Opening Scene Of A History of Violence

A history of violence

Mise en scene of the opening scene.
at the start of the scene its starts with a view of 2 garden chairs sitting out side a house. the house looks very deserted and mysterious A man dressed very casual walks out of the door and directly after a guy dressed very formal walks out dressed in a shirt and trousers. they then both walk up to a blue car. man in formal clothes walks off while the other gets in the car and drives slowly towards where the other man walked to. after a few moments a man walks out from a building titled motel. the man in casual clothing walks into the motel to fill up his water. he walks in to find blood on the counter and 2 dead bodies laying on the floor. while he is filling up his water he here the door to the office start to open he looks up to see a little girl holding her doll crying. he tells her to be quite as he reaches for his gun.

Sound of opening scene
At the start of the scene you hear the sound of the gate of the door opening a closing when the 2 men exit the building. The next bit of sound you hear is one of the guys getting in the car and staring the engine. when then hear the radio being played. the men speak for a little while out side the motel before the man in the car goes into to fill in water bottle up as he walks in you get some none digetic music which makes the audience feel the tension and tells us something bad has happened or is going to happen. the last few bits of the sound in the opening scene is the man speaking to the little girl trying to keep her quite and then the sound of the gun going off and the little girl screaming.

Editing of opening scene
there is not much editing in this scene, it is very slow paced. there was only 11 or 12 cuts in this scene and they all happened at dramatic parts of the film

camera techniques of opening scene
at the very start of the scene there are 2 shots, first shot is a tracking shot followed by medium angle shot. they also made use of the steady cam when the man in casual clothing starts to walk towards the car.once again the tracking shot is used again when it is following the car. when he enters the building and is bending down to the little girl there is a close up shot on the gun behind his back.

Styles of editing

when editing there is different styles of editing.

straight cut

A straight cut is the most common style of editing and is an invisible form of transition. one shot moves instantaneously to the next scene without attracting the audience's attention. usually straight cuts help retain reality and not break the the belief of viewers.

Dissolves

A dissolve is when one shot is fading off the screen while another is fading on. this will allow the audience to see both shots on the screen at the mid-point of the dissolve. dissolves are used if the film maker wants to show a connection between two characters, a place or an object. a good example of this would be in Citizen Kane.

Fades

A fade is a gradual darkening or lightening of an image until it becomes completely black and white, one shot will fade until only a black or white screen can been seen. fades are used to indicate the end of a particular section of time within the narrative. also it can show the passing of time.

Wipes

A wipe is when on image is pushed off the screen by another, images can be pushed left or right. wipes are used to signal a movement between different locations. you will find a lot of examples of wipes in Star Wars.

Unknown

unknown
Unknown is a 2011 thriller staring Liam Neeson. Unknown is about a man who awakens from a coma, only to discover that someone has taken on his identity and that no one ( not even his wife) believes him. Unknown was directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, the screen play was written by Oliver butcher and Stephen Cornwall. the main stars in this film was Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger and January Jones.

Unknown has essential characteristics of a good thriller such as moments of high tension for example the hospital scene when he is reaching for the scissors after the nurse was murdered. Also the sound track to the film it is very effective as it is a very disorientating sounds which causes suspense and tension.

                        

The car chase
this scene requently used close ups, mostly when liam neeson is in the car. another shot that is used is a tracking shot, this hsot follows the car while its being chased.

The Birds

The birds
"The birds" is a 1963 horror/thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The film started rod Taylor, Trippi Hedren and Suzanne Pleshette. The story of the birds was written by Daphne Du Maurier and the screen play was written by Evan hunt. 

Thriller Conventions

the external threat of this thriller is from nature. A thriller convention characteristic is the fast pacing frequent action, this is shown throughout the film. for example the birds come in waves they will come then disappear for a little while then come back but why the birds were gone the people of Bodega bay argued so there was always frequent action. usually in thrillers there is a resourceful hero that must thwart the plans of the more powerful villain. You could argue that Mitch Brenner is the resourceful hero that is trying to thwart plans of the villain in this case the birds. suspense is used extensively throughout the film. They make good use of non-diegetic sound to cause suspense. for example when Mitch, Melanie, Lydia and Cathy are in the house trying to keep safe and they can hear the screeching of the birds. Dramatic irony is used in the birds when Tripi Hendren does not know that the birds have been gathering but the audience does. we have knowledge that the character doesn't. This builds suspense as we know the birds are going to attack but we don't know when.

did you know?
there is a scene where Trippi Hedren is ravaged by birds near the end of the movie took a week to film. the birds were attached to her clothes by long nylon threads so they could not get away.

Alfred Hitchcock is known as the "master of suspense", he always uses suspense and tension to show his audience.he does this by the way he uses the camera position, angles, movement and shots. He also uses scary music to create suspense in his films. there is a good example of this in The Birds, it is the scene when Trippi Hendren is sitting on a bench out side the school playground smoking, and in the background you can hear the children singing, the singing is a very unpleasant sound that builds tension and suspense. as the singing repeats you see a shot of 4 birds gathering on the climbing frame in the school playground. this builds more suspense as Trippi Hendren does not know that the birds are starting to gather. a few moments after Trippi Hendren notice the birds on the climbing frame but thinks nothing of it. Then she notices a bird in the air the camera follows the bird flying through the air to when it lands on the climbing frame. when it lands we see that the birds have gathered in large numbers, Trippi notices that the birds are about to attack and the children singing is attracting them so she goes to warn the school teacher. throughout all of this the singing is being repeated.



Alfred Hitchcock didn't finish the film with his usual "The End" title because Alfred Hitchcock wanted to give the impression of unending terror. There was a number of ending suggested for the film. one that was highly considered was that the scene would have shown the Golden Gate Bridge completely covered by birds.

in this interview Alfred Hitchcock talks about the making of "The Birds" and why he made the film. He also talks about how the birds were trained and how dangerous some of the birds were. Trippi Hendren talks about how excited she was to star in her first film and to be working with Alfred Hitchcock and how scared she was for 2 weeks but after was fine. she also talks about the scene when all the birds fly at her when shes in the attic. she was scratched and bitten a few times one that was very close to her eye at the end of the scene she passed out and was sent to bed for 5 days by the doctor.