Costume decisions: HANNAH

To help decide upon the costumes of our characters I decided to look at other various openings to films of the thriller genre in order to get a further idea of generally the kind of colours/style of clothing that characters wear in the openings.

After looking a few openings including 'The girl with the dragon tattoo', 'Usual Suspects' and 'Inception', I came to the conclusion that most thriller openings featured characters dressed in dark, plain clothing. I think that this is to draw attention towards the storyline and the character's actions rather than what they're wearing. Because of this, I have decided that both the male and female character will be wearing dark jeans and non eye-catching dark tops/hoodies.

I already had the idea that I wanted the female character to look like she hadn't changed in a few days and so her clothes would be dirty and torn to imply that the man had sexually attacked her. This would also imply to the audience that she had been running and hiding for a while now.
I also wanted the girls body and clothes to be covered in blood. However it is vital that the blood appears realistic as if the blood looks fake it could ruin the nature of the opening. So I went on to research several different substances which can be made to resemble realistic blood:

This is a screenshot from one of the websites I looked at giving instructions on how to make realistic fake blood

However in the end after researching several different methods I decided to purchase a pre-made tube of fake blood as it seemed the most reliable/effective method.

This is a video of me showing how to apply fake blood:

I then went on to research how fake blood had been used in thrillers featuring chase scenes as I thought this could be a useful basis for our opening. Firstly I looked at a chase scene from the film 'Shutter Island' which is known for it's high tension and interesting plot twists whilst incorporating a horror element into the plot line.

Throughout the chase scene in 'Shutter island', varying lighting is used to emphasise certain aspects of the frame. One particular shot which stood out to me was a low angle shot of the 'chaser' showing only his blood-covered foot. This was very suspenseful as it puts questions in the audience's minds and by combining this with quick cuts to different shots and varied lighting, the whole scene was very tense.

To further research my costume choices, I again wanted to research chase sequences from thrillers. I looked at a sequence from an episode of BBC's 'Luther'. The chase scene again uses quick cuts to convey a tense atmosphere. The characters are both dressed in dark clothing which  makes it unclear as to who the protagonist of the situation is. 

This helped me to make the decision to dress the female character in my opening in a white top to convey innocence and purity. The white will create a contrast to the red blood splatters which connote ideas of death and danger. I have chosen to dress her in tights as they're easy to give a 'distressed' look to by laddering and ripping and so I thought this would be an effective costume choice to demonstrate the attack which the female suffered. In the flashback scene the female will be wearing a skirt, however in the present-day scenes she will only be wearing the ripped tights. This gives the subtle impression of a sexual attack.

I chose to dress the male character in a generic black hoodie to give 'thuggish' connotations to the audience. Using the colour black will give the audience a clear indication of who is the 'good' person in the situation and who is the 'bad', as the female character will be wearing white. The male character will be wearing dark jeans so as not to stand out from the background/setting and give the appearance of a dark silhouette.

POST FILMING

When filming our thriller opening, we encountered a problem with the pre-made fake blood that I had chosen to use. In certain areas I had applied the 'blood' liberally, using a body makeup sponge (as shown in the picture below). About an hour into filming, the areas in which I had used a lot of blood began to crack and peel. To rectify the situation, we had a break from filming and I had to reapply the fake blood in the exact same place as before, however this time so as not to repeat the problem I used less of the product.

Another problem with one of my costume decisions was the the white T-shirt to be worn over tights was shorter on the actress than I had anticipated and so she had to keep pulling it down in between shots which became a hassle especially for long shots from behind the character. To solve this problem I should have had the actress try on the T-shirt with just tights prior to filming, so that I would have known the top was too small.

Equipment - Kieran

The equipment we will need -

• Camera - To film with
• Tri-Pod - To hold the camera
• Spare Battery Pack - To power the camera
• Lights - To light the scene in a thriller genre way.
• Light Stands - To hold the lights
• Umbrella - To keep the equipment safe and dry in case of rain
• Something white (preferably paper) - To set the white balance.
• Voice Recorder
• Props
• Costume

Props (Sarah)

Research of Props used in Thriller Films:

After researching famous thriller films, it shows that most thriller films consist of weapons such as knives, guns, explosives etc. This conveys fear and danger which adds tension and suspense. Examples of other props is the shower curtain in 'Psycho' and an axe in 'The Shining'. The different props depend on who is using them whether it be the Antagonist or Protagonist.

Mobile phone: 

In the flashback of the girl running she will be holding a mobile phone whilst texting. We are using this as it will look like she's just coming back from a night out and will be checking her phone on the way home. It also means that this way she will not know anyone is following her to start with as she is occupied and not completely alert. This will be an inexpensive and less modern phone to convey to the audience that she comes from a less wealthy background and gives more information and depth on the character subtly.

As our prop for our protagonist/victim is quite different and modern, it can add a sense of suspense and thrill to the audience as they will question what the reason is for the characters to have the props and what will happen to the prop as the opening progresses.

Risk Assessment (not complete) - Kieran

Risk assessment: (Kieran)
Location:
As we are filming a sequence in the middle of the road we need to be cautious of moving cars.
As recently it's been raining and will most like continue to there will be puddles which could effect the equipment.
If it's muddy someone may slip and hurt themselves.
We will need to be prepared for all sorts of weathers, so things like umbrellas will be essential in case of rain as it will keep the equipment safe.

Anamatic with commentary (Sarah and Hannah)

Location (Sarah)

Research of other thriller film opening locations

Silence of the lambs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1o-GOpdt0Q

The opening of this film is set in a woodland forest. The lighting is quite low key to begin with and gives a sense of mystery. I think the isolated, rural area works well to create an effect that the character/victim is alone so no one would be able to hear or help them. This makes the reader feel nervous and builds tension right from the start.

Shutter Island: http://moodle.centralsussex.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=36518

Shutter Island begins with a shot of the wide ocean in a misty fog, a boat then appears out of this and the audience is taken to the location of inside the boat. Again the use of the sea means that the people are alone of the boat with no escape, added with the effect of fog so they cannot see who is around. This conveys desolation and remoteness which makes the audience feel trapped themselves.

The Shining: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgCejsyS0t8

The opening few shots of this film are of a lake with a high hillside on each side. There are no characters seen and it's shot in quite a long pace so it portrays that there is such alienation in the landscape. This again means the audience can't see anything over the hillsides so there could be something hidden.

All of these films use some sort of mist, rain or unfocused effect in their locations to create mystery which is why in our film we chose to use an unfocused effect when the character is walking down the lane.

Our Location
After looking carefully and researching other locations, we have chosen the lane in Scaynes hill which is quite rural so in the dark we thought it would give an eerie, conventional thriller effect. This is also effective as our lighting can be tested easier and equipment can be moved around easier. We will explore a variety of camera angles and movements in this location. The location isn't too far from the college which is also convenient for us.

Our actress Georgie will 'wake' up in the lane and look around, so we may use some shots of the surroundings as well. We will also experiment with different angles and tracking shots in this location before filming to ensure our film will be as good as we can make it.

We will also be using the entrance of the lane by the main road. We will use this as part of the 'flash back' where Kieran will start to follow Georgie down the lane, this gives the audience assumptions as to what has happened and why she has woken up injured down the lane. This location will begin the chase scene where the characters will be running. For this we aim to use a variety and as many different shot types and camera angles as we can. The shots will be quick pace so we will need to film in lots of different areas, changing the placing of the camera within this location.

Researching ways to build tension - Hannah

 

To effectively convey the thriller genre in our opening, it's essential that one of the main conventions - being a high level of tension - is emphasised.

 

I began by looking at a high tension scene from 'Don't look now'. The tension in this particular scene is built through the use of lighting. Most of the screen is in shadow whilst the main focus - and the main thing which is going to create suspense for the audience - is highlighted
.
 



This same lighting technique is also used in the opening of 'The Usual Suspects'.

 



From this research I deduced that our opening should incorporate some form of high key lighting focused on a specific object/person.

 

Another way tension is successfully built is through the use of sound. Generally a crescendo of violin or drum centred music gradually gets louder or increases in tempo as the opening scene progresses. Because of this convention being featured in so many thrillers we decided to look for a copyright free piece of tension-building music to put as a backing track to our opening.

We found a track which we'd like to use: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms7Qu3XcwVo.
however this particular track was copyrighted and so we began to search for a similar sounding piece of music.


A third way tension and suspense are built is through rapidly paced jump shots. This creates a 'rushed' and 'panicky' feel to the sequence. We could easily incorporate this technique into our opening during the chase scene. This would effectively convey the girl's internal panic and fear.

 

 





Thriller openings (Sarah)

Shutter island
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZjOOwaiTGQ

The opening of Shutter Island begins with a large boat emerging from a mist. The boat is in an extreme long shot and shows no sight of land as it’s an isolated area. This focus’ the attention on the boat and creates mystery as to why it is there. There is also a silhouetted figure by the stern of the boat which gives no information away to audience and entices them in to want to know more. The lighting used is high key as it produces a high contrast. There is also a slight mono-chromed/blue tinted saturation which gives a dark, eerie, serious natured effect and confirms the genre of the film straight away.  The sound of a creaking boat and faint sound of waves increases as you see the boat which builds up more and more tension as it emerges to show boat is important to this scene.

The narrative is then taken into the bathroom of the ship where the character ‘Teddy’ is shot vomiting due to seasickness. One of the main shots is a close up and over the shoulder shot of him looking into the mirror. This uses low key lighting as it shows an unnerving setting and only focuses the light is on his face. This draws attention to facial expression and highlights sweat on face which shows he is panicking. He’s also shaking and combined with the sound of his harsh whisper voice it could convey suffering which makes the audience feel sympathy for the character early on. This gets the audience on his side so when the eventual outcome at the end of the film is shown, there is an even larger plot twist.

As Teddy walks out from the bathroom, there is an extreme long shot with shallow depth of field focusing on the hanging chains and hooks connected to the ship ceiling. The audience is left unsure as to the reason for their use. The lighting is led from the bottom right of the screen which picks up the way the hooks are placed and helps focus the attention to this. The same saturation continues to show that the same atmosphere as outside is continued inside the ship, which creates an idea that there is no escape from this. The camera quickly zooms in to the character to highlight his shocked face and pans a close up as he walks out the room. The combined sound of the chains swinging, ship horn repeatedly sounding in a rhythmic way plus heavy breathing creates an unsettling atmosphere.

As the character walks out onto the decks, there is a close up of his face. In this you can tell more about him from mise en scene aspects such as his costume which counteracts with the saturation. The key light is coming from the right as this highlights the bags under his eyes which gives more personality to the character. This makes him appear not only ill but also anxious and suspicious.

Silence of the lambs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1o-GOpdt0Q

The opening scene pans down from high angle to low angle which gives the impression of watching and searching for someone. The light is a high contrast between light mist and dark shadows which creates the effect of mystery. The strong slow piano sound creates tension and is unnerving as the audience is being led but is unsure where to.

A young woman character is the introduced and in a medium shot the camera tracks her from behind. She is running which instantly produces thoughts of panic as someone could be watching her. The use of mist creates the effect of blindness to the surroundings and also provides mystery. The soundtrack continues with the sound of her heavy breathing which could insinuate that she is running from someone.

The opening also uses an extreme close-up of her feet running which is slightly blurred. This conveys speed and action which the audience need to keep up with. The sound of her footsteps running increases here. As you can only see her feet the audience is unsure of what else is happening in her surroundings so creates tension as it’s the fear of the unknown.

As the girl reaches a rope climbing frame is reassures the audience that she’s running for a fitness purpose. The camera catches a light which appears to be the sun as it tracks and pans round the rope frame.  The music intensifies by tempo and increases the instruments used, this increases tension and gives the impression she could still be being followed.  There is a slight monochrome toned saturation throughout this opening as well which indicates it is a convention of all thriller films.

Old Boy
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr6w3OTzWnc

The film begins in a non-chronological narrative where two Asian men are the top of a building and there is an intense action shot where one is almost about to fall to his death off the building and one is holding his tie with the power to let him fall. This creates immediate and sudden mystery and restricted narration. The first shot is a low angle shot using high ratio lighting where the background is bright white and man is almost silhouetted; almost as a negative. The fast pace music and beating of electronic sound gives an impression of tension and build up even when there is no movement.   There is also a whimpering from the man about to die which conveys he is confused and vulnerable. The extreme close up of the ‘bad guy’s face shows a very dark, serious expression; he slightly tilts his head which could suggest danger and mild insanity.

The scene then changes to a man in a police station. The first shot is an extreme close up in high key lighting which contrasts majorly with the scene before. To link these two scenes the end of the first scene ends with ‘My name is…’ and the beginning of the second scene opens with ‘Oh Dae-su’. The sound then comes to an abrupt halt so indicating a change in time and place. The sound then becomes just quiet average daily background noise and the man’s dialogue. The characters lexis then indicates that he is drunk and the audience begin to receive more and more information on the scene as you find out his name and who the other people are around him.

As this scene progresses, the drunken man begins to try to show the police officers a photo of his daughter. These shots are close-ups and the photograph he is trying to show is blurred which indicates a slight depth of field in the point of view of the officer, that the man is shoving the photo so close to his face he can’t see it. The close-ups are used to show the man’s facial expression and highlight him as the main focus of the shot. The sound consists of the characters slurred speech and with the lack of music this shows more about the characters personality to the audience and his possible lack of control. The character looks straight into the camera which also shows more evidence that we are in the position of the police officer. This scene incorporates jump cuts to show the passing of time and keeps the audience engaged.

The third scene is set by a telephone box in a medium close up showing the drunken character on the phone in the foreground and his friend in the background. The rain conveys a heavy mood of gloom and mystery as you can’t always see through in the rain and acts as a alternative medium to mist. This film continues to use the convention of a dull saturation. 

The lovely bones
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jtcedekmG8

The scene opens with an extreme close-up of a snow globe which in a very slow pace zooms out into a close up. The light and colour changes from a dull saturation and darker lighting to a warm yellow toned colour and brighter lighting. This indicates the passing of time and significance of the snow globe. The globe shot is then repeated in every other shot which shows importance and so the audience remembers this. The use of a child’s toy is also quite sinister and creates mystery. The snow inside the globe adds mystery in the same way other directors have used fog to create an feeling of the unseen.

An innocent 3 year old girl is then shown in the next shot investigating small toy carousel accompanied by nursery music box sound, which reinforces the idea of innocence. The use of high key lighting and bright primary colours means the audience associates this with childhood, which makes the audience start to relate to this scene.  There is then a jump cut into an extreme long shot to introduce other character into the scene.  Then looking at the mise en scene of this shot, the use of blonde hair, red dungarees and light blue eyes conveys an angelic like cherub stereotype. This makes the audience feel protective over this character. The voice over then begins of an older girl who is revisiting her memories. The audience then witnesses this visual memory. The use of the voice over means that the audience is aware of distance and time from when the memory is happening in the past and the present of her talking. It also portrays the importance of taking note of what has happened in the past.

The girl is shot on her own before the voice over begins which makes the audience uncomfortable and suspicious; when the male character is then introduced it relaxes the audiences mind and releases the tension again so it can be rebuilt.

The title of ‘THE LOVELY BONES’ is placed over the shot of the snow globe which links the story title and significance of the object together before the film even properly begun.

The scene after this completely changes to a bedroom and the sound of upbeat tempo and happy music fills the scene. The sepia type colour tone of the shot shows that it could be set in the 1960’s. The camera then pans across to show a picture of the 3 year old girl on the bedside table. This indicates the audience the identity of these characters as the girls’ parents. The text ’12 years later’ then comes across the shot to show the passing of time and changes within the characters relationship. The lighting then becomes brighter and colours become more vivid. The camera then does the same pan across to the picture and shows the girl grown up to be around 14/15 years old. This is compulsory for the next scene so the audience realise who the girl is and the voice over continues to reinforce this. 

'Confusion' effect research - Hannah

To give the initial impression of 'confusion' which we wanted to make abundantly clear in the first 30 seconds - 1 minute of the opening, we decided to discuss a range of ideas as to how to present this.

We looked at the opening to the film 'Arlington Road' which demonstrates the confusion/drowsiness of the character being shown through an un-focused camera effect, blurry transitions and slow motion.

These techniques work together to present the confusion whilst cutting to and from first person perspective.


Another good technique we looked at from the 'Arlington Road' opening was the use of different angles/shots. The shot of just the boy's shoes is very effective when the blood begins to fall as the source of blood is not in the shot it and so the audience don't know where it's coming from, this therefore creates tension.

The opening also uses high key lighting as an effective way to unsettle the audience and also show them through first person perspective what the character is supposedly seeing. (his vision is going blurry/bright because of how much pain he's in and how much blood he's lost.



From watching this opening we've gained an understanding of how to present the feeling of confusion through a range of techniques. As an affect of this, we will be encorporating similar techniques into our opening in order to effectively demonstrate the confused feel. 

Pre-production planning

Synopsis: (written by whole group)

A man is following girl. She comes from a rich family and so he'd kidnapped her to hold her for ransom. However she escaped after he attacked her and this is where the film opens from.

A girl wakes up in the road and is clearly confused as to where she is. she then has a flashback and remembers that she was chased, she is running from a man who looks dangerous and is after her. She runs into a dead end and screen goes black then cuts back to her looking up and the mans there in front of her.

CASTING: (chosen by whole group)

Girl : Leah Aldrich

Chaser : Kieran Murray

We have selected these two actors due for several reasons. Their accessibility makes it easy for us to find time to film our opening. We chose Leah as she has an interest in drama and so her performance skills are good, and also she has dark hair which we wanted in our female character as in keeps the theme of our dark colors which we intend to use.

Lighting decisions: (Hannah) 

Again using other thriller openings for reference I came to the conclusion that generally thriller openings are either shot with very high key lighting, or very low key lighting. I think that this is to emphasis the mood of the sequence because just a standard 3 point lighting wouldn't create tension.

In the opening to 'The girl with the dragon tattoo' a very effective lighting method is used where the majority of the screen is dark however key aspects are highlighted using a key light. I think this effect would be easily achievable in our opening and would work effectively to build the initial suspense. 

Anamatic : (Hannah & Sarah) 

Target demographic (Hannah)

Example profile - Robocop

• Mainly C2 & AB who watched film
• Majority of audience was male
• Majority of audience of 15-24 years old 

OUR TARGET PROFILE

• Targeting middle class (C1)
• Majority of audience male
• Majority of audience of 15-24 years
  
  
  we've chosen this as our selected target audience because we feel this is a popular demographic and will be easy to direct our advertisements towards this audience as there is a lot of available information on this demographic. 

kieran's 4 thriller openings

Research and analysis of thriller film openings

BLADE RUNNER

Blade runner starts with writing scrolling on a screen which vaguely gives you an idea of what's going on during the time period it's set. It then fades in from black to a extreme long shot on a city with tall buildings at night, this is effective as it makes the flames/explosions from the rooftops more clear and stand out more. Still during this shot a flying car flies from the distance straight past the screen, this is the first thing that implies that this film is set in the future. During this shot the camera pans to the right, but very slowly, like it's building up suspense and creating tension as the audience at this point does not know what is going on and are wondering why explosions are coming from the rooftops. After 5 seconds of this build up, a bolt of lightning strikes from the sky, which may unsettle the audience as they wouldn't expect this. Straight after this it cuts to a long shot of the city, which enables you to have a closer look on what's happening on these buildings, but once again it's kept a mystery to audience on what's going on. Here though it's clearer that these are definitely flames as a ball of fire emerges from beneath to the center of the shot. Straight after this quite space like - dramatic music emerges and becomes quite noticeable. The music sounds heroic which would make sense as this flying car flies back into the shot and back towards where it originally came from, as it flies off a piece of non-diegetic sound, which sounds like a sparkle is used giving this car a good feeling about it. As this car flies into the distance it cuts to a extreme close up on someones eye with the flames reflecting on it, this gives you the feeling that everything else you've seen before this has come from his point of view and he's watching in the distance of what's going on. His eyes look quite blood shot giving this sense that he's upset, meaning what's happening is bad. It then cuts back to the extreme long shot of the buildings, but this time the colours look a lot more natural as before it looked very desaturated. The next shot is a long shot of several of these cars entering this type of ship/building and then it cuts straight back to the extreme close up of the eye, this makes this ship/building seem very important, as this persons eye doesn't even blink or move from this scene making the audience feel eager to know what it is.

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES

The opening scene of 'The Dark Knight Rises' begins with credits, but in the back ground and underpinned behind these credits shows someone researching the 'batman'. The first you see of this is a close up on ink being dripped into water and the water rippling, this all looks quite distorted which may unsettle the audience and at this point you don't really have any clue of what's going on until the next shot where it cuts to a close up of someone stabbing at the batman logo which they had created during the shot before the current one. It then cuts back to this symbol once it's been sculptured and it zooms in on it, underneath it you can see newspaper articles about the batman which gives you this impression that it's someone researching him. Then it flashes twice back and forth from credits to a picture of Bruce Wayne (The Batman)  being scalpel'd with tears out of the pictures face, in this you can also see smoke which shows maybe they're burning other photos of him. So this gives you a feeling that this person is out to get him and is the 'antagonist' of this film. It then cuts to short shots of other innocent characters from previous movies photos being pinned up on walls and being burned and examined. Combined with the dramatic music which is building up, it creates a lot of tension as you can tell that throughout this film something is going to happen to all of these people you just don't know when and what is going to happen to them. The lighting throughout is dark and the colours are very desaturated which sets the dark mood within the opening.

THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT

The Butterfly Effect starts by fading from black to
someone opening a note pad with a pencil in their hand, as they start writing high pitch nursery rhyme like music starts to play. After a few seconds the camera begins to start twitching and becomes distorted, then fades to black with credits. This makes the audience feel confused as they have no idea on what's going on. It then fades in with someone running towards the camera, and then fades to a bookcase, and this same man running and rustling through the books, this makes you feel like there's something important inside one of those books. Also the colour changes as before it's dark colours and then when it gets to the bookshelf they're really quite bright. When he's looking through the books it's all been fast forwarded just like in the next shot where it fades to him looking through his bed, this is used to represent time and show that he's looking for something for a long time and everywhere. As after this it's also quite cuts of him pulling all the books out and literally turning his room 'up side down', for example as he throws his mattress off his bed. So you get the feeling why is he doing this? And that what ever he's looking for must be very important. It keeps on repeating these sequence of shots but slows down which represents him giving up hope, until it cuts to a shot of him finding a box under the bed which he finds this book in, he sits down to go and read it and as we see when it cuts to his point of view, it's the book the person had been writing in, then it warps and becomes distorted again. So it gives you this repetitive feeling and being a member of the audience you would have no clue on what's going on. Then at the end it cuts to a butterfly with the title written on it.

THE SHINING

The shining starts with a fade from black to a natural scene, it starts with a tracking shot through a river and then fades to a tracking shot from a birds eye view on a moving car, but no one else is in sight. So this gives off a feeling that someone is following that person in the car. It then fades to another extreme long tracking shot which follows the car but this is closer to the ground and the scene has changed which enforces a shift in time. Even though everything looks so normal it's odd as you still don't see anyone else, until 56 seconds in you see the shadow of a helicopter which shows that this car is being watched and then you get introduced to a feeling that this tracking view of this car maybe something a lot more serious to this pretty innocent opening it was given, but you never know if it's following it or not. Which then lets you have your own interpretation on what has happened here as you aren't given any information or any idea on what has actually happened.

Hannah's 4 Thriller Openings

Research and analysis of thriller film openings

The Butterfly Effect

The opening to 'The Butterfly Effect' begins with a fade from black to a shot of someone opening a notebook with a pencil in their hand. The lighting is low key and all colours in the scene appear to be dark. Eerie music begins as the person begins to write in the notebook. The camera begins to shudder and jolt, unsettling the audience. Next an interesting transition is used, obscuring the middle of the book and fading the screen to black showing white credits. This creates more tension than just a typical jump cut as it adds an element of unknown to the scene, as the audience wouldn't have been expecting that transition.

The credits fade off screen and the camera flickers to show a medium shot of a bookcase from a below eye-level angle. The books on the shelf are the brightest colours to be shown in the opening so far. This could convey that the books are important and the audience should draw their attention towards them. A man is shown grabbing the books off the shelf and putting them into a bag. The camera goes blurry as the man performs this action, which creates suspense for the audience as they can't properly see him or what he's doing. The camera blurs and flickers to show a shot of a bed for a few seconds then jumps to the man putting more books into his bag. This begins to put questions into the audiences mind - who is the man? why is he doing this? 

The background music is slow and intense. It matches the genre as it works to build tension along with the other elements of the opening. The pace of the music gradually increases along with the volume as the opening progresses. 

Next the scene shows an eye level medium shot of the man lifting up his mattress. This gives the impression that he's either hiding something or looking for something. The hurried nature of the sequence puts the audience on edge and gives the opening a rushed feel to it.
The screen fades to black and shows nothing but a white butterfly with the text 'The Butterfly Effect'.
By keeping the shots and colours simple throughout the opening, the end result is an eerie sequence which leaves the audience with unanswered questions.

Kill Bill

The scene opens with a black screen and the sound of a woman heavily breathing (possibly foley). This instantly creates tension as the audience will want to know who/what/why. 

The scene then cuts to show a high angle shot of a woman's face. As only her face can be seen, this draws attention to the fact that it's covered in cuts and she appears to be heavily bleeding. A sound bridge of footsteps begins which creates enigma. Also the parallel editing aids this sound bridge, creating a connection.

The desaturation of the scene adds to the mysteriousness and the tension. It also implies that this is a past event or a flashback rather than something which is currently happening.

The tracking shot of the feet shows a little bit more of the setting which establishes the surroundings to the audience. 

The scene ends with a gunshot which is loud and abrupt compared to the rest of the sounds. This brings the tension to a climax before the screen fades to black, introducing the film.

Inception

The scene opens with a slow-motion pan of the sea with crashing waves. The heavy surf denotes that it's a dangerous situation which builds tension and puts the question in the audience's mind as to why the film has opened with this shot. The camera then pans to show a man lying face-down in the water, cuts to a shot of a child on the beach, then cuts back to the man. By opening the film with these quick cuts without any explanation of who the characters are immediately conveys the thriller genre and creates immediate suspense and tension. Also by showing a close-up of the man's face rather than a medium shot of his entire body in the water to begin with, the audience's attention is drawn to the cuts on his face and his sleep-deprived eyes. His hair appears matted which implies that this man hasn't been able to wash properly for a long time, giving the audience an insight into his character and possibly the story line. The shots of the children are shakey and from a low angle which give the idea that it's from the man's perspective. Children's laughter can be heard be the children themselves aren't shown laughing so this conveys to the audience - along with the shakey camera and quick cuts - that the children are merely a figment of the man's imagination. There is an interesting contrast of colors with the man seemingly dressed in dark clothes whilst the children are dressed in bright colours. This could again be to further establish that the children aren't really there as they don't blend in with their surroundings. 

The scene then cuts to a high angle medium shot of the upper-half of the man's body in the water with a gun being pointed at his back by someone, to which the man seems unaware of. It then cuts to a low angle shot of the person pointing the gun, who by their clothing seems to be some sort of police man or military officer. Revealing the person in a low angle shot conveys their dominance over the situation. The man with the gun's stance is very powerful compared to the man lying face down in the water, exposed and vulnerable. 

The man with the gun shouts to another man in the distance and the scene cuts to a long shot. It shows an Asian-style mansion which gives the audience more information about the setting. This shot is very bright which creates a contrast when the scene jumps next to a shot of inside the building, which has very low-key lighting to give the impression that the room is lit only by lanterns.

Overall the opening to 'Inception' was effective in building tension and suspense through the use of different camera angles and lighting.

The Shining

The opening of The Shining uses Long shots and Extreme longshots of desolated landscapes to create an isolated feel to the scene, echoing the theme of the film. The music is slow and intense which emphasises the alienation of the scene as there's nothing that the audience can see that would be causing tension. However, 50 seconds into the opening a shadow of a helicopter can be see on the hillside. This could be to give the impression that though no one appears to be around, someone is always watching; again this echos the theme of the film.

Birds eye view angle is used to give the impression that the car which the camera is tracking is in a position of weakness. 

There are no reverse cuts used in the opening sequence as no characters are filmed, however continuity editing is used.

By not showing any of the characters and instead tracking a car, the audience begins to question the reasoning behind this which would build tension - emphasised by the non-digetic music.

The credits are shown in a light blue colour which is a non-threatening colour which creates contrast to the nature of the film.