When conducting my initial research, I decided to look at the opening sequences from four films, two of which cover the horror genre, one thriller and one teen drama:
Wolf Creek (Greg McLean, 2005) - Horror
Silent Hill (Christopher Gans, 2006) - Horror
American Graffiti (Lucas, 1973) - Teen Drama
Pan's Labyrinth (Del Toro, 2006) - Thriller
I chose to look at these films because I'm familiar with them - I watched Silent Hill on saturday evening - and I knew that they would fit the separate genre. I started by making brief notes on each film:
Wolf Creek:
The opening credits include a slide with the words 'The following is based on actual events', and goes on to introduce people to the story, by telling them how many people go missing, and how some of them are never found- The establishing shot reveals a seaside location
- A girl is shown looking through photos
- Another girl is shown writing, and posting, a postcard
A woman is running, shouting and covered in sweat- The story is set during the night
- The woman screaming is looking for her child - she holds 'Sharon's' bear
- As she walks under the bridge, we see graffiti
- Whilst under the bridge, the sound mix is changed so that all the external, diegetic sounds, such as cars going over the bridge, are made louder
- The woman looks down over the edge of the waterfall
- We follow her gaze, which travels down a tunnel and ends at a girls face with no body
- When the woman finds 'Sharon', she is relieved, however Shanon is screaming "Silent Hill"
The music is very typical of the period in America - Rock n' Roll, 12 Bar Blues- The background image whilst the opening credits run is a Drive Thru'
- One of the characters is leaning against a car
- Another drives his scooter into a wall
- Another has to kick the door shut of his car
Pan's Labyrinth:
There is some background information to the story - all of which is historical- A girl is crying, and seems distraught - we see a close up of her face
- There is use of blue light, to connote 'moonlight'
- There are War vehicles
- The girl is holding a fairy book
- There is a mythical 'dreamworld' setting
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