Opening Scene Narration - Miss Georgiou

Opening Scene Narration

My opening sequence for our thriller film will begin with a zooming in shot from the front door to the stairs then to an open bedroom door, to introduce the audience to the location of the scene. The sound that will be employed in this scene will be ambient instrumental music and the shot will directly lead to the audience being presented with a mid shot of the boy putting a pill in his drink and mixing it. The sound used will be an enhanced sound of the boy mixing the pill into his drink and the editing style I will use to move to the next shot with be a straight cut.
 
The next shot I will use will be a over the shoulder shot of the boy as he stands and progresses towards the door. The sound the audience will be able to hear will be the footsteps and the editing style used will be a straight cut to a panning shot of the boy walking to his sisters room which will straight cut to a close up shot of his feet, then an extreme close up shot of the glass in the boys hand, which will then straight cut back to the panning shot. The sound employed during the transitions between each of these shots will be instrumental music which will be at a low/medium constant pitch. This shot will then straight cut to a close up shot of his hand opening the door where the audience will hear the sound of the door slowly creaking open. This shot will then straight cut to an over shoulder shot behind the sister, seeing her brother walking in. At this point the sounds used will be natural sounds that are relevant to the scene. The editing style employed after this shot will be another straight cut to a p.o.v shot of the brother handing his sister the drink. The sound employed will be dialogue of the brother saying "Its Perteniam, it will make you feel better". After this shot it will straight cut to a mid shot of the sister as she drinks the dissolved pill. The sound employed will be the gulping of her drinking the drink. 
 
The next shot we will include will be a high-angle split screen shot of both the brother and sister lying down in their separate beds with their eyes open. The only sound you will hear is the ticking of a clock that they each have at the sides of their beds. A straight cut will then be used to follow onto an extreme close up shot (also split screen) showing their eyes closed, which will be the last shot before the audience are taken into their nightmare.

The audience will then be introduced to the next sequence of shots which begins the cycle of the nightmare.
The first shot presented to the audience will be a dissolving shot of the previous shot into a handheld shot of the young girl running through a dark forest. This portrays to the audience that they have been taken into the children’s nightmare. We will then edit an ambient instrumental soundtrack over the nightmare sequence to increase the suspense created.
There will then be a series of shots put together with fast paced editing switching from one shot to another to signify the chaos and panic they are experiencing. The handheld shot has been incorporated to present the disorientation and chaos of the situation and will also relate to abstract conventions. This handheld shot will be used from both Evie and Billy's point of view to justify that they are both experiencing the same nightmare: Evie's through the side effects of Perteniam and Billy's through his lack of mental stability.

We will also include the sound of crunching leaves as the audience will be able to hear their footsteps as they run through the forest.
Another type of shot we will use is an extreme long shot to display Billy chasing Evie and establish the location of the forest. The sounds heard in the nightmare will be diegetic. Our diegetic sounds will include Evie's screams, Billy's heavy breathing and the crunching and rustling of leaves all used to enhance the effect and experience of the opening. We aim to record sound separate to the visuals as we believe it will create a greater impact as we can time everything correctly and accurately.

We will also use another handheld shot of the camera spinning slowly at a height showing the trees of the forest from Evie's point of view also to present her confusion; another side effect of Perteniam. It will also display her paranoia that someone is chasing her.

We are also interested in attempting to get a shot from Billy's point of view whilst wearing the mask. We would do this by placing the camera behind the mask but not too close that you do not see the outline of the mask itself but at eye level with the eye holes. This may not work out but we will try a number of methods in order for it to succeed but if this shot does not go to plan we will replace it with a handheld shot.

We are aware that displaying Billy stabbing Evie in the nightmare scene in the forest will be of extreme difficulty due to the regulations of our film being rated 15.  Therefore we have devised a number of shots we could use instead of typical high budget thriller shots which graphically capture it. Much like Hitchcock's famous shower scene in Psycho, we would like to follow the method of "each physical stab symbolises each cut and shot". We aim to combine a variety of shots and fast paced editing to make the stabbing as realistic as possible but we are also considering the safety of the actors whilst the knife is present. Shots will include a close-up of the knife dripping with blood, an over the shoulder shot of Billy stabbing Evie in the cheek and then a high angle shot of Billy standing over Evies body on the floor, holding the blood smeared knife. We will employ a heartbeat soundtrack over this particular sequence to heighten the idea that Billy is stabbing his sister. We will then employ an out of focus shot from Evies perspective where she witnesses the removal of the mask to reveal the identity of whom is her brother.

Once the nightmare has ended, we will employ a high-angle shot of Evie and Billy waking up in shock and panicking as they believe the nightmare was true. Due to the side effects of Perteniam, we will then show a panning shot of Evie running to the bathroom followed by an over the shoulder shot of her looking in the mirror noticing she has a flesh wound on her cheek. This then causes her to vomit and this is where we would like to employ another over the shoulder shot of her vomiting down the toilet. The sounds used will be of her choking and spitting to add to the visuals. Once she has vomited, we will then use another over the shoulder shot of her looking in the mirror again, this time with no flesh wound. We hear her gasp.

The final shot will be a repeat of Perteniam fizzing in the glass, where we ill enhance the fizzing sound using a soundtrack editing on top of this sequence. We would like this to act as a motif to remind the audience of not only the film title but why the nightmare occurred. By ending the opening scene this way we hope the audience will be left on the edge of their seat anticipating for the film to further continue.

If we were not restricted with our opening having to be no longer than 2 minutes we would have liked to have had shots of Evie and Billy tossing and turning in bed showing their reaction throughout the nightmare. This would be effective if we used fast paced editing also with straight cuts from the nightmare to Evie to the nightmare to Billy etc. We may decide to capture these shots in our house location in case we have enough time to play with therefore add it in during the editing process. Although it would add to the effectiveness of our opening, the "flashback" shots are not vital.

In conclusion, as a group we are all extremely prepared for the filming of our opening to take place, and as seen above, we are keen to experiment with a variety of camera shots and thriller conventions. Although our final filming may not exactly reflect our plans, it will be based on extreme relations to what we have set out to achieve.