Research- Horror Film Opening 'Silent Hill'

During my research in horror movie, I decided to look at opening scene from a few horror movies that have been realised in the past. When watching these opening scenes, I took detailed note of the opening scenes. As then I can use them to create my own film, and when it comes to editing too. Here are some of my notes I took and have now written into small paragraphs from the films ‘The Amityville Horror’ & ‘Silent Hill’. These two films I choose to publish my notes on are the ones that I found that fit more effectively into my own production.

Here are the notes I gathered from watching the first Two minutes of the film ‘Silent Hill’:

· When the film starts the entertainment logo appears, with a non-diegetic sound of some slow music in the background. But then the sounds change from a slow sound to a fast tense sound with Production Company name appearing and then fading away to a blank screen.

· Two seconds later the credit of the film appears and fades away into the black blank screen, while in the background you here a voice of a female woman shouting out a single name and when the credit fades away, the same voice shouting out a different name.

· Half a second later a mid shot of a women appearing shouting the first name out (“Sharon”), while in the background you see a blur of another person that maybe behind here or standing on higher grounds instead.

· Two seconds later the shot changes to a low angle with the same women looking left and right; the background introduces a big house in the background and with a man now not blurred out, while standing on a balcony.

· It goes back to mid shot of the women turning around and leaving, while the camera turns (still on a mid shot) and faces towards the other character standing on a balcony that’s panicking is well.

At this point, both characters that have been shown in the first few seconds of the film look tensed up and worried, the film producer has done this to create and build up tension. However, in the first few seconds of the scene no non-diegetic or diegetic sound have been introduced, only the voice of the women has acted out as a sound in this scene.

· A long shot transferring into a low angle while the women walks down some steps and then stops to pick up a teddy bear. In this shot there are natural sounds, but sound like they have been added in (heavy breathing creating tension).

· High angle moving down to a long shot (scene may be set in a frost or woods), with non-diegetic sounds.

In this scene the camera has moved and changed its angles and shot’s a lot, this is because the producer wants to show different shots of the locations they are using.

· Diegetic sound of traffic gets introduced into the scene with a bridge appearing and a car going past; then a long shot of the same women running down the steps, while heavily breathing the shot goes to a low angle.

· Then it turns to another low angle but this time showing it off the traffic and close ups of car wheels with diegetic sounds of the traffic.

· A few seconds after another low angle of the women comes

· It then goes back to a high angle showing the traffic including the traffic sounds in the background, the camera then changes angle to an over head shot with the women running and the sound of a waterfall in the background.

· A long shot of the waterfall appear after a second with non-diegetic sounds the waterfall with the women shouting out the name ‘Sharon’.

· Over head shot appears again with non diegetic music and a new character is then introduced; the shot changes once again going from a high angle to a long shot focusing on the women that’s in a shock and is panicking.

· Close up of the women is then introduced while in a shock and non diegetic sound of the waterfall in the background.

· Medium shot of the girl with non diegetic sound in the background.

· Over head shot of the waterfall with the girl.

In the whole two minutes were I watched and took notes, I noticed from the start of the film the tension had started to get created and was building up till the end. All the start of the scene is set during the night. Overall the main thing I noticed there were a lot of different angles and shots used to make the whole sequence up. I personally liked the change of the different angle because it showed a lot about the location and created a tense atmosphere.

When making my notes I had watched the clip (Silent Hill, Part1) from youtube, but unfortunately it has now been blocked. So I've put a small trailer of the film on to give you an idea, on how the film is.