Genre

Psychological Thriller.
We have decided to look at specific film openings to our Genre, to analyse the themes that should be included within our film sequence.

Further research shows the necessary themes to be included (Wikipedia):

• Reality – The quality of being real. Characters often try to determine what is true and what is not within the narrative.
• Perception – A person's own interpretation of the world around him through his senses. Often characters misperceive the world around them, or their perceptions are altered by outside factors within the narrative
• Mind – The human consciousness; the location for personality, thought, reason, memory, intelligence and emotion. The mind is often used as a location for narrative conflict, where characters battle their own minds to reach a new level of understanding or perception.
• Existence/Purpose - The object for which something exists; an aim or a goal humans strive towards to understand their reason for existence. Characters often try to discover what their purpose is in their lives and the narrative's conflict often is a way for the characters to discover this purpose.
• Identity - The definition of one's self. Characters often are confused about or doubt who they are and try to discover their true identity.
• Death - The cessation of life. Characters either fear or have a fascination with death.

Butterfly Effect (2004):

The film opens with a quote that talks about the butterfly Effect theory, which to an audience suggests an unrealistic plot; however intitially it is clear that the main character believes this theory as he writes "save her" and it appears to the audience that he may use this idea to save the character he talks about. The use of a theory challenges the idea of reality as it is not proven to be right or wrong. The main characters perception seems to be altered due to the Mise en scene of his clothing relating to a Mental institues and the office room, he seems to have a fascination in death of escaping it implied by "Save her", which means someone is under threat. The Genre is reinforced by the use of a brain scan relating to a person's mind.

Silence of the Lambs (1991):
The audience is slowly introduced to the films Genre by subtle techniques. The eerie music, the sounds of birds, the colours drained to look like fog or winter. FBI is also used on the characters jumber suggesting police involvement with some form of criminal.

Scream:
Victim, Predator scenario. Predator is not yet introduced only a voice is heard, reasons for him calling her are unclear, appears to be stalking her. It's clear he's done research on her home due to his line "I want to know who I'm looking at" and knew she didn't lock the backdoor. This suggests he has planned what he is about to do and is unstable due to what he wants to do.

Conclusion:

Within our film opening we would have to use themes of a Psychological Thriller, which could be:

• A troubled character or a character with criminal authority.
• Presents of an unpleasant atmosphere such as setting or music or contrast.
• The troubled protagonist, if introduced, would have to have strong narrative views of their own mind and a sense of surrealism to their life. Also they exist to identify their purpose in life, if something troubled them they would want to know why. It revolves around the psychology of the plot.
• Presents of death or a morbid theme to the plot.