Opening Sequence (1)

Taking into account that the opening sequence must not give to much information away but essentially 'set the scene', we have formed an idea based on our chosen genre of film; a thriller. Thriller's usually contain a lot of flash imagery, a key substance in our opening.

We are going to start our sequence by showing a quick shot of a detatched, old looking house, in what looks like the middle of nowhere, followed by a P.O.V shot. The P.O.V shot will follow our lead male character, a psychopath, creeping down a narrow hallway with a ajar door at the end of it, only to end with him hearing door bang behind him and turn around. There will be heavy breathing and suspenseful music in the background; a way to engage the audience into feeling like they are there themselves. The sequence will include 6 flashbacks, one showing the psychopath cutting a doll's hair, and then doing the same to a real girl.

None of the characters features will be shown, as we want to focus the attention on their actions rather than the characters themselves. We may use a split screen, showing the doll and the girl on either side, having the male character first cutting their hair, then burning them, then throwing acid at them, however, this is yet to be decided upon.


As the flashbacks happen, the titles will be also appear on screen, left long enough for the name to be read, then changed again. The feeling of the opening sequence should leave the audience slightly uncomfortable, whislt wanting to know more because of the way it ends.

Synopsis

If our opening sequence was to be a full length feature film then it would have to include a full plot, including an opening, middle, and ending. After much discussion, my group and I have decided that our film would have been about a teenage girl named Andrea, aged 15, who had been abducted whilst she was walking home from school, alone.

The story would follow on to show how she was then taken to her kidnappers house in a busy street in coventry. The house looked very average, but was in fact sound insulated and used a torture dungeon. He took Andrea there to be tortured and raped, whilst she had no clue as to where she was or why. The anonymous man would frequently brand Andrea with red hot metal, burn her with acidic substances, and also cut locks of her hair off and store them in jars *The face of the man is never to be shown, so that the audience can feel the same uncomfortable and terrifying uneasiness that the girl would*


After many failed attempts, she finally grasps a chance to escape, with the culprit who had been putting her through so much turmoil, hot on her heels. He finds her, but grabbing anything in her sight, she reaches for something lethal; a sharp rock, and ends up killing the man. In shock, she turns his body over so she doesn't have to see his face, and her eyes well up with tears as she ceases to see locks of her hair falling out of his pockets.

Help arrives, and after several trials, she is not charged with the mans murder, however, due to all of the trauma, Andrea ends up in a mental asylum, not ever being able to come to terms with what had happened to her. The film would end portraying the girl as a paranoid adult, living an uneasy, unhappy life, concluding in her finally giving up and brutally killing herself in the same way as she believed her killer would have. First cutting her hair off completely, then branding herself with her killers initials, before finally walking into a blazing fire, where the film will end as the audience watch her literally walk into her own death. 


The film would be more of a psychological thriller rather than a horror, as the plot is less about the kidnapper himself, but more about the effect he has on his victim and how it oozes into every inch of her nature, driving her to her own death.

Initial Treatment

For the opening sequence, I want the storyline to be about a young girl who is being tortured by a man with mental health problems. She is being held hostage in his house and has no way to escape. I want there to be flashbacks containing scenes of him cutting her hair whilst she is tied up, him torturing her with hot metal (brand), beating here, but all the while only showing his hands.


The story will be about a girl who has been brutally tortured at the hands of a psychopath , and is now hiding in a room at the end of the corridor. The camera will be from the mans point of view, where he can hear her breathing heavily and sobbing slightly in one of the rooms around him. The sequence will end with a flash a door slamming, and him abruptly turning around. The rest of the film will be about him trying to find her, and when he does, she ends up killing him. The girl grows into a woman and ends up in a mental asylum where the memory of him still chasing her is so real that even the audience can't tell if he's still really there or not. The film would end in her committing suicide in the same way as he would have killed her, hair cut off, scarred, terrified. 


Shadows of the man walking across the corridor can be used to create an eery effect, and as he walks, his blood stained clothes and possibly a concealed weapon could be shown, starting from his shoulders, rolling down to his shoes in front of the door. The flashbacks will be in black and white to show what is present and what is past tense, and the titles will be flashed on screen along with the flashbacks. Slow motion can be used when he is turning around using an arc shot.

Ideas For Opening Sequences

We started off our meeting confirming that we weren't going to create an opening sequence for a comedy or a drama, so we then had to decide between us whether we were going to create an opening for a thriller or a horror. We discussed how we could use camera angles and different effects to our advantage and came to a conclusion that we were going to create a horror from a p.o.v angle so that it would look realistic and be more efficient for us to film in the time we have.

In more detail, we will have one of us holding the camera purposely shakily, to create a tense, realistic p.o.v shot, going up the hallway leading up to the door at the end of Sarah's hallway. The flashbacks will be pure white and we will be flashing in the titles in a plain black font as it goes on. In the flashbacks, we will be including extreme close ups and arc shots to show the characters past. 

We chose horror because we can create it up to a good standard using the equipment, programs and props we have, compared to an action, which we might not have the right equipment for. We want it to end after a series of flashbacks, at the end of the hallway, so that too much information isn't given away, but an essence of the film is portrayed.