Three Textual Analysis of Thriller Title Sequences

Three Textual Analysis of Thriller Title Sequences:

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Tech. Codes	Lighting	Mise en Scene	Editing
Close-up shots	Dark, low-key lighting	Well dressed men	Fast pace, short shots
High angle shots	Contrasting: Ball of fire against black background	Phone, cluttered table, magnifying glass	Font: Gothic, sharp. Appears instantly, the letters like ‘R’ and ‘N’ grow tails.
Soft music for opening	Black shapes, no colour except black, apart from fire in certain shots	Two men having phone conversation	Flashing images at start of title sequence
Panning camera movement	Light coming in from window, dimly lit lamp	White, clean house, plain, minimal objects	Black, tar like substance, splashing like water
Mysterious opening: phone call

 

Shutter Island

Tech. Codes	Lighting	Mise en Scene	Editing
Medium shots	Outside on a boat, sun in sky lighting. Dull	Suits, smart clothing	Short shots
Close-up shots, match-on-action	Dull colours, contrast between bright colours in flash backs. Bright colours show happy tone and dull show a sad tone	Men in uniform, security shows danger	Text appears instantly, font is bold, thick
Close-up shots, match-on-action	Dull colours, contrast between bright colours in flash backs. Bright colours show happy tone and dull show a sad tone	Men in uniform, security shows danger	Text appears instantly, font is bold, thick
Deep brass music, short pieces, tension	Storm approaching. Clouds. Typical thriller convention		Black background against silver text
Music swells when approaching building, then suddenly stops, when officer starts talking	Dull building contrast against greenery

Insidious

Tech. Codes	Lighting	Mise en Scene	Editing
Music, screeching violins	Low-key lighting, dark	Scary lady wearing gothic clothing, garb, black clothing	Red text, font is bold with smoky shadow effect, ghostly faded upwards, text faded out to left and right
Music swells when title appears suddenly	Shadows of people in windows	Family wearing PJ’s, just woken up. Innocent, normal family	Black, dark background, black and white, light from lamp contrasting against black BG
No music when credits appear, tension	Flashing lights during title	Casual wear, at home	Red title, gothic font, bold, embossed, 3D effect, appears instantly, shock value
High angle shots. Shots zoom in	Dark background		Black and white effect of house, contrast with red text of credits
Close up shots	Candle and moonlight to show woman’s old scary face and nothing else		Lens flickering
Shaky camera work, hand-held effect	Shadows, light coming in from windows		Pictures fade out, becomes distorted

Things I could include in my production is the use of red text and a gothic font for the credits in the title sequence. Also the use of shadows and low-key lighting,and the use of a black and white background. The music I could use could be quite ominous, like violins or use of quiet, mysterious music. For camera shots, I could use close-ups, extreme close ups and also high and low angle shots.