No Country for Old Men
No Country for Old Men starts with the digetic sound of a police officer narrating in the background, for the opening 1:30 minutes of the film, all the shots are various different extreme long shots that are used to establish the location the film may be set in. At 1:40 in the clip, characters are introduced. The camera cuts to a medium shot of the back of a police officer leading a 'criminal' towards a police car and he is put in the back. The face of the criminal isn't visible to the audience and hidden through the dark lighting in the back of the car. This puts the viewer into anticipation as they want to know who he is and what he looks like. Mise-en-scene gives the audience a little idea of the criminal. He appears to be wearing all black clothing with could suggest he's a villain, also the officer places what appears to be some kind of flamethrower. At this point the viewer is in suspense and the idea rises that the man could of committed a brutal murder with the 'weapon'. The criminal is driven away by the officer and the next shot is inside what appears to be a police station. There is a medium shot of the officer at a desk on the phone talking about the criminal. The camera slowly zooms in and as this happens the villain character slowly moves towards him. Here, it makes the audience want to tell the officer that someone is behind him and keeps them on the edge of their seats. This portrays that the criminal is already seen as the 'bad guy' whilst the officer the good. The villain in black clothing pounces on the officer and begins to strangle him with the handcuffs he's wearing. This puts the audience in a state of distress as the officer tries to free himself, then, blood poor from the mans throat which is again quite horrific for the viewer to watch. During this, the camera focuses on the murderers face and he appears to be showing no emotions despite strangling a helpless man. This is also quite disturbing for the audience. The opening sets the film to unfold, and we get the idea that it may be focused around this horrible man and potentially based on the murders he has already committed. No Country for Old Men uses the absence of sound. This creates a dramatic effect and works very well. Despite typical thriller films using sound to create tension and suspense, this isn't necessary and the director (Ethan and Joel Coen) achieve their aim of getting the audience on the edge of their seats well.
Memento
The opening scene in Memento begins with an extreme close up of a mans hand holding a photograph from a polaroid camera which appears to be the image of a blood covered room. Already the audience are questioning why he has this picture and what it is of. They are left in anticipation waiting to find out what's happened after just the first few seconds. The shot of the man holding the picture is present for around a minute, and he starts to shake it after around 20 seconds which again gets the viewer thinking and raising questions that this must of happened very recently. However, instead of the photo fading into a clearer image, it becomes unclear and eventually just turns white. Here the audience are left quite puzzled and confused, but realise that the clip is being played backwards when the camera cuts to a close up of the mans face as he puts the picture into the camera and it flashes as he takes a picture. Extreme close ups of various different objects and mise-en-scene are then shown to set the scene of the room. Things such as pouring blood, a bullet, and a deceased man on the floor suggest that this is a murder scene and are in suspense to find out what has happened. Also, the sweat and blood on the main characters face puts forward that he may be in a state of shock after committing a horrific crime or murder. As the opening unfolds and the film 'rewinds' we see the main character shoot the man that before appeared to be dead on the floor. The music at this point gets progressively louder as the sequence quickly 'rewinds'. This creates tension for the viewer as they finally find out about the previous things that occurred in the room. At the end of the opening, the audience are left wondering why the scene was played backwards, this leaves them on the edge of their seats wanting and waiting to find their answer later on in the film. Unlike in No Country for Old Men there is music throughout the opening of Memento which is consistently quite mournful up until the events unfold. This creates a sad and negative atmosphere for the audience and possibly suggests to them that something horrible has happened.
The research I gathered from each of these thriller openings helped my group towards coming up with a story of our own. Different aspects of each clip gave me different ideas and broadened my mind when mind-mapping various plans, plots and storylines
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