Analysis Of Film Openings

Memento (Christopher Nolan, 2000)

Conventions-

Tension used, black and white is used to represent flashbacks. The fact the beginning is played backwards confuses the audience and draws them in to watch more and find out what is going on.

Camera-

Mainly midshots/medium shots, basic camera movement (moving with characters)

Editing-

Slow paced editing builds tension and pull the audience in before the action.

Sound-

Nondiegetic, calm music. Also nondiegtic would be the voice over, diegtic sounds include gunshots and conversation between the two characters.

Mise-en-scene-

Protaganist wears smart, detective like clothes (typical of a thriller protaginist) the scratches on the protaganists face also suggests violent goings on (story could evolve around this) blood and broken windows also suggest violence.

Brick (Rian Johnson, 2005)

Conventions-

The slow paced tension build up is really effective, along with the flashback (if you could call it that) both frequently used in Thrillers

Camera-

The whole opening consists of mainly close ups/extreme close ups, only giving us one or two flashes of the area itself. The is really effective, like it's only giving you a taster of the film.

Editing-

This is a very slow paced opening, but suits it and works well.

Sound-

The mood is set and the tension is built with the non-diegetic song playing and through it's high pitched yet sad playing of the cow bells.

Mise-en-scene-

The positioning of the woman on the ground with the water washing over her slightly informs us that she is indeed dead, and we realise this straight away. Also, the costume plays a large role, towards the end of the first scene we get a closeup of the dead girls arm jewellery with the water running over it, this is then carried on in the next scene with that same item being shown on the girl whilst she's alive, telling us that what's coming up is in the past.

Zodiac (David Fincher, 2007)

Conventions-
Again. like the above two and most other thrillers, tension is one of the main conventions used in this thriller, in this particular one the tension is built up through a long worried silence and repetition of the same acts.
Camera-
This film uses the most camera movement of the three, including both rolling and tracking shots to run along with the car. It also consists mainly of long shots apart from when the two people are in conversation, in which it secludes them off from the area with a closeup.
Editing-
The editing is again quite slow paced, this seems like a usual thing for most thriller openings (builds tension before the action). Also, there is a non-diegetic caption added in at the beginning telling us that 'the following is based on true case files'. This automatically draws in our attention fully by giving us something to read and therefore pay attention to.
Sound-

The non-diegtic backing track is quite smooth and relaxed, so when it stops it makes us pay notice and hints to us that something is about to happen.