Psychological Thriller Film Openings
Our chosen Genre for our film opening is 'Psychological Thriller', which is a genre that focuses on emphasizing the psychological journey of a character. Allowing the audience to measure the characters mental state as the film develops. It is a Sub Genre of 'Thriller" that tends to overlap with mystery, drama and action, incorporating similar elements of these genres.
Movie Inspirations
Gone Girl 2014
Gone Girl is a film about the surrounding events of Nick Dunne, who becomes the primary suspect in the sudden disappearance of his wife, Amy. In this film Nick must fight off the accusations that he had killed his wife, and figure out her mystery disappearance. Similar to our film idea, our protagonist also wishes to 'disappear' from her home town and all the memories that is holds and take a journey to an unknown destination (to everyone else).
This film includes an opening close up shot of a woman - we were hoping that our opening shot would be similar to the one of Gone Girl, primarily focusing on the characters eyes and face. In our film opening she will be waking up from a flashback. Also similar to this films opening we wish to use voice overs to develop narrative enigma and allow the audience to start questioning. In our case, we will use voice mails of the characters family and friends, addressed to our protagonists phone.
Inception 2010
Dom Cobb is a skilled thief, the absolute best in the dangerous art of extraction, stealing valuable secrets from deep within the subconscious during the dream state, when the mind is at its most vulnerable. Cobb is being offered a chance at redemption. One last job could give him his life back but only if he can accomplish the impossible with careful planning - inception.
This film relates to ours because the protagonist has lost his family and as they both are physiological thrillers they both contain the genres of action, drama and mystery whilst staying predominantly in the thriller genre.
We are hoping that our film is similar to this film in the opening shots. This is because the opening shots of this is very scenic of a beach with the waves and the sky. This is the type of camera work we are looking for. Very scenic shots.
Jacobs Ladders 1998
This film is about a character who was wounded in the Vietnam war and consequently returned to his home in New York. Jacob slowly starts to loose grip on reality, as his memories of his son and his traumatic time in the war begin to haunt him more and more. This is the idea that we wish to take from this film as inspiration for our film opening - as it will contain flashbacks.
Using this film as one of our models, we wish our opening to contain realistic flashbacks, using varied shot lengths (mainly short), and discontinuity editing. We also have to ensure that our flashbacks look realistic and the haunting of our characters mind is portrayed correctly.
Fight Club 1999
A nameless first person narrator (Edward Norton) attends support groups in attempt to subdue his emotional state and relieve his insomniac state. When he meets Marla (Helena Bonham Carter), another fake attendee of support groups, his life seems to become a little more bearable. However when he associates himself with Tyler (Brad Pitt) he is dragged into an underground fight club and soap making scheme. Together the two men spiral out of control and engage in competitive rivalry for love and power. When the narrator is exposed to the hidden agenda of Tyler's fight club, he must accept the awful truth that Tyler may not be who he says he is.
This film is similar to ours because they're both psychological thrillers and have very similar sub-genres, these being thrillers and dramas. As well as this both of the protagonists are all alone with no family etc. As well as this both protagonists are in a rough emotional state.
What our film opening will take from this is to have a very down and very self-absorbed/reserved protagonist. There won't be many other things we will take from this film.
The Machinist 2004
Factory worker Trevor Reznik (Christian Bale) suffers from insomnia so severe that his condition has taken its toll on his weight and his mental health. When Trevor unintentionally causes an on-the-job accident that horribly injures a coworker (Michael Ironside), he begins to become even more troubled. Despite a relationship with Stevie (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a pretty prostitute, Trevor descends further into paranoia, blaming his problems on an enigmatic figure named Ivan (John Sharian).
This film is similar to ours because they are both psychological thrillers whilst both have a sub-genre of drama. This film is also similar to ours because the protagonist in both is in a rough emotional state and self absorbed. It's protagonist has no family and also doesn't let anyone into his life which is similar to our film idea.
What we are going to take from this film is that the protagonist is very self absorbed and stays to himself. We also will take that the protagonist will have insomnia which will not allow her to sleep.
Silence of the lambs 1991
Silence of the lambs is a psychological thriller made in 1991 about a young FBI cadet who must confide in a manipulative killer to receive his help in catching another serial killer who skins his victims. This film opening uses a lot of close up shots showing the action that is taking place. It is filmed in a dark location in the woods making it harder of the view to see the actor there are sounds of heavy breathing and also other things like birds and animals setting the scene of where it is based.
We can take ideas from this film opening and use them in ours such as at the start where it says where abouts the place in which this is being filmed is for example in this film opening it says "Woods near Quantico, VA". It also uses establishing shots at to show the view where the scene is set we can also use this in our opening for example when the girl is traveling along the country road to the farm house we can include some scenic establishing shots.
The Shining 1980
The film, The Shining, is the developing story of 'Jack' becomes winter caretaker at the isolated Overlook Hotel in Colorado. In doing so he hopes to cure his writing block, with peace and quiet - which is difficult whist his son 'Danny' is is haunted by psychic premonitions. As 'Danny's' visions become more and more disturbing, 'Jack' also discovers the hotels mystery that consequently changes him into a homicidal maniac.
As a classic psychological thriller, we see the deterioration of 'Jack's' mental state, which we which to show the beginnings of (with our character), within our film opening. However a more specific inspiration that has come from this film, is the beautiful, scenic way in which this film opening is presented. There are varied establishing, birds eye view shots, of a car travelling through the countryside which we hope to successfully replicate on a smaller scale using a drone. The locations that are used are also similar to what we wish our film opening to look like - country roads surrounded by nature.
Momento 2000
A memory inside a memory, Memento is a complicated head spinning adventure. Leonard is determined to avenge his wife's murder. However, unable to remember anything that happens day-to-day due to a condition he sustained, short term memory loss, he has to write himself note after note that still don't mean anything after he falls asleep. The film goes back in time to reveal each little bit of the puzzle as he tries to find out the person who killed his wife and makes the audience feel just as confused as he is. The narrative closely follows a phone call Pearce has in which he talks about Sammy Jankis a former client of his who he believed had the same condition. The film takes an unexpected twist as the two characters have a lot more in common than is initially put across.
This film is similar to ours because they are both physiological thrillers with sub genres being drama and thriller. Its also similar because both of the films protagonists have problems with their head. In ours its insomnia and emotional issues. And in Momento its that he has short term memory loss.
What our film is going to take from this is the same genre and sub genres and the protagonist having a mental problem. Also rather than the wife being murdered, the parents were killed.
Vanilla Sky 2001
Vanilla sky is an American psychological thriller romance film made in 2001. Its the story of a young New York City publishing magnate who finds himself on an unexpected roller-coaster ride of romance, comedy, suspicion, love, sex and dreams in a mind-bending search for his soul.its a remake of the 1997 Spanish film open your eyes. I think this film opening is really good as it relates to a lot of things that are going to take place in our film opening such as the actor getting out of bed the voicemail's and the scenic shots.
There are a lot of things that we can take as ideas from this film opening such as, i think our opening would look better if we filmed on a drone so maybe we may have to look into how to do so. I also like the way is sort of uses flashbacks as they flash up quickly on the screen.
Donnie Darko 2001
A troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a man in a large rabbit suit who manipulates him to commit a series of crimes, after he narrowly escapes a bizarre accident. Then opening starts off very dark as the camera pans around and down a road peaceful piano music plays as the actor lays on the floor. This film opening is similar to ours as the opening just has one actor in.
The thing that i like most about this opening is the way the scene switches so suddenly there is a massive flash of light and it switches from a peaceful scene to a quite upbeat scene this is something we could potentially use in our opening. when we are showing our flashbacks. Tracking shots are also used in this scene when the boy is riding his bike along the road we could also uses this when filming the scene of the girl walking down the country road.
