Section 2- Research into examples of thriller opening scences.

SE7EN-
The 1995 film seven from David Fincher is set in a rough unnamed busy city. The weather is never changing and its often raining to give the city a dreary dull feeling. The gritty urban setting holds four main characters. Detective summerset and detective mills are the protagonists. These two males are rather opposite in many ways, the representation of black and white and the fact that summerset is a lonely old man who is experienced within his work. Where as in comparison mills is married, white, young and has little experience with high cases such as the one they are set. Brad Pitt and Morgan freeman are Hollywood stars so its nice to see well known actors working so close together. The villain within seven is a Mr john doe, he kills people in the pattern of the seven deadly sins- hence the name. his name is ironic as it is what they call unknown body’s founded upon. Doe is very religious and feel he is doing gods work. Mills had a wife named Tracey, for the hot headed detective she holds everything together whilst he is dealing with this vulgar head scratching case. As we can tell mills loves her a lot there for she is an easy weakness and target to get to mills as we see later on in the film when doe kills her for the jealousy sin. Seven is a Lina narrative, it flows in chronological order once again it is ironic about how long it lasts as summerset is supposed to retire in seven days and that’s how long the killings last for.

The title of the films flashes from what you realise is john doe, he is cutting the tips of his fingers off so that he is unknown and will not leave fingerprints. It cuts between research on the murders straight back to doe preparing for them. Each book he creates could refer to a new book, a new chapter. a lot of images to do with god is shown such as crosses and bibles to show the religious authenticity of the film. Graphics within the title are used well, ghostly images are destroyed to add an uneasy effect. As john writes in his books his hand writing is scruffy and joined up almost child like, the hand writing puts you off trying to read it, its like writing you can only read when its your own. But that might be the point. He could never get caught them.

RED EYE-
Our first research into opening scene started with Red Eye, I noticed that it had typical codes and conventions of classic thrillers. It was places in an urban landscape which was rainy and very busy, not much is given away so this helps the audience become intrigued. The camerawork within Red Eye is very fast, there are a lot of close ups on the wallet with the letters ‘JR’ on, this show that the wallet holds great importance. Also a lot of close ups keep is in the dark within this opening scene so we know that there is a lot more mystery to be reviled. The narrative structure of this thriller is linear, it follows her journey. We know nothing serious is going on yet because nothing important had happened to her yet. There are lots of fast cuts from different scenes this shows that whatever plan has been made about the wallet has been planned very precise and correctly done.

STRANGERS ON A TRAIN-
Strangers on a train was produced in 1951 Alfred Hitchcock directs Farley Granger as Guy Haines, an amateur tennis player who is on his way to see his estranged wife, Miriam (Kasey Rogers) to ask for a divorce so he can marry his new love, Anne (Ruth Roman). On the journey a stranger, Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker) strikes up a conversation with him. Bruno knows all about Guy's and Anne's romance and how difficult Miriam is being, because he's read about in the society magazines. He also knows that Guy's life would be much easier if Miriam was out of the picture full stop. He knows it would be easier because he has a similar problem with his domineering father, and this leads to his suggestion to Guy: if Bruno killed Miriam, then Guy could kill Bruno's father, and they would each have perfect alibis. After all, why would either kill a perfect stranger? Guy laughs this off, but doesn't realise just how seriously Bruno is taking this idea until it's too late. The filming is very authentic and the camera work is slight uneasy but this makes it loved by many, as it was such a break through for its time. They are dressed rather smart In suits almost like the detectives in seven. There is no non-diegetic music within this scene its just them having a conversation which takes a turn. There are no graphics, sound visible editing. The film overall is very basic.

THE FINAL DESTINATION-
The Final Destination series gets a kick-start with this fourth outing, director David Ellis realised this in 2009. The New film was presented for the first time in 3-D with this instalment focusing on a teenager that dodges a trip to the grave at a racetrack, only to find that death has a way of equalling the playing field after the fact. Shantel VanSanten, Bobby Campo, and Hayley Webb star in the sequel. The opening scene has a lot of fast moving tracking shots of the cars it helps you stay on the edge of your seat as if you have seen the other final destinations you know what I director has installed. Within the film a women is the hero as she is the one who gets the vision, Ellis swaps around with different heroes and heroines to show that it can happen to anyone. It starts off with non-diegetic sound, heavy rock music takes over while the rev or the cars slowly take over.

HANNIBAL-
Women in Hannibal are represented differently to most films. Ridley Scott- the director portrayed Clarice Starling as a strong independent female. This film is Part four of the Hannibal Lecter Quadrilogy. Having escaped the asylum in "Silence of the Lambs," Dr Lecter goes into hiding in Florence, Italy. Back in America, Mason Verger, an old victim of the doctor's, seeks revenge. Disfigured and confined to a life-support system, he plans to draw Lecter out of his hiding place, using the one thing he truly cares for: Clarice Starling. The opening scene starts with sweet delicate piano music, tricking you into believing that everything is fine at this moment in time. A key convention of a thriller is police and police are involved rather a lot within all of the lecter films. Hannibal is a 2001 psychological thriller film directed by Ridley Scott, adapted from the Thomas Harris novel of the same name. the basic themes of this film are romance, Retribution and Punishment and corruption.

THE USUAL SUSPECTS-
The Usual Suspects is a 1995 American film written by Christopher McQuarrie and directed by Bryan Singer. The film tells the story of Roger "Verbal" Kint (Kevin Spacey)a small time con-man who is the subject of a police interrogation. He tells his interrogator, Customs Agent David Kujan (Chazz Palminteri) a convoluted story about events leading to a massacre and massive fire that have just taken place on a ship docked at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro Bay. Using flashback and narration, Kint's story becomes increasingly complex as he tries to explain why he and his partners-in-crime were on the boat. The scene began with John Ottman's resplendent classical score backdrops some eye-popping Panavision images of an unseen man shooting Gabriel Byrne and starting a huge fire dockside in San Pedro. The widescreen frame remains superbly filled for the entire picture, which then jumps back in time six weeks to begin piecing together the tricky details of a plot that will bring an assortment of characters together for the fateful conflagration in California. Singer provides what are sometimes called real movie-movie moments, scenes filled with live-wire acting, dramatic confrontations, startling action and surprising twists. pictures moves along at just the right pace to keep the suspense tingling but also to permit the characterizations to take dimensional shape.