Similar Products- Nine Shots

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The first shot shows a blank book with someone turning the pages. The first text comes up ‘New Line Cinema presents’ and the font flickers to the beat of the music. The music starts off very loud and dramatic and then we heart the sound of a heart pounding. This creates more tension. I do not think this is very effective for the first shot of the opening sequence because the audience will not be very concentrated at the film yet, it would be more effective if the opening sequences built up the tension.

In the next shot, at first the text is mirrored so we can’t read it but to the beat of the music it changes to as we see it in the screenshot. This suggests that the genre of the film is a psychological thriller because mirrors are often used in psychological thriller’s mise-en-scene. There is a drawing of hands and the fingers look crooked. This could connote the abnormality of the character’s mind.

The next extreme close up shot shows an object. It’s not clear what this object is, this will create enigma as the audience are going to be asking themselves questions like; What is this object? What is its significance? The shot is very quick. There is a sound effect of something turning but it almost sounds alien like. The music continues to be very loud and dramatic.

In this shot, we see an unknown object. I think it might be a blade. This is an extreme close up of an object which makes the audience focus on this specific thing. The music continues in the same rhythm but now we hear very weird sounds, they sound alien like. It wouldn’t be a sound which the audience has heard before so this would create enigma code as they would be asking themselves “What is this sound?” but also “What is this object and why is it significant in the opening sequence?”.

Here is another extreme close up of an object, again we do not know what it is. The alien like sounds continue and the music rhythm doesn’t change in this shot either. The lightning is very dark creating mystery. The shot is very short so if the audience were watching this opening sequence, the shot would be too quick to work out what this object is.

Here we see the first typography. This is the name of one of the characters. Brad Pitt’s name is probably the first text that comes up because he is a brilliant actor and it would help sell the media product. The text flashes and moves positions but then goes back to its original position, this happens when the alien like sounds start playing again.

Here we see a male hand and the object we saw a few shots ago was a blade. The man is cutting bits of his dead skin off. The hands are very dry and look quite old which suggests that perhaps this character is older. The blade fits with the genre of psychological thriller because weapons and sharp objects are often used in this genre.

Here we see a close up of the blade and now the man is not cutting bits of his skin off. Dramatic music starts playing. The background is faded out and the main focus is on the blade. It could connote that a character could be self-destructive.

We hear a scream as the character again starts to cut his skin off. This creates a lot of tension and the audience will start to wonder who’s the scream was. It sounded very feminine.