Many films have inspired different aspects of the opening to our opening sequence, none more so than those in the thriller genre. We looked at a number of films to give us ideas on how successful films have used different techniques to engage and excite the audience. For example the title of our film being ‘Retribution’ in itself gives the audience a clue as to what the film is about before it’s started. This is evident in ‘Taken’, film directed by Pierre Morel which in the name of the film tells the audience that something or someone is going to be stolen. This is a technique which we wanted our film to uphold.
We also had to take into consideration the graphics that our titles would be portrayed in. After deliberation and looking at graphics of other films similar to ours, we came to the conclusion that we would like to keep the title of our film white on black. The simplicity of the title gave our low-budget film the arty look.
Where we decided to locate our film opening was a big decision as having it in a mansion in a low-budget British film would be fairly unusual. Therefore, we decided to film our opening in a typical London house, which is also a fondly used in other British films such as Shifty. I believe the choice of location helps others to relate to the characters and to the area, as it is likely to be similar to their lifestyle.
The costumes that we had our actors wearing also tried to resemble a stereotypical, cosy family environment; with the Dad wearing jeans and a jacket which is probably considered bog-standard. For the girls, we had to make sure that the audience would be able to sympathise with both the elder daughter and younger daughter. We did this by making the youngest daughter look cute and vulnerable, which then makes it more shocking for the audience when she is kidnapped. Then regarding the eldest daughter, we wanted her to seem angst and moody like other teenagers, and therefore signifying her lack of care for her sister. This idea of setting a character up to look vulnerable, so that the audience makes an immediate attachment to them, can be seen in ‘Man on Fire’ with Dakota Fanning dressed innocently to make the audience sympathise and support her as she escapes kidnappers. Altogether, the simplicity and everyday feel of the beginning of our film, helps add to the tension and drama with the girl being kidnapped.
The beginning shots of our opening are to establish the setting, characters and the situation in which our opening start. The opening is mundane and shows no obvious signs of anything untoward happening. Having only had 2 minutes for our opening, we had to establish a way in which to unnerve the audience and make them feel uncomfortable. The first shot that we used to disturb the audience was a point of view shot from a bush; these point of view shots are used commonly in psychological thrillers to make the audience feel as though someone is watching secretly who shouldn’t be.
The non-diegetic sound that we use in our opening also adds to a slightly uncomfortable situation for the audience. First of all, the music box playing an eerie, mysterious, high pitched children’s lullaby heightens the tension and confuses the audience, as it continues to play when the Dad goes to shop, I believe this foreshadows to the audience a build to an event, inside this opening 2 minutes. This tense, eerie music being overlaid our shots is taken from films such as Paranormal Activity where the sound builds up to a climax, until it jumps and has the audience jump.
A number of things which we set out to do were changed having seen them back in our reccee. For instance, we had first planned to make our film a hard-hitting thriller which would later unravel and become quite violent, like that in the film Taken. This would also include making our titles bold, strong and large. However, our film has turned out to be rather something quite different, swaying more towards the psychological side, with our titles, sound and shots.
For all parents, the kidnapping of a child is a nightmare which they hope they will never have to face in their real lives. However, for some parents, it has become stark reality when their child is stolen and can ruin their lives. Hopefully, our take on the kidnapping of a child will show our audience, the effect it has on the parents, but also the strength and determinist view of a parent to get their child back. This strong bond between parent and offspring can be seen in Taken and Hostage.
JK
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