Monday 14 May 2012
Practice Time Lapse
Friday 11 May 2012
Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience
We attracted/addressed our audience in our media product by having a similar social class in our film so they could relate to the situation and feel for the protagonist. We have put a working class female babysitter trying to get some extra money for shopping and other leisure activities. Our audience can relate to this because the target audience age range is 15-30 and the younger people of our target audience can relate to this because most of them would have done this before to get some money and the older generation would have done this when they were teens.
The antagonist in our movie is about 40-50 years old and our audience cannot really relate to him and have no feelings towards him, as he is the mysterious character, which no one really knows what he looks like. Our antagonist is from a working class background as you can tell by the way he is dressed but that is the only connection the audience has with him, which isn’t a strong or certified one. Also having an antagonist and protagonist is typical of the horror thriller/horror genre so they can build suspense, which we have done by intercutting scenes and using music. This technique will let the audience build a relationship or some sort of connection with the protagonist before we went into the dramatic scene where the antagonist confronts the protagonist. Using music and intercutting scenes kept the audience interested in the movie by giving the audience the knowledge that she is in danger but she does not know it yet and as the intercutting progressed she starts to catch on but she only knows what is going on just before the antagonist jumps out at her threatening her with a pitchfork. We also used a CCTV, which was a shot where we felt we could make the audience feel that they were spying at the antagonist, which would make them feel apart of the film.
We have used many different techniques and ways to attract/address our audience using the four key elements mise en scene, camera, editing and sound which helped involve the audience and build a dramatic suspense which we tried to involve them as much as possible.
Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
We have decided that our film is going to be independent because it is a low budget film with no special effects. What company we are targeting to distribute our media product is Studio Canal or Pathé as they have distributed films to a similar genre to ours such as ‘Orphan’ and ‘Attack the Block’. Or we were thinking of releasing our film at a film festival (BFI London Film Festival & Raindance Festival) where we could get some attention for potential distributors.
For our distribution campaign we were thinking of having a similar one to Attack the Block where we are going to release advertisements around where our target audience lives. We are also going to release trailers in theatres where we will be showing our movie and we may go and release a few teaser trailers on social networking sites where we would have a page set up. On this social networking page we will also have some competitions so we can get our target audience to enter so this will get them excited for the release.
If we are ambitious we could get our movie noticed by a big distribution company where they will be able to release our movie in a few mainstream cinema’s and they will also be able to get a better advertisement campaign than our initial one.
Overall we hopefully will be able to get a secure distribution deal and get a good company backing us.
Thursday 10 May 2012
Looking back at the preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt from it to the full product?
We believe that there is a number of areas in which we have progressed in in terms of ability from the preliminary task to the full product. One area that Alex have learnt about is improving his performance on-camera during the full task. During even a relatively basic task such as the preliminary he was evidently nervous and perhaps originally slightly uncomfortable about being on camera and had to get out of bad original habits such as talking into the camera as opposed to other characters and not timing the start of my lines correctly. He believe that during the full task, having gained a small level of experience of how to perform on camera, he was much more confident and was completing harder on-camera tasks in fewer takes.
My skills and knowledge of the camera has also improved, in my opinion, I have hugely progressed between the preliminary task and the full product. I wasn't the main camera man but what I did take part in was suggesting new shot ideas and showing Alex how to use it, this meant that I had to learn how to use the camera and the tripods.
Also all our editing skills on the Apple Macs have all improved as we all did our fair share of editing both preliminary and final short film. Using the software (final cut pro) was definately very challenging as none of us are used to using a Mac computer. We all use the popular and cheaper alternative in our daily life- windows software therefore when it came to editing our preliminary, we found that this was a hard hurdle to jump over. Especially when we were doing our first short film which was 'disappearance', we found that it is very hard to make the shots flow. But we learnt from our mistakes and kept the idea simple but effective for our final video.We definately noticed a massive difference when it came to editing. Our final product was 100% better than our preliminary due to learning from the mistakes and doing extra research on how to do different effects with the software.
I have also improved on and learnt a lot about the importance of working well as a group on a project such as this. During a small task like the preliminary this wasn’t so evidently needed but it was still vital that we worked well as a group as we had to get it right both on and off camera as well as when it came to the editing stage of the task. We felt that we did work well as a group as we are all friends outside of the media lesson but we thought this would be a disadvantage due to distractions etc. but we felt we have all worked together like clockwork. We each played a role in the blog and a role in the film without any hassle.
With the full task, it was much more important that we worked well as a group and broke up separate tasks and jobs accordingly between members of the group. With regard to planning the film as a group, I have learnt that it is vital to split up planning jobs amongst members of the group with jobs such as the shooting map, writing the storyboards and planning the storyline itself. I have also learnt a great amount about working together during the shoot of the full task. My learning of the timings between starting the camera and commencing the action in the scene, particularly during the killing scene, has definitely improved and it was vital that it did as everybody had to be in the right place at the right time in order for this ambitious scene to work.
The audience feedback, in my opinion, was more positive than I believed it was going to be. They seemed to praise, in particular, the somewhat ambitious cctv and killing scene that was pivotal to the film’s success. I believe that the audience were able to identify well with the characters and the film’s storyline and were able to understand the overall intentions of the film.
There were definitely certain strengths and certain weaknesses to our production. I think one strength that was recognised by a number of people was the variety of different shot types that it incorporated. These shots ranged from the long shots in the time lapse scene to the high angle shots of cctv scene at the start of the film to the tense over-the-shoulder shot of the of the child seeing the murder at the end of the film opening. In addition to this, we believe that the actual storyline of the film, a cross between the 'Friday the 13th' and 'The Strangers' helped it quite dramatically in receiving praise. In terms of weaknesses to the film, there were some small errors that we picked up on during the edit such as background noise during the shoot at our location, as well as impurities at times during the non-diagetic sound.
Finally, I believe that the most important thing I have learnt about film-making during this process is that you do need to have patience, especially during more ambitious scenes and that you will never get every single shot right in the first couple of takes.
My skills and knowledge of the camera has also improved, in my opinion, I have hugely progressed between the preliminary task and the full product. I wasn't the main camera man but what I did take part in was suggesting new shot ideas and showing Alex how to use it, this meant that I had to learn how to use the camera and the tripods.
Also all our editing skills on the Apple Macs have all improved as we all did our fair share of editing both preliminary and final short film. Using the software (final cut pro) was definately very challenging as none of us are used to using a Mac computer. We all use the popular and cheaper alternative in our daily life- windows software therefore when it came to editing our preliminary, we found that this was a hard hurdle to jump over. Especially when we were doing our first short film which was 'disappearance', we found that it is very hard to make the shots flow. But we learnt from our mistakes and kept the idea simple but effective for our final video.We definately noticed a massive difference when it came to editing. Our final product was 100% better than our preliminary due to learning from the mistakes and doing extra research on how to do different effects with the software.
I have also improved on and learnt a lot about the importance of working well as a group on a project such as this. During a small task like the preliminary this wasn’t so evidently needed but it was still vital that we worked well as a group as we had to get it right both on and off camera as well as when it came to the editing stage of the task. We felt that we did work well as a group as we are all friends outside of the media lesson but we thought this would be a disadvantage due to distractions etc. but we felt we have all worked together like clockwork. We each played a role in the blog and a role in the film without any hassle.
With the full task, it was much more important that we worked well as a group and broke up separate tasks and jobs accordingly between members of the group. With regard to planning the film as a group, I have learnt that it is vital to split up planning jobs amongst members of the group with jobs such as the shooting map, writing the storyboards and planning the storyline itself. I have also learnt a great amount about working together during the shoot of the full task. My learning of the timings between starting the camera and commencing the action in the scene, particularly during the killing scene, has definitely improved and it was vital that it did as everybody had to be in the right place at the right time in order for this ambitious scene to work.
The audience feedback, in my opinion, was more positive than I believed it was going to be. They seemed to praise, in particular, the somewhat ambitious cctv and killing scene that was pivotal to the film’s success. I believe that the audience were able to identify well with the characters and the film’s storyline and were able to understand the overall intentions of the film.
There were definitely certain strengths and certain weaknesses to our production. I think one strength that was recognised by a number of people was the variety of different shot types that it incorporated. These shots ranged from the long shots in the time lapse scene to the high angle shots of cctv scene at the start of the film to the tense over-the-shoulder shot of the of the child seeing the murder at the end of the film opening. In addition to this, we believe that the actual storyline of the film, a cross between the 'Friday the 13th' and 'The Strangers' helped it quite dramatically in receiving praise. In terms of weaknesses to the film, there were some small errors that we picked up on during the edit such as background noise during the shoot at our location, as well as impurities at times during the non-diagetic sound.
Finally, I believe that the most important thing I have learnt about film-making during this process is that you do need to have patience, especially during more ambitious scenes and that you will never get every single shot right in the first couple of takes.
Evaluation Question 4 – Who would be the audience for your media product?
Real Talk Pictures have made a horror/thriller film for the reason of it is not just targeted at a small group of people but it also gives us the chance to gain higher viewing figures and more cinema receipts due to horror being such a popular and well known drawing you in type of genre.
Making horror a popular genre choice for both males and females helps to target both genders of audience rather than chick flicks targeted more of a female based audience and action mystery films targeting more of a male based viewers.
The rating of our film has been given a 15 age rating which means that the audience could be from any age of 15 and above, we decided to give the restriction to young younger than 15 not being able to watch the film because it isn’t suitable for them therefore we need to take into consideration that they may take idea from the film because young people pick things up easily, copy and use them in everyday life which could be deadly. By choosing a 15 rating this meant that we didn’t include any offensive language, behaviour and the horror can be strong without being sexualised to something more, the reason we chose to use a 15 rating is because we felt that it gives us the chance to appeal to younger audience compared to other horror films such as ‘Scream’ which are rated at 18+.
Our film has been made so that it would appeal to both genders creating a wider audience to view the media product, due to the fact that my media product is a 15 it means that it’s the type of media product which would appeal to someone of my age range but also has been made so that someone age 30+ would be able to enjoy viewing the product too. My ideal audience isn’t a particular age but for no younger than 15-16 or older than 40-50. Younger consumers of films usually are only included in part time employment therefore they are able to visit the cinema occasionally when there are films which really appeal and intrigue them, there is always an advantage and disadvantage to everything therefore we think that an advantage of appealing to a young audience is that it will increase more offers to be used from Orange Wednesdays but also student ID cards.
As our film is a horror and not many have been made to appeal to a younger audience to make an impact because we wanted it to make a difference to the films which have already been made in a similar way to up their game.
However there are a lot of females who love horror films so they’re also a target audience. We made the sequence in a way that will appeal to most people in the age range that I have mentioned before. It’s interesting and it grabs the viewers’ attention. We wanted to create something that would appeal to a very wide range of people and I believe that we have achieved that in our media product. We did a lot of research on film genres and horror was one of them. We looked carefully at the different audience to see what people like. We also did a mini questionnaire to see what people like in general. We came to a conclusion that a lot of males were interested in horror films but also action. Action is the main genre that males are interested in compared to females who are more interested in rom-coms. Interest in horror appeared both in males and females and although some females like horror it’s still a genre that is preferred by males.
We based this by looking at the pearl and dean planner which allows you to see all the new releases. This webiste allowed us to click onto a film which looked similar to ours and see what the professionals thought would be the most popular audience.
A disadvantage of appealing our film target audience to being slightly younger than normal would be that some youngsters might not be fully matured therefore they take the risk of sneaking into a film above their actual age range but then having a bad experience from the film resulting in nightmares or even behavioural chances after being possibly influenced. The film’s overall aim is to entertain the audience and these are the scene which they would wish to see.
Making horror a popular genre choice for both males and females helps to target both genders of audience rather than chick flicks targeted more of a female based audience and action mystery films targeting more of a male based viewers.
The rating of our film has been given a 15 age rating which means that the audience could be from any age of 15 and above, we decided to give the restriction to young younger than 15 not being able to watch the film because it isn’t suitable for them therefore we need to take into consideration that they may take idea from the film because young people pick things up easily, copy and use them in everyday life which could be deadly. By choosing a 15 rating this meant that we didn’t include any offensive language, behaviour and the horror can be strong without being sexualised to something more, the reason we chose to use a 15 rating is because we felt that it gives us the chance to appeal to younger audience compared to other horror films such as ‘Scream’ which are rated at 18+.
Our film has been made so that it would appeal to both genders creating a wider audience to view the media product, due to the fact that my media product is a 15 it means that it’s the type of media product which would appeal to someone of my age range but also has been made so that someone age 30+ would be able to enjoy viewing the product too. My ideal audience isn’t a particular age but for no younger than 15-16 or older than 40-50. Younger consumers of films usually are only included in part time employment therefore they are able to visit the cinema occasionally when there are films which really appeal and intrigue them, there is always an advantage and disadvantage to everything therefore we think that an advantage of appealing to a young audience is that it will increase more offers to be used from Orange Wednesdays but also student ID cards.
As our film is a horror and not many have been made to appeal to a younger audience to make an impact because we wanted it to make a difference to the films which have already been made in a similar way to up their game.
However there are a lot of females who love horror films so they’re also a target audience. We made the sequence in a way that will appeal to most people in the age range that I have mentioned before. It’s interesting and it grabs the viewers’ attention. We wanted to create something that would appeal to a very wide range of people and I believe that we have achieved that in our media product. We did a lot of research on film genres and horror was one of them. We looked carefully at the different audience to see what people like. We also did a mini questionnaire to see what people like in general. We came to a conclusion that a lot of males were interested in horror films but also action. Action is the main genre that males are interested in compared to females who are more interested in rom-coms. Interest in horror appeared both in males and females and although some females like horror it’s still a genre that is preferred by males.
We based this by looking at the pearl and dean planner which allows you to see all the new releases. This webiste allowed us to click onto a film which looked similar to ours and see what the professionals thought would be the most popular audience.
A disadvantage of appealing our film target audience to being slightly younger than normal would be that some youngsters might not be fully matured therefore they take the risk of sneaking into a film above their actual age range but then having a bad experience from the film resulting in nightmares or even behavioural chances after being possibly influenced. The film’s overall aim is to entertain the audience and these are the scene which they would wish to see.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The horror genre represents certain age groups through stereotypes, because it helps introducing characters to the audience in a short amount of time. Common stereotypes are used for age and gender to set up character roles, for example teenagers are seen as being irresponsible, which makes them the ideal target for a threat. Using stereotypes to introduce characters can also add to the shock factor of the film, because women and children are often introduced as helpless and in need of protection, but sometimes they are the threat.
In our film (The Unexpected), the teenager is 18. We dicided to use this as female characters are usaully the most common feature of a horror/thriller movie. Also this stereotype is common in most horrors- for eample 'Scream 2' (click on this link to watch trailer- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U87t8x4ix0). In our movie, the teenager was dressed accordingly to here job and surroundings. She wasn't wearing smart stuff etc. But she dressed fashionably which therefore make her appear as a normal teen. You can tell that the teenager is working class as she is working for money as a baby sitter. This baby sitter job is typical for a female teenager as it is easy to do and the money isn't bad. Whereas it wouldn't make sense if there was a male character baby sitting as males are normally represented as the 'hero' or the braver of the 2 sexs.
We also included a child (Ben) who is only aged 10. We chose the child so that it strikes more fear into the audience and also to make sure that the audience knew that she was the babysitter not the mother.
Our male character, who fills the convention of horror that requires there to be a “monster”. Unlike the girl, his face wasn’t shown untill the middle of the film to build up the audience's tension. The was done by using a range of camera shots. We kept all the shots low so you could see his trousers, legs and weapon. He was dressed to suit his role by wearing boots, jeans and a jacket which seemed quiet old. Although you see this, you can't assume that he is working class, upper class etc. This character is represented as a male for a reason, this is typical of most horrors. The killers in professional films are normal male such as Friday the 13th.
We did not take into account the ethnicity of the charaters as we wanted to go with a old character as a killer instead of a typical killer. We couldn't use ethnicity as there were only 3 characters in this film and this made it hard to add another person with a different ethnic background. So we decided to stick with just only 1 ethnic background.
In our film (The Unexpected), the teenager is 18. We dicided to use this as female characters are usaully the most common feature of a horror/thriller movie. Also this stereotype is common in most horrors- for eample 'Scream 2' (click on this link to watch trailer- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U87t8x4ix0). In our movie, the teenager was dressed accordingly to here job and surroundings. She wasn't wearing smart stuff etc. But she dressed fashionably which therefore make her appear as a normal teen. You can tell that the teenager is working class as she is working for money as a baby sitter. This baby sitter job is typical for a female teenager as it is easy to do and the money isn't bad. Whereas it wouldn't make sense if there was a male character baby sitting as males are normally represented as the 'hero' or the braver of the 2 sexs.
We also included a child (Ben) who is only aged 10. We chose the child so that it strikes more fear into the audience and also to make sure that the audience knew that she was the babysitter not the mother.
Our male character, who fills the convention of horror that requires there to be a “monster”. Unlike the girl, his face wasn’t shown untill the middle of the film to build up the audience's tension. The was done by using a range of camera shots. We kept all the shots low so you could see his trousers, legs and weapon. He was dressed to suit his role by wearing boots, jeans and a jacket which seemed quiet old. Although you see this, you can't assume that he is working class, upper class etc. This character is represented as a male for a reason, this is typical of most horrors. The killers in professional films are normal male such as Friday the 13th.
We did not take into account the ethnicity of the charaters as we wanted to go with a old character as a killer instead of a typical killer. We couldn't use ethnicity as there were only 3 characters in this film and this made it hard to add another person with a different ethnic background. So we decided to stick with just only 1 ethnic background.
In what way does you media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of a real media product.
Our film “The Unexpected” combines both conventions and both challenging forms of media.
Firstly, our film is targeted at the traditional horror market, 15-34 this is usual of most horror films as it appeals to them. The target audience is predominately men (70%-30% ratio) from all classes and regions of the country. With a traditional audience, we wanted to produce a film that would appeal to their natural viewing, and also challenge the genre of Horror.
“The Unexpected” includes the most traditional convention of in plain terms, a perpetrator and a victim, in this case a venerable young female babysitting. Babysitters have been used as victims in many horror films because they are realistic and defenceless, however “The Unexpected” brings in a new twist, the babysitter is stalked and set up without her knowing, and the perpetrator does not make their presence or identity known, the short opening scene does not also explain their intentions for the girl either, or why they did it. This will allow a deeper plot to untangle thought the whole film .
The opening scene ending is also challenging typical horror conventions by leaving the fate of the girl totally to the imagination of the viewer, they do not know if she was murdered, wounded or even harmed at all. This creates more mystery around both the victim and the perpetrator, viewers are constantly having to think and give full attention to the movie. Typical horrors use what is scene of screen and the Mis En Scene to scare viewers with death and blood. “The Unexpected” challenges this by using the power of imagination and one of the strongest senses, sound. The sounds of a spade being dragged intercut with the voices of innocent victims, and young girl, and possibly boy...
“The Unexpected” challenges the evolution of the horror genre. Horror is becoming an increasingly more popular genre, and the horror market is shifting towards supernatural and fictional plots . “The Unexpected” creates a realistic sense, as it could happen to any one. This is shown in the plot and shot angles. We tried to keep a both realistic and both unnerving setting for the film, a farm house was chosen, as it is both urban and rural at the same time, due to roads. This adds to the sense of realism in the film. Farm houses are old and dark, which immediately brings fear into the viewers. The family interior and setting juxtaposes the genre and mood of the film, which is rarely done in films. The intercutting of a warm light family environment and a dark cold perpetrator unnerves the viewers and challenges typical conventions.
The iconography of the film uses with typical and challenging conventions. Both a dark and light colour pallet are inter cut and are heterogeneous of media convention. The possible weapon used is also challenging, a well known and owned by a large percentage of the population, but never used as a murdering devise. A garden spade.
“The Unexpected” branches out to challenge most horror conventions, whilst keeping typical and traditional roots intact to create a realistic and scary film. The film was not to overly challenging as to risk losing a large audience base. It was challenged to the extent where the product was new but also popular, allowing us to remain profitable.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product.
To make my product unique i used a range of media technologies. The list below names all the technologies used in the creation of “The Unexpected”.
-Macs
-Pc
-Internet Explorer (Research, blogger, YouTube, Sounds)
-Garage Band
-Final Cut pro
-Sony Vegas Pro 11.0
-Adobe After Effects CS5.5
-Digital video camera
-Microsoft word
As you can see, we uses an extensive range of media technologies to create “The Unexpected”. We learnt a large skill set, and that although we were not always getting results we wanted, prevalence and the willing to learn allowed us to achieve what we wanted.
Our group is made up of 3, Oscar, Pattipan and Alex, neither of us do/have ever owned a mac, this was a large initial challenge to us, as we were not used to the layout and how macs operated. Out final editing and work in school was done on Macs, so we had to familiarize ourselves with them quickly. We learnt that they are very good for creating any form of media, and all the programs interlink, which made the whole process a lot easier and fun, as we got to learn new skills and tryout new things.
We used Pc’s to download software more suitable to th3 operating system of Microsoft, such and sony vegas and after effects. This is because we needed to learnt to use them effectively to produce certain aspects of the film, and most guides are on Pc. Pc’s also render quicker, so we increased quality and the FPS of our product on sony vegas to save time.
The internet is an obvious technology, but it was a key asset to our group, we could research films on youtube to generate ideas and also target marketing using websites. The internet offers a large knowledge and information base which we had to learn to use to out advantage. We also learnt to use Blogger, which was new to all of us. This is where we uploaded our final video and all work due for the course. We also took advantage of Instant messaging , we could all communicate and discuss ideas together, while sending essays to be analysed and improved by other members of the group. Parts of editing were also backed up and sent to each other using the internet. It is the basis for most of our product, as it distributes and exhibits it.
We also learn to use garage band, it is a program on macs that let you create music and beats. We used garage band to make non-diagetic sounds for our media product, this gave it more professionalism and a more defined and pronounced scene.
Final Cut Pro additionally is a mac program, that we produced the main bulk of our media product on. We leant many skills in editing and trimming on final cut pro, it shows the importance of editing to distinguish films with good plots. Our main editor learnt more technical skills with Final cut pro that allowed us to create a USP for our media product. Final cut pro was used to upload our finished product and combine all three of the editing software’s used together along with sounds from garage band. It was a key aspect of our success in out film.
Sony vegas was a program downloaded into our Pc’s, it is slightly more advanced in some aspects of editing. We used it for our initial attempts at introductions and for increasing the quality of our final product. It was an important key contributor to the final media product.
Adobe After Effects CS5.5 was used for our final introduction, it is an advanced piece of software that we innately struggled to use. We practiced, and eventually cam to understand concepts to movement, dimensions, CGI and more. It also has the ability to help create more advanced future products that we will create. Although challenging, the whole team enjoyed learning to use Adobe After Effects CS5.5.
We used a digital video camera to film out product, this required a large skill set. We had to leant how to control the camera and use a wide range of shots to go with it. From this you can see the importance of props and lighting, as it can overbalance the shot. We also had to upload the shots onto the computer or macs.
Microsoft word allowed us to create the written part of our overall product, and the basis for all essays. It is easy to use, and was also valuable as it was compatible on both Mac and Pc.
Overall, technology has helped us greatly to create out film intro more advanced and unique. It allowed communication aswell as the nitty gritty editing and final touches for out film. There was not a single aspect that we did not use/require technology for. Our skill set and understanding of how important technology is to ever aspect of media had increased vastly.
Analysis of the conventions and media language in a horror opening.
Strangers, Horror, Opening scene, 0-2:30 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWp14gtZ-u0
Strangers was released in 2008, the plot follows A young couple staying in an isolated vacation home are terrorized by three unknown assailants. It was directed and written by Bryan Bertino.
The film opens with a pitch black screen, eerie ambient non diegetic sound is played, the viewer is quickly recognises that the film is a horror from this dark sound. The music continues as the production and distribution companies names appear on screen. They are kept simple so as to create a sense of reality. This sense of reality is further implicated by the writing that appears next, “what you are about to see is inspired by true events” , the world are read by a narrator with a very monotone voice, this chills the viewer, and thoughts that this could happen to them appear in there mind. The man goes on to read facts about violent crimes in the USA to scare the viewer, and show how common it is, nearly 1 in every 300 people. He tells the viewer where they were coming from (a wedding) and where to ( family summer home) and that the brutal events that took place there are still unknown. This helps the viewer understand what is going to happen on screen, and where it is. The main characters are also identified early as well.
The screen fades, and a diegetic noise of an car engine is heard, with a soft undertone of non diegetic eerie sound , of a synth. The next scene is a a slow montage of shots, from the perspective of someone within the car looking outside, the shots cut after every house they pass, the colour tone is quite bleak, the houses slowly get more and more rural, to show how isolated they are.
The screen then fades black, the viewer hears the police pick up a phone, with a distraught young boy quivering on the phone, you immediately recognise that he is in trouble, whilst crying he tells the police officer on the phone that they need help, as there are people there, but he does not know where they are. The viewer is scared by the mere thought of this. Whilst the he is on the phone, the camera is panning across to a car with a love heart shaped smash in the window, it the boy and his friend earlier, discovering what had happened, blood is splattered across the walls, whilst showing a gun on the counter. The shot then fades, and scene ends, with the world “The Strangers”.
The opening uses very little shots, and there is no dialogue on screen, only narration, the small amount of shots gives the film a very realistic feeling, and sets the film up later for an exiting plot.
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