Face Off (1997-John Powell): Research into Thriller Openings, Scene 2-Jess Smith

Mise en scene
Camera
Editing
Sound
   
Scene 2:

~This next shot is an extreme close up of the end of a gun (figure 1). This instantly creates the feelings of danger, leaving the audience in shock, however this feeling is desired from a thriller film, therefore its effective.
~This shot is cut from the previous shot at a quick pace.

Figure 1

  ~The colour black connotes to fear, danger, darkness and death, therefore it conforms to a thriller film and is helping to set this next scene as thriller based. This dark colour of the gun contrasts well with the blurred white/light grey background.
~There is a sudden change in the off screen sound at this moment of the scene because the light, joyful sounds quickly cut out and there is an on screen sound of a cloth being pulled of the gun and the gun being exposed. Because of the use of sound here it creates even more of a shock to viewers, meaning it worked very well.

Figure 2

~There is then a long shot of a male dressed in all black standing with his right arm in the air (figure 2) as a prop of a large cloth is falling from his hand onto the ground.
~He's standing in the middle of the frame because he needs to be the centre of attention is this shot, the audience need to look at him.
~His all black costume implies he's about to do something he doesn't want to be blamed for and is going to be in a disguise. The black also creates a good contrast against the setting which is mainly lighter greys and white's. In addition, the setting looks very rural and a natural environment. Because its a natural setting there are visible tree trunks in the frame and lots of leaves for the decoration.

~They have also edited the title of the film onto the frame and also onto the male. This is interesting because they've waited to display the tile until now, when this man is in the frame, implying he's the protagonist.
~Although we can't see the man's facial expressions, we can see his body language, which is presented in a strong, powerful manner. His power is also presented as he throws the cloth to the side in a fast, forceful manner, not caring where it falls.
~There us very minimal sound to this scene, however there is a faint on screen sound of the cloth being chucked to one side and flipping around in the light wind, along with a simple off screen sound of the beginning of a soundtrack with low pitched, medium paced music with the starting of a high pitched tapping, like sound.

Figure 3

~The camera then makes a slow paced dissolve into a slow motion extreme close up (figure 3) of the mouth of the male with a cigarette in his mouth. This shot doesn't tell the audience a lot, it simply shows his roughness. In addition, his thick moustache suggests he takes pride in his appearance, juxtaposing his roughness. 

~His face has a bright lighting onto it, which is needed as the background is black.

~Following this, the camera dolly's and moves over into a shallow depth of field shot of the males left eye. They do this for the audience to continue to feel on edge and really get those thriller film vibes from this opening.

~Throughout these two shots (figure 3 and 4) there's is a continuation of an off screen sound of a ticking noise at a high pitched level, done through off screen instruments. However, as the male looks up at the camera there are rises in volume, tone and also a general increase of sound, making the audience feel threatened and anxious, typical feelings when watching a thriller.

Figure 4

~As he addresses the camera it makes the scene more and more intense and also because its in slow motion.

~The audience cant see a lot of his face but its clear from his cheek bones that he isn't smiling, he is looking very serious.

~He then is shown in an extreme close up squinting his eyes and pointing the gun directly into the camera, (figure 5) and because we know someone is in his view the audience are very tense. However we don't know who is in his view.

Figure 5

What inspired me?

I liked the way they didn't make loads of cuts between showing his full body and his face. It was simple and very intimidating for watchers which is very admirable.