Camera Work:

All of the camera work in the opening scene uses a hand held camera. The first shot is a close up on the handcuffs around the antagonists hands followed by a close up of his face. This allows the audience to be introduced to the antagonist and makes them feel safe as he is in handcuffs unable to cause destruction. However, it also makes the audience feel tense as he is the first character that they meat which makes them nervous as they cannot predict if something bad is going to happen. The shot changes to a close up of a face of a woman reporter who is talking about the antagonist. The protagonist is looking directly at the camera which makes the audience feel as if they are involved with the story line as the protagonist breaks the forth wall. A long tracking shot is used towards the end of the opening scene following the vehicle that the antagonist is in. This makes the audience feel less tense as the antagonist is in the hands of the police. One of the final shots used in the opening is a low angle shot looking up at the antagonist. This heightens tension within the audience as the shot makes the antagonist look powerful and strong in comparison to the audience.

Editing and Graphics:

Many long takes are used to increase the tension that the antagonist creates with the audience. The shot in the vehicle where the antagonist is being kept used depth of focus, where the antagonist is in focus whereas the people and objects around him are out of focus. This makes the audience feel as if the antagonist is important and powerful which makes them feel insuperiour and weak in his presents. Dark lighting is used to frame the charecter, this reminds the audience that the charecter is an antagonist as in typical psychological thrillers low key lighting is used to show the antagonist. A jump cut is used to change the image to a woman reporter discussing the antagonist’s crimes. This makes the audience aware of the antagonist’s crimes and therefore makes them feel as if he is powerful which makes them feel vulnerable.  The credits appear in red font over the top of the images. The use of having the credits in red suggest danger as red is a colour we associate with blood and danger. This connotation is developed from other psychological thrillers that i have analysed. They appear in the order: title, actor, casting, costume, music, editors, production designer, executive producers, producer, and director.

Sound:

The shots begin accompanied by a non-diegetic voice over of woman reporting the antagonist’s crimes. This sound is played with a weak low key white noise; this sound gets louder as the scene continues. The white noise fades into a low pitched cello orchestra. This score creates tension with the audience as it is a low key sound that is typically shown with the antagonist, they are also being told the mans crimes which makes them uncomfortable as they begin to learn about the charecter and his crimes. The shot cuts to a woman reporter and the non-diegetic sound of the voice over transitions to a diegetic noise. This makes the audience tense as they realise that the crimes are recent as it is only now being reported.

Mise en Scene:

Low key lighting is used when the antagonist is being framed by the camera. This shows the audience that he is bad and that he is dangerous, this is because darkness is portrayed as being dangerous and where most crimes take place. Having darkness when the antagonist is on the screen makes him seem more deadly and mysterious. His outfit is plain tanned prison clothes. This takes away his identity from the audience so that they are unable to see the true character. This makes them feel tense. However, because he is dressed in clothes used in a prison the audience also feel a little bit of relief. This is because they know that he is unable to escape and under the control of police who they trust. The prop of the hand cuffs he is binded in make the audience feel as if he is secure however, it also reminds them that he is a criminal and this reinforces the tense atmostphere that is developed in the begining shots.

Within this opening, we liked the idea of using specific colours to create moods within the audience. For example, the graphics appeared in the colour red. This is unusaul for a thriller to have this as the majority use black and white. Similarly, i liked how the antagonists face was shown, again, this is not a typical convention of a psychological thriller but created tension faster.