Genre Specific Analysis- Dawn of the Dead & American Psycho

The opening scenes of Dawn of the Dead instantly illustrate the genre of the film by use of editing, cinematography, mise en scene and sound.
The black background and red text stands out immediately and shocks the audience, these colours are associated with gruesome things which gives the film a horror feel.

The opening scenes are edited so there are shorts, shocking clips in between the credits in text. The clips make the whole opening sequence look broken and fragmented which represents society and peoples emotions at this time in the film, this all contributes to the audiences knowledge of the kind of horror film this is. Also the clips vary from being played at a fast pace to a slow pace, which builds up tension and almost gives an adrenaline rush feel.

In addition to this with regards to mise en scene, the majority of the costume are ripped clothes and dark colours which suggests to the audience the film is quite violent and associated with death. 

The fact that a hand held camera is used shows use of cinematography to create a state of panic as the camera is constantly jaunting. Also the shots are sometimes unclear because of this which creates mystery for the audience as they cannot always see what is happening yet they know it is something bad which creates tension.
Diegetic sounds of screaming and are used which also builds up tension when the audience cannot see what is happening. Screams of terror are often used in horror films to show emotion. Contrastingly, slow music is played in the background, this use of non diegetic sound is used to build up tension. The fact that slow music and flashes of clips are played together, builds up a sense of panic.

Also the heart rate monitor makes the audience associate the film with life and death and what is in between which represents the theme of the film. The colour red is also associated with blood which all relates to horror.

In the opening scenes of the horror film American Psycho cinematography, editing, mise en scene and sound show how the genre is introduced to the audience. 

The slow pace of editing makes the sequence seem really sinister as it is mixed with the diegetic sound of him talking in a slow, low tone voice contrasts with the things he's talking about as they turn from OCD-like, perfectionist things to violent, psycho things.

Cinematography is used to zoom in slowly to a close up of his face, which creates intensity and forces the audience to view his perfection. Also the dull colours with a splash of red at the side makes the audience relate to blood and the fact that he might be violent, if not we just get the feeling that something is shocking. 

Also a wide angle close up is used to force the audience to focus on how obsessive he is about his appearance which makes them realise its actually not normal. The peeling off the mask represents how he is perfect on the outside but not right on the inside and this is confirmed when he confesses later in the narrative.






The use of narrative tells the audience he is proud of what he does and when he talks about bloodlust as if it is a normal thing the audience know this is a horror/thriller film. 

With regards to mise en scene the audience can tell the character is average as he wears normal clothes, we do not see anything abnormal apart from his obsessive morning routine, this builds up tension as it contrasts with the title of the film, the audience are waiting to see something psycho in him. 

The non diegetic music is relaxing and mesmerising which makes us want to relax, however the audience are beginning to get an idea he's not normal and feel tense as a result. 
 The whole opening sequence is a juxtaposition as the normality of his voice, looks and actions contrasts with the violent things he says he likes.

Genre Moodboard

This mood board is generally to show what kind of things we are interested in, in a horror and images for ideas of things we might include when creating our 2 minute opening sequence.

First Ideas

I am working with Luke Hanley and Dan Caldwell. We decided to work with horror genre and from asking a few people from our chosen target audience; males and females aged 16-21, we found that horror was generally popular.

How does the credit sequence from Dexter work?

The creative ideas for the film Dexter came from normal everyday things, the opening sequence makes a normal morning routine look sick and sinister.
The character Dexter is seen as an average working man, who takes care of himself, however the audience gets the sense that something is not quite right, as we see a lot of close ups of violent actions that are actually just everyday movements. We don't really notice they are violent until the sequence plays them slowly.


This tomato sauce splatter is a norm, however as red splatters are repeated in a violent way (on a knife) the audience links it to blood. Also this can be linked to the characters job as he is a blood splatter expert.





This shoelace is pulled so tightly the audience relate it to strangling someone however it is an every day thing. These things seem innocent on the surface but there is a deeper meaning, an undercurrent of violence which basically explains the main characters personality.




The character is shown looking average at the end of the clip but gives a kind of smile that suggests he's been up to no good almost sinister, making the audience think about the violence he used in his every day activities and what they say about his personality.

Here the narrow depth of field is used to force the audience to focus on an average thing, but as we look at it so close it looks unpleasant, almost gruesome, giving the first few minutes of the film a horror feel.





The use of music is very relaxed and calm, it gives the opening scene an eerie feel as it juxtaposes with the violent, yet normal clips of his actions. I think this was chosen over the Xploding plastix track as it makes the character seem more average, which creates more mystery and questions about his personality and the rest of the film.

Research: Analysis of the Opening of Juno

Our next task was to look deeper into the analysis of the opening of a film called Juno this is what I found:

This shows how she is real and then walks into cartoon drawings, this suggests that the film will be childlike as the image shows she is real but everything else around her is not, this tells the audience she is not really mentally grown up yet. 

The fact that the film is produced by Fox searchlight pictures tells the audience the film is made by a well known company but is indie style, most attracting an adolescent audience. We can also tell this by the way the character is dressed; jumper, jeans and plimsolls suggests that the film is for a younger, more relaxed audience.  

The fact that the cartoon background is in one dull colour and the girl is in colour suggests that she is the main character all the way through the film, as this is what the audience is constantly viewing and being informed about. Also, with regards to mise-en-scene, the fact that she dresses like a tom boy tells the audience about her personality, making the audience believe this isn’t going to be a completely girly film. 

At two points in the opening sequence runners from the college go past in the background wearing yellow. As the main girl is not wearing college clothes or running, this emphasises the fact she is not in college. Also she is carrying a bottle of sunny D which is yellow this shows use of enigma to draw the audience in, why is the girl drinking so much sunny D and not exercising like other people her age? 

As we are only following the one girl on her journey in this opening sequence tells the audience the rest of the film may be in restricted narration as so far the audience can only see what the girl can see. This could mean there is a sense of mystery and there is more likely to be shocking events.

Research: Key Conventions

An important point of an opening credit sequence is introducing the cast and crew. 
This is done by names appearing appropriately next to the character in most films.




The title sequence might also show a narrative which the audience might see 
throughout the rest of the film. Also use of enigma codes make the audience want to watch the film and find out what is actually happening, questions may be put forward that they want to find the answer to, or disruptions, for example seen in London To Brighton where the audience would want to see them resolved or see a "happy ending". 




Key characters should also be introduced, the audience should clearly see some qualities of their personality or life. For example, in the exposition sequence Dave from Kick Ass is shown to be quite average and finds it hard to be noticed by females. 

The audience get a feel of the mood and tone of the film from the opening scenes. For example the opening scene in Brick is dark, eerie and mysterious. This tells the audience the genre may be horror or crime as both genres are well known to use low lighting, dark and dirty settings for some scenes in the films. 




Time and place is extremely important to inform the audience about what relevant events are happening when and where. For example In Kick Ass the storyline jumps back and forward, showing flashbacks to create tension.

Main Task

Create the titles of a new fiction film to last a maximum of two minutes.
The deadlines for this task are as follows;

Research Deadline: 26/11/10

Photo-storyboard Deadline: 3/12/10

Filming Deadline: 07/01/10

Production Deadline: 28/01/10

Evaluation Deadline: 11/02/10