implications in the first 2 minutes of a thriller film

Implications in the first 2 mins of a Thriller film (Isabelle smith)

The first 2 minutes of a film has many implications on the film as a whole; a mood needs to be created, a narrative needs to be established as well as a strong opening can all be important as a hook to engage the audience. If people aren’t intrigued or gripped by the opening it can have an effect of people having a more negative opinion of the film overall, so the opening to minutes is vital as it establishes certain key themes and indicates what kind of film this is going to be (genre).

Panic room: the first 2 minutes is solely the opening credits in the background of New York City, while this could be considered as not particularly gripping, it is done in a way which sets the mood and tone predominately through sound and the films score. In the opening indents there is a sound of thunder as if a storm is brewing, as well as this sound unnerving the audience it could be argued foreshadows later events in the film. The score (by Howard Shore) is important as most of the pieces follows a similar sort of pattern to the overture in the opening credits; it begins with a double bass playing a very minor, deep base tune, so the audience begin to feel more unsettled and are made more aware of the tone of the film and an implication that something unpleasant or bad is on the brink of occurring. This is reiterated by the sound of police sirens suggesting that crime is one of the key themes. The music gets noticeably more in the minor key as it slowly pans across Jodie Foster’s name (which is in white bold text and appears to be a part of the one of the cities buildings signs)which signifies her importance, and may also suggest that she is in danger. Not long after this we see the film title which appears to be floating in the city among the buildings as soon as it cuts to Kristen Stewarts name the music’s pace increases dramatically it has a much more staccato pace it is much shorter and faster which successfully keeps you on edge and arguably it could be foreshadowing the theme claustrophobia, the fear of being trapped. The music reflects this theme by the increasing intensity of the music, it becomes more jerky and a tapping begins and gets faster (possibly mimicking the increasing heartbeat). The implications of the opening are effective in foreshadowing like feeling uncomfortable (e.g. when Kristen and Jodie are hiding in the panic room from the criminals) later events and keeping the audience intrigued by the unnerving sounds and music  and the new York city setting and therefore would have a more positive opinion of the film as a whole as openings are often crucial in setting up ideas, key themes and symbolism in the film so when done effectively has the implication of making the rest of the film more engaging as it relates to the start of the film.

Inception: the opening of the film has lots of implications on the rest of the film as we don’t really understand at this point why certain things or people are there as we are not aware of what significance they carry yet. This leads us to asking a lot of questions in our head, the mystery arguably helps us to pay attention to what’s going on in the opening 2 minutes as we are trying to engage ourselves to understand what it all means. The film begins with brass music, its very deep and increases in pitch and intensity throughout the company idents. The opening shot is an extreme close-up of some strong waves smashing up against rocks, the music previous to this reflects the wave’s strength and power, the fact that the music has stopped when the waves are shown could imply that a harsh sea storm has just passed. The next shot leaves us asking questions in our head;  an extreme close-up of Leonardo Dicaprio swept up from the sea, we are intrigued as we want to know how he got there. It then cuts to two young children playing and laughing on the beach, the shot is slowed down and the shouts and cries sound echoic almost as if they are not there, this is also reiterated when Dicaprio tries to reach out his hand to them whist still on the ground which suggests that he cannot reach them in the sense that they are fictional and that they are significant to Dicaprios character. When he closes his eyes this is foreshadowing later events ‘ the dream within a dream’ theme. Significant objects are shown in the opening 2 minutes which implies that they will be important to the narrative later on. The spinning top for example; the man who has taken Dicaprio to his house is intrigued by it, “I've seen one of these before” which connotes that is more than just a regular spinning top and speaks about it as if it is of great rarity. The opening in Inception whilst unclear is very intriguing as it helps us identify narrative and has the implication of gripping us and helping us understand later events as they are foreshadowed in the opening.