Signs

Thriller Opening Analysis SheetFilm



0:00 mins --> 2:07 mins for just the opening.

Title: Signs

Director: M. Night Shyamalan

(Analysis)
Camera – distance, angle, movement… angle being straight, centralised in the middle. focusing on the characters names. slight movement linking to theme of film.

Effect/Analysis ^
The effect of this is very little towards the audience it shows less writing and colour but this then affects the audience as it makes us think calmly and not think its typical cliche.

Editing – speed, style…
Speed becomes faster in the way in which the titles come up faster, the speed of music also increases, style of the titles and music is the same, however the music is different at the start and at the end.

Effect/Analysis ^
As the music becomes faster this increases the tension caused for the audience and as the pace of titles becomes faster the music seems to become faster making it even more intense. Music ranges from fast to slow, indicating something strange may happen..it alerts us making us aware. The speed of the background music at the start of the opening is completely different from the end. This could be to signify the start and the end of the opening leading onto the introduction of the actual film.

Sound – effects
background music continuous throughout. Ranging with different tempos of music. Relates to the theme of thriller very well. Instantly with the music we can identify what categorie to categorize the film into.

Effect/Analysis ^
Along with all the diferent aspects that comes with the whole opening the sound fits in really well, and links to the theme.

Mise-en-scene – props, costume, setting, lighting, colour…
No props or costumes used in the opening. The lighting and colour of the opening stay the same throughout, theres a continuous blue colour cropping up in every title.

Effect/Analysis ^
Because of the blue colour appearing every time and the titles of people in the film keep coming up, its quite predictable. Giving us a calm sort of tone to the opening. Without this sort of stamina introduced at the start of the film, there would be nothing to look forward to, by carefully watching many of these film openings they all seem to start off plain and ordinary. Which is more effective as it gives the introduction a purposeful meaning.

Special Effects –
Not a variety of special effects are used in the opening. Fading out is maybe the only special effect which comes under editing mostly.

Titles – font, colour, placement, over black / over clip…
Blue background being a spotlight fading in and out. With black font over lapping the blue spotlight.

Effect/Analysis ^
Makes it stand out to the audience, its clear to read. Doesnt really link to the film, as the colours arnt very significant unless you could relate the colour blue to water? But overall just a plain opening.