Research.

In our group we decided to analyse many films and film opening with similar genres to ours, we looked at horror/thrillers with a chase scene. Here are a few examples of chase scenes we watched:

• The Da Vinci Code http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IX0NOO_NOY- In this scene, while the chase has not necessarily been edited as a fast moving and chaotic, it still creates tension through the varying camera angles and shots. For example, we has close up shots of the victims worried, sweating face and birds eye veiw shots to make him seem even more vulnerable which in itself creates even more tension.
  

• A chase scene in District B13, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GpOroM0g80- In this film the cuts linking each shot are extremely fast and the footage itself is fast moving, really emphasising the intense atmosphere surrounding the chase.

• And a chase scene in Texas chainsaw massacre- within this chase scene there are varying camera shots from quick still frame shots to longer traveling shots that move with the characters. There are close ups and wide shots in appropriate places to emphasise the frantic chase.
  

We decided that the best way to build tension in our film opening would be to start with a high impact chase scene, so this is what we did. We saw how these films built tension with their chases and tried to repeat some of their techniques used.

We also learnt about what our set should be like after watching these film clips. After watching our openings we established that we should look for an old creepy building that school children would not look out of place in.

After analysing the clips we realized that there are many generic conventions that a typical horror/thriller opening should use, for example, we decided that our opening titles need to support our chosen genre in that they should have a creepy and daunting effect on the viewers. Also we researched what other films have used and we came to the conclusion that italic fonts with thin letters would be best; we decided to use red font to represent the blood shed that could follow, on black background as some of the clips we researched proved that this could be very effective in emphasising that eeriness. We also realised that the film itself needed to have a darker lighting. This combined with quick cuts between shots also seemed to build tension very quickly and effectively.

Furthermore, we observed that in order to fully make our film opening daunting, we need a soundtrack that will fully create a real sense of suspension. We noticed that the acoustic songs used in many of the films we watched fitted perfectly with what we wanted to do.