How the title, lighting, sounds and positioning and movement effect the opening to a film.

1. BRITNEY DIXON
OPENING TO A FILM

2. TITLING
• Usually the title of a film is shown before it has even started and they will always catch
the audience’s attention. In ‘Scream’ the title was shown in red, white and bold on a
black background.
• Red is the colour of fire and blood, so it is associated with energy, war, danger,
strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire and love. Also black
connotes power, death and evil. So all this relates to horror showing that the title
offers an idea of the genre of the film you are watching. Also the size of the title
changes from big to small so this could emphasise that there is scenes with a lot of
screaming in or even screaming from the audience.
• However the titling in ‘Creep’ shows after the first two minutes of the film. The title is
coloured in yellow and orange in contrast to the images with are in fluorescent colours
so it suggest danger because of how strong the colours are so it catches your eye
straight away. This connotes it is a horror film.

3. LIGHTING
• The main source of lighting used through horror films is usually darkness and bright
but sharp lighting, such as flashes or quick shots of brightness. However ‘Halloween’
was mainly filmed in the daylight suggesting the characters live a normal life making
us believe they did.
• On the other hand ‘Creep’ was filmed with a lot of darkness involved so it captures
the fact it will be scary or a horror film as darkness connotes danger and evil. The
dark mise-en-scene straight away alerts the audience to the genre of the film, which
is important as it’s important to get the genre across in the opening of the films. In
‘Creep’ fluorescent lighting was used as it was used to create jagged shots which
makes it more effective. It makes the audience wonder why the character sees these
images and it makes the weapons or suspicious props stand out more.

4. SOUND
• The most common type of sound is silence. This adds tension
and builds up momentum that something bad is going to
happen. Also non-diegetic sounds are used, for example a
piece of music is played which will always match with what was
on the scene. This allows the audience the tune in more with
what’s happening on the screen. Also it can frighten the
audience depending on the sound used. Usually when diegetic
sounds are used it is played in a fast paced way creating a
tense atmosphere. Also allows the audience to get a feel of
what the genre is.

5. POSITIONING AND MOVEMENT
• In most horror films the movement tends to be quick and sharp.
However in a film like saw there isn't much movement as they are
tied to something so have restricted movement but they are still
panicky and shaky so have fast little movements so it shows they
want to get out. A quick pace of movement suggest that the
character is trying to get away from someone or something so fits
with the genre of horror. Unlike movement the positioning doesn't
really give the audience an idea of what the genre is as it doesn't
show how fast they are moving to get into that position or if it did
you wouldn't know without the movement so we could think they
character is in a calm place or a frightening place. So it could suggest
at the start of a film is isn't horror.