Student Opening Analysis

12. Erika, Nathan, Poppy, Charlene from 283goswell on Vimeo.

In class we watched this opening of a thriller produced by a group in the previous years. Personally I really liked this video firstly because its similar to the idea that me and my group want to expand on so it was useful in the sense of it giving us some ideas that we could potentially use. To beging with i specifically liked the twist that the group done to the music. Its somewhat seemed to be originally angelic, however, the group twisted it to make it seem more scary and tense to suit the drama being shown. In addition, the mise en scene is very powerful. The outfit of the main character is white specifically (perhaps as a asign of innocence), which contrasts with the dark colours of the woods. As well as the fact that she has blood on her clothes and has a glint of evil in her eyes, so she's a somewhat walking oxymoron. The fact that they actually was bothered and dedicated enough to go to the actual woods in their own time to film, AND provide their own costumes etc is a factor that I admire of the group. In terms of the shots used, I liked the way the whole clip was filmed. The way the camera shows a medium close up of her feet swinging off the branch is symbolic; as this tied in with the music gives the sense of insanity that the girl has. In addition, the font type used when doing the titles adds more chills to the clip as the specific font matches the clip (eery/creepy). Furthermore, the way images overshadow each other. For example the blood in the sink overshadows the girl sitting alone in the woods. I like the way this has been done because it shows that the two is interlinked, looks very appealing to the naked eye as well as adds that extra sense of creepiness to the clip. Also, the way the girl plays with the camera. The camera tracks her to when she hides behind the tree and then when the camera looks there shes not there, but when the camera turns she is already in its view. I liked the way this was done because although it was somewhat expected it still made me jump because of the facial expressions of the girl and the way she done it so playfully (maintaining her innocence throughout). However, the opening did contain some parts that I personally didnt like (its just my taste though). For instance the whole scence involving the house I felt wasnt needed. To be honest if they'd had just expanded on the whole woods scene/idea I think it would've been better. Only because it confused me as they were too different in my opinion. Plus, at the end the way the boy woke up signifying that it was all a dream was another factor that I didnt like as much. This is because I thought that it was abit unnecessary. Instead they could have dwelled on the girl in the woods and closed it with either  her being killed or showing her victim dead or something along those lines. Overall though as a whole I really liked the clip and watched it numerous times because of this.