The Others- First two minutes
The first thing that the audience sees is the company logo. This is just to say who the production company are and doesn’t link in any way to the plot of the film.
The opening credits take up the majority of the two minutes of the film. When they are fading in and out of shot there is a narrator telling the audience about the background story that the film is based upon. This helps to introduce the mood and tone of the film so the audience knows what to expect even before the real plot has started. Having to have the background story must mean that the audience have to understand it, so they know what and why things are happening later on in the film.
Along with the narrative there are old styles of pictures that are fading in and out which support what the narrator is saying. This also helps to give an idea to the audience of what sort of time period this is happened. The pictures are also useful to give the viewers something visual whilst they are listening to the narrations. It also helps, along with the narrative to set the tone of the film. As they are quite creepy images the audience can sense that it is going to be quite an odd film with a supernatural theme.
The lighting whilst the pictures and narration is going on builds upon the feel that the film is going to be mysterious and odd. Candle light is used to light up the pictures which make the images dim and they flicker. This also puts across the idea that this story is old as they probably didn’t have electricity when this background story was set. Therefore the candle light fits with that time era.
After the opening titles, an establishing shot of the house that the first scene is taking place is shown. This is so the audience knows what kind of place it is set. Along with this establishing shot came the name and date of the setting. This gives the audience the specific place and date because it must be important that the audience know exactly whereabouts it is.
The scene goes straight from the establishing shot to a canted angle shot of a woman that is in a bed screaming. This contrast from the very peaceful establishing shot that was shown. Having such a quick, drastic contrasting shot actually shocks the audience.
The company logos are simple, with a back background and have very simple fade in and fade out transitions. They are only there to tell the necessary information but do it in the most simple way to make sure they don’t distract from the film.
The title of the film appears in front of the beginning of the old-fashioned pictures. The font used fits with the style of pictures it is shown with, which gives both the pictures and the title added effect.
The pictures that come along with the opening credits are lit by candle light which makes them quite dim but light enough to see what the picture is. They fade in and fade out gradually as the narration carries on, which helps them tell the background story.
The establishing shot, which shows what looks like, a manor house, to give the audience an idea of what kind of place the scene is set in. The audience gets a sense it is quite a wealthy place with a lot of history.
The canted angle of the woman screaming seems like a juxtopostion campared to the previous establishing shot. The canted angle gives the feeling of distress.
What I have learned from this is the importance of atmosphere over action in an opening sequence - the characters you see don't need to be doing anything with real consequences for the plot, but they do need to be set in the right kind of atmosphere. This also shows that we are quite patient at the beginnings of films as we settle into it and are willing to wait for a build up to the main action.
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