Storyboard

The first shot is a black screen, the sound over the top are siren noises froma crime scene. To end this shot there is one flash of white light to then move on to the next shot. The second shot, is a shot of a house in the middle of nowhere- slowly zooming in. This is an establishing shot to show where the scene is set. The sounds over the top of this shot are birds. When the camera zooms in and the hosue fills the whole shot, it quickly flicks to the next shot.


This shot is a close up of a T.V screen changing channel- through music channels, camera slowly zooms out. A title will fade in and out over this shot saying 'earlier that night'. The sounds over this shot is dialogue by the two main characters. A long shot of two girls sitting on a sofa in a living room having a conversation. camera slowly zooms in- phone rings- next shot.


The two girls walk towards the phone scared- as the camera pans round following them out the room, there is a figure outside the window. Camera faces the back of girls and they walk away from the camera. Close up of the phone ringing, girls hand picks it up- camera then follows the hand to the face. Girl speaks.


Girl answers phone and lights suddenly go off. Lights flicker back on- girls speak.


Lights turn off. Lights turn back on, there is as figure in the background.


Lights turn off. Lights turn on, figure is closer.


Lights turn off. Lights turn on, figure is closer.


Lights turn off. Lights turn on, figure is grabbing on of the girls.


Lights turn off. Lights turn back on, one girl is missing- girl screams. (title comes up)

Lights flash back on and one girl is missing, the title of the film then flashes up for the end of the opening.

Movie openings

This film scared me (Jordan) more than any film ever has! I couldn't find the opening scene on youtube so i put the trailer up.

The trailer is effective because it doesn't givemuch away, and with a film like 'The Grudge' you can't give too much away in the trailer because it ruins the film because it is a thriller so it has twists and jumpy bits.

The opening scene of this film is a man in bed with a girl and he gets out of bed and jumps off his balcony and kills himself, with no dialogue, this is an effective opening because it grabs the audiences attention straight away; why did he do it? etc.

'The ring' movie opening

The Ring



The two girls in the opening scene are represented as two normal teenage schoolgirls, as they are having a sleepover and trading secrets. They start to gossip about a 'video tape' saying that after you watch it, the phone rings and says 'you're gonna die in seven days'. They then become really paranoid about it.

The first camera shot we see is a big house in the middle of the night because it is pitch black and raining outside. The 'big house in the middle of the night' is a generic convention on the horror genre. Straight away in draws the audience in becasuse we wonder who is inside the house and what part in the film it plays. The camera angle starts of zoomed to allow the seeting to be scene, then it slowly zooms in as they have a conversation. The shot then switches to the stairs and the camera stays still and when they walk down the stairs you see their feet up to their facial expressions. The camera then swithes to a close up of the phone and then a mid-shot of the girls looking at the phone in horror. When one girl is in the kitchen and hears a noise she freezes up and the camera zooms in on her face to show how scared she is. The camera then pans round the corner and looks in the lounge as if its a point-of-view shot from the girl because she is looking round.

The Mise-en-scene is a bedroom, we see that it is probably a teenagers room- belonging to one of the girls- because it's messy and cluttered. The pillow on the bed have clothes on (not folded up) and on the floor there are school books and clothes. The inside of the house is very plain and tidy, this is used so there is a lot room for the girls to feel scared because the house is so big and empty.

The sound in the opening scene is very quiet with the noise of the rain outside in the background, when the girls go downstairs the rain becomes quieter so the scene becomes more sinister. Then when the T.V is on the sound of it is really loud and over-powering, after the T.V gets turned off for the second time she hears a wind-like sound behind her (another typical generic convention of the horror genre). When the fridge door opens a scary music starts to play really lightly in the background and this continues as she goes up the stairs and becomes louder when she gets upstairs and in the room, this is used to build tension.

I like the establishing shot at the very start of this scene, when you see hte house in the dark, in the rain because automatically the audience know it is a horror because it is a typical generic convention of the genre.

The close-up on facial expressions are very effective because they establish the characters feelings and let you focus on that.