Sub Genre Opening Sequence Anyalsis

Hard Candy

Hand Candy is a psychological thriller, the opening sequence is 1:33 minutes long. This is one of the shortest opening sequences. The sequence doesn't contain any images from the actually film. At the beginning, the audience sees who are presenting the film 'Lions Gate Films Presents'. Then we have the production team's name. From this opening sequence you don't find out anything about the film, this is good because it leaves the audience wondering about what the film is actually about. Having the red boxes and the white background could be a contrast of blood and peace maybe these two colours are a major part of the film.

The Shining

The Shinings opening sequence there is no induction to any of the main character but the theme tune is introduced and played throughout the whole opening sequence.  This opening sequence also contains the names of the main actors, producers and the name of the film. The viewer is given a clue that the genre of this film is a psychological thriller because of the creepy, classical music and the remote location. There is also an indication of the location where the film is set, this is portrayed by an aerial shot (extreme long shot), filmed by a helicopter. Another generic opening sequence convention that this contains is the name of the producer and director, Stanley Kubrick.

 The only prop which was used is a car, this could portray a loneliness factor of the film as through the majority of the opening sequence there was only one car in the shot.
Again using an extreme long shot helps portray loneliness as it gives the audience an idea of how remote the location is. Close up of car shows that there is only one person in it.
Long shot duration this conveys detail of the location, cuts show the progression of the journey without the viewer loosing interest, dissolve also shows the journey but without being abrupt and adds a slow pace. Non diegetic soundtrack, made up of classical instruments which creates a tense and frightening atmosphere. It was also slow paced and contrapuntal because it didn't match the images, this created a mysterious and strange effect.

Both films have very different opening sequences even though, they come under the same sub-genre of psychological thriller. Most psychological thrillers have the same sort of opening sequence. These two films are very different, firstly that Hard Candy doesn't show any characters or location of the film whereas The Shining shows the location and one of the characters. Neither give too much away about the narrative.