Video - Film Opening: Analysis Two Minute Opening

I chosen to analyse the film "When A Stranger Calls" which is a Slasher/Stalker horror movie, this film was produced by Davis Entertainment and Screen Gems and was distributed by Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures. The target audience is teenagers or young adults C2 and are more of a mainstream audience.

The genre features in this film opening are that its set at nighttime, with a eerie house which has a lot of focus on. Also there is a fair ground which has children running and screaming. In our film opening we will consider using these types of features to make our film fit into the Slasher/Stalker horror genre, we will consider using the fast edits and eerie sounds to create this which will be similar to that in "When a stranger calls".

Also there is a sense of enigma in this opening, this is created through the fast edits which have been used, concentrating on certain parts in that area such as the house, fair ground, children and the strange man walking the dog. This enigma gives the audience a feeling that someone will get killed off which will create a disruption in the film, this is shown through the phone call with the girl not knowing who is calling her who we recognise as the villain.

In the opening non diegetic music has been used with the phone call over the top this gives the audience a sense of foreboding knowing that something is going to happen soon. This may be a good thing to think about for our film opening to create an atmosphere to the setting. Also we will consider using the fast edits which have been used to create this sense that the things it concentrates on will play an important part later on in the film.

This activity has taught me that we will need a lot of footage to create these fast edits and to create a certain enigma to the opening of our film. We will have to create a lot of footage to be able to pull off this effect and create a good tension in the start of our film.

Continuity editing will have a big impact on our film to make sure it runs smoothly without having any jump cuts we will do this by having shot reverse shot, match on action shots and using the 180 degree rule. This will help use to make sure we have a smoothly running film opening.

What we have to do next is to create a synopsis of what is going to happen in our film opening and to then create a story board to help us for when we have to start filming our deadline for this is the end of this first week in February.