2 Film Openings.

Silence of the Lambs.

The opening starts with a longshot view of the forest and trees, and it slowly pans down to the ground which Jodie Foster is running into(seemingly as if she's running away from someone/thing). The director then uses a low angled shot which Jodie Foster is getting closer and closer to the screen. By now it looks as if she's going on a jog! While this is all going on the titles are on in big black bold lettering. We then see a tracking shot of her running from the side avoiding all obstacles. We then see her running from the back of her. She then climbs up an obstacle while the camera is panning around her. Someone from the FBI then turns up and gives Foster some information that somebody wants to see her, she goes and the camera then zooms into the FBI officers face, which could suggest he is not as good as he seems. Then the shot changes and pans down from the top of the trees to the bottom where these signs of 'hurt' 'agony' 'pain' and 'love it' are on the tree which Jodie Foster then runs past. We then see an establishing shot of what seems to be some sort of military camp slowly zooming into it. While this is all going on the music in the background is slow and builds tension which makes us believe that she is being chased but infact she isn't. When Foster reachers the room she is standing there alone and the camera zooms into her face and as soon as this happens the slow tension building music then plays and changes to some images of brutal killings and rippings. The mise-en-scene of the opening is quite a dull forest in which there are some army obstacles which Foster is going through. she's wearing a sweatshirt with sweat around her neck to suggest she's trying to obtain her fitness in order to stay fit for her military commands.

Thriller Opening Pitch on Prezi

Although this had helped for research, this task was only an exercise and this wasn't the chosen pitch for the final product. This task also was the first I had created on prezi.com and found it very useful.

Successful Film Director - Quentin Tarantino

All of Quentin Tarentino's movies are successful because of his unique script. All his movies have really good dialogue especially Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. Also his movies are very violent and the story lines are quite bizarre, also he's very good at making gory scenes which gives the viewer a more realistic film. Also his films are made in the style as if it was a old 1970s movie with the costumes and the opening sequences.

This scene is funny but also dramatic as Vincent and Jules are having a normal conversation until Vincent asks Marvin's opinion on it. While he does this he has innocently got his gun pointing at him and while Marvin starts to speak, Vincent accidently pulls the trigger and shoots Marvin in the face and blood squirts everywhere. What I find funny about this scene is after Vincent has shot Marvin he turns around and says so casually "Ahh man I shot Marvin in the face."

Another one of Quentin Tarentino's gory scenes in which Lucy Liu chops off another man's head and then blood squirts out quite dramatically. Although when the blood squirts out it looks fake, it adds effect to the things Lucy Liu is capable of. The scene is a meeting where you would suggest no violent act would occur however when one of the guests speaks out to Lucy Liu's discontent she slices his head off.

An example of how gory Quentin Tarentino's work can be. This was taken from the movie DeathProof with Kurt Russell. The following images are results of what happened to each character while the car crash happened.

1st image: a girls leg flying off.

2nd image: the car going through and running over the womans face. 

3rd image: a woman being flinged out the top of the car and doing numerous flips in the air until smacking the concrete.
4th image: glass from the windshield crashing against the womans throat and face.

This shows how gory Tarantino's work can be and no matter how gruesome and disturbing it may be, it appeals to most people as people aren't use to seeing movies with such gore in it unless it is a horror. This is Tarantino's most famous 'trademark' - the goriness of his movies.

Analysis of a DVD Cover

District 9 DVD Cover.

The cover of this film is unique as there's a UFO sort of spaceship hovering over the city. There's also a sign saying 'NO HUMANS ALLOWED' with a picture of an alien sort of animal in the sign. The top of the cover has Peter Jackson in red writing as he is a world famous director and some people may look to view it just because of the famous director. This is called a selling point and there is also a quote from a newspaper claiming 'it will blow your mind. it's a must-see movie'. The backdrop of the cover is the city looking normal but in the foreground its a desserted shanty town with barbed wire. This could mean that there is a divide between the humans and the creatures, and the creatures are under control by the humans. In the background coming from the buildings are visible helicopters flying in which looks as if they are coming for the gigantic UFO spaceship making us believe the situation is a crisis and that mayhem is waiting to occur.

Preliminary Task - Storyboards (with script)

Serial Killer Thriller - Thriller Convention

No Country For Old Men - Opening
We are shown a quick glimpse of the psychopathic killer Anton Chigurh in the opening scene of No Country for Old Men. He has recently been captured and is standing in a police station with a deputy, who is totally unaware of how vicious Chigurh is. Within minutes, the deputy is dead. We knew that this would happen because the person narrating was telling us the things Chigurh was capable of.


The directors of the movie have made it a really effective thriller as it has some of the main conventions a thriller needs like a narrative, a glimpse of the enemy/killer, it shows him killing and gives us a hint of what the film is about.


In this opening scene there is no music in the background, there's just a narrative with an overview of a dessert in what looks like Texas and then a scene in the police station where the camera slowly zooms into the officer on the phone, while we can see Chigurh escaping his handcuffs and eventually taking down the officer and killing him.

Wallet Incident