what the man is saying, so that they can read along. This technique enables the audience to have some sort of interaction with the opening sequence because the director makes them have the option of reading what appears on the screen.

3.3 Synopsis of your complete film 3.1

Thriller:

In the film there will be a sequence of flashbacks re-enforced with the characters voice which will be used as a voice over, explaining to the person what happened to her in the past. As the character is retelling her story, there will be flashbacks of the character in the actual incident. This technique will be used so that the audience can get an insight as to what happened to the girl on the day of the incident. As the flashbacks are taking place and the voice over is heard, sound effects will be used for flashbacks to create fear for the audience and also to make the audience know that the character is going back in her past and retelling what actually happened to her. The flashbacks give a brief description at the beginning of the opening sequence as to what happened to the character and what the audience should expect during the film. (psycho killer). The character will be a woman and she will begin the opening sequence by retelling her story of being chased by a psycho killer, the audience will be able to see the story through the flashbacks. The woman character will be sitting down on a chair and talking to another person about her traumatising past.