Film openings

The Shawshank Redemption

The beginning of this film begins with a dark shot of a man sitting in a car with light shining just on his face. He is holding a gun and a bottle of alcohol. Behind this we can hear a piece of music from around the 1920s, a piece of music we come to learn comes from the period the film was based in. Following this, the man sitting in the car is now in a court room being questioned by a lawyer about the evening he was in a car. When discussing the evening of the night he was sat in the car, the film goes back and forth between the court room and the car, showing the main actor Tim Robbins. The effect of this establishes the story line that triggers off the rest of the film.

• As a group, we used this sort of idea for our film. The back and forth sequence between past and present to help establish the story is very clever and effective. We placed this idea with Ian in a restless sleep, going back and forth to the images of the day of the car crash.

What Lies Beneath

The credits for the film open with an eerie music on top of a background thats fairly misty. This mist then merges into what we see as water, this ends up to be a river or a lake we as an audience aren't entirely sure. The camera slowly zooms in deeper in the water until an extreme close up of a dead girl's face is seen, the music then stops as the girl opens her eyes and merges into the face of Michelle Pfeifer who is taking a bath. The use of this dead body foreshadows events that later happen in the film.This creates an instant enigma and the eerie music adds to the tension. The camera then slowly zooms in, giving the illusion that somebody is creeping slowly forward into the bathroom as the main actress is taking a bath, there is no sound apart from her heavy breathing. After this, the film skips forward to the main actress using the hair dryer to de-mist the mirror which results in her getting an unexpected electric shock. This immediate shock frightens the viewer and keeps them feeling quite tense.

The Amityville Horror

The first shot of this film, is a black screen with white writing over it that reads 'Based on a true story'. Immediately, the audience are in a state of fear as the chilling events that happen in the film are believed to be true, making it seem more realistic and frightening for them. This then shows a distorted, and slightly blurred image of a man's face discoloured which flashes between images of things that are later explained in the film. The man's face is then shown again and a reflection of a television set is visible in his eyes with a voiceover that says 'kill them'. The frightening looking man, music and ambiguity of the opening all lead to an ongoing tension. The use of pathetic fallacy is present as the heavy thunder and lightening storm is used to portray an element of fear and create suspense, this goes well with the man isolated in the basement of his house, who we then see pick up a large shotgun and begin to make his way upstairs. The lightening flashes are also used to create tension, as one minute the man is visible, then he is not, then is is visible again but a lot closer, making the viewer extremely uneasy as it is unclear when he will next be there and what he will do. The man carrying the shotgun then persists to shoot who we believe to be members of his family within the same household. The clever use of lighting and shots shows him loading the gun and firing, however after murdering each of the people, images of crime scenes are shown. The effect of this shows that the film focuses more on the story rather than the sheer gore and violence.