Further Jumpscare Research

From watching this video it really helped us to see what adds up to a good jump scare as we realised that it is not the jump scare alone but the build up is just as important, so we thought that if we showed her walking to her car and slowly build up the pace so that she is little bit spooked by the time she gets to her car and when she gets there she thinks she is finally safe and then we reveal the dead body, we thought this would work. As we knew we couldn't build up her background hugely as it is an opening title sequence and we only have 1 and a half minutes before it to do show what we want.
We wanted a jump scare that had a slow build up and the tension slowly builds up which is similar to the jump scare in insidious as we see the scare just before the main character does.

-Archie Eve

Research into the Actual Order of Titles

Research into the Actual Order of Titles...

If I'm going to make an opening title sequence, I'll need to look into the ordering of other similar sequences from professional products. This opening title sequence for Four in the Morning (2016) is of a similar style. Ignoring the colourful waves effect and pig character, the sequence first listed all the actors and actresses involved fairly quickly, as they're most likely not very big names. This was soon followed by the executive producer and producer. Finally, as the tv show was a small budget independent project, there was a list of all other executive producers and lastly the creator. I was not a fan of this format particularly as the titles didn't include many of the usual credits such as the music and studio. The font suits this particular style however for mine I would prefer a more traditional look to match the grimy feel of the sequence rather than bright neon colours.

Another good source of inspiration is this opening title sequence from Enemy (2013). Once again the titles in this open with the lead actors followed by the film title. The bright bold font looks really good on the establishing building shots. However the film does the opposite of Four in the Morning and has too many titles on at once, and for too long. From these two sequences I've decided I'd like to use a basic white font, and have titles of the most important people involved and no more.

Researching Makeup Update

The main research for this project will go into the dead body. At this stage it's important to consider what actual injury's  the dead actor will have. When I see the dead actor in my head, I see him as very pale in his face, with extremely dark eye shadows, and a clear wound that indicates that he has been killed, whilst still wearing his work cloths, I don't want to overdo the makeup, and will want to test different possibility's before the shoot. Our group found a video online for the face. to get a rough picture of what we want the actor to look like.





For the wound we decided to go for a small bullet wound between the eyes. We are would like one with just a bit of blood comming out of it that its not too overkill. I think in combination with the whited out face that it will look really good together. Below is a tutorial of how we could do the make up. In the video I find the blood poring out of the woman looks too wet, I would like the blood to look more dried out to fit the dead for a while look.

\

Update:

Our teachers have looked through all of our projects again and have informed our group that we could possibly get a make up artist. They gave the phone number of a professional make up artist called Jackie Whitney, that groups in our school have used a few times in the past years. We where told that we would have to arrange for her to meet us if we would like to use her. We didn't really know how to approach her as none of us had really done this before, but we just went for it. The phone call went very well, she said that she should have time, and will get us back and we briefly explained what we would like her to do. We agreed to keep in contact through email where I sent her the videos above. She quite soon replied saying that she would have time on our shoot day, and regarding the video she said that she could easily do it, she agreed with me that the blood in the video of the bullet wound is a bit too wet, she also gave us advised us to go easy on the paleness, and to not shadow it out as much as in the video. She recommended a slight skin whitening, and making the lips look slightly blue. We definitely trust her opinion and will follow her advice.

Jumpscare Research

A huge part of our thriller is the jump scare which is very important for us to get right in order to portray the message we are trying to show, as this is what the whole video leads up to. Without getting this scene right then the whole video would be compromised. In order to make the whole sequence worth watching then the ending is going to be very important so I will have to do a lot of research in order to find what type of jump scare our sequence is similar to and I would have to look at this one and see how the producer effectively makes it work. According to research I have done, a lot of people believe that a jump scare is a cheap way of scaring the audience.
In its simplest form a jump scare is a sharp cut usually accompanied by a frightening sound. We thought that the jump scare shouldn't just scare the audience but it outlines a key part of the film so the audience is constantly reminded of this scare throughout the film.
The most important part of a jump scare is the 30 seconds before it, so the build up which is usually slow and suddenly goes to a jump scare.

-Archie Eve

Researching Stair-climbing Sequences

Researching Stair-climbing Sequences...

A very large percentage of our thriller opening sequence is going to be the woman climbing the car-park staircase. In order to make sure the video is interesting throughout I will have to try and make a fairly tedious sequence worth watching. Therefore I looked into some other films that tried to do the same.

The first example is one of the most famous stair sequences from Alfred Hitchcock's 'Vertigo'. By using 'the vertigo effect' down the centre of the staircase, the film effectively portrays how far up the character is whilst also unsettling the audience. This technique is done by zooming and pulling the camera back at the same time.

Another good sequence for stair shots is in Casino Royale. The sequence uses a lot of tight, high and low angle shots creating a sense of the height, chlostrophobia and steepness. Again this sequence uses a shot straight down the middle of the stairwell, a shot I would like to try as it looks quite good as well as giving the audience a sense of scale.

Thriller Update - Second Storyboard Draft

Progress..

Having emailed around we now have our Actor and Actress. For the woman we have Fran Lee, who fits the part perfectly and is willing to shoot all day, given that she gets a free wagamamas! For the dead body we have Adam Grant, who will be there at the shoot anyway so there is no issue.

The car park hasn't yet been contacted, but it will be as soon as we get our shoot dates. The next issue that needs to be solved are the props involved. We're going to need 2 cars, and if we can get those we have to hope that we can find an open corner in the car park. The cars we should be able to borrow from teachers who are on set already.
Finally I have re-drawn the story-board which we can use for a test shoot soon. We need to do a test shoot in order to see if the shots we've chosen work.The new story board is below;

Actor/ Actress Research.

Finding Actors...

In general, this will hopefully be the easiest part of preparation for our opening sequence. We only have two characters; The woman walking to her car and the dead body. The woman we decided is a young professional on her way home from work in the evening. Therefore finding an actress is going to cause some issue. Currently all we have to work with are the teachers, which could work if one is able to miss a whole day of lessons for our shoot.

Right now our choices are Fran Lee and Katie Banham for the woman and Adam Grant for the dead body

The dead body is more difficult in a way. Because this idea for a film wasn't perfectly thought out, We have no idea why the dead body is there to begin with! Is it an elderly man with a dark past who has been killed or is it a young boy who knows something he shouldn't have? If we can't think of an answer, it would be easiest to use our teacher Adam, as he will be on set anyway.

Makeup Research

Makeup Research

One of the endings to our opening sequence shows a dead body. None of us are particularly good at make-up so naturally trying to put make up on someone to show that they are dead is going to be quite difficult. So what we did is we looked on YouTube for make-up tutorials and we found this one. This video shows how we can make a slit in someones throat and with other make up we also have to show that he has been dead for a while. We found this other video to show how to make it look like  someone has been dead for a while as you can see we need to make the person look pale and with blood shot eyes.

Location Research

Location Research...

Having set out our first basic storyboard, I wanted to find an actual site that we could possibly shoot at. Looking at our local town Guildford, I came across Leapale Road Car Park, which fits the image in my head fairly well.

 The tiered car park is large enough from a first glance and could be a perfect site to shoot in if we can gain permission from the owners. However timing may be an issue. Good natural lighting could be used in the late afternoon to create a dark, hard light. However if we film in January time, light changes very quickly, meaning filming the whole sequence in one day may be a challenge.

The lighting may not look perfect also. Ideally, the car park would have harsh artificial lighting,
and the inside of the car park would have a green tone like in the photo below. However this look is probably impossible with the red brick walls.

Finally having a set be a private place causes issues. How will we maintain continuity when people come and go from the carpark? Will the carpark be busy and will that fit with the tone we are trying to create.

The opening scene to this episode of Black Mirror is some of my inspiration for the colour scheme and style I would like to have

Test Shoot

Difficulties with Test Shooting...

Unfortunately, as a group a test shoot was impossible. There is no way we will know what we will truly film on the day. The issue is, we have no way of visiting our location, and floor plans aren't easily available online. Therefore we can't know what shots we will be able to get, Hopefully I will be able to improvise on the day and work around the area of space I get given.

Further Story-boarding

Further Story-boarding...

Having discussed the previous idea of the crazed painter further, we decided as a group that as good as we could have made it, the sequence would have been boring to film and very difficult to get perfect. Instead we came up with the idea of a woman walking to her car from a supermarket in the late afternoon, but something isn't quite right. No one is around and it seems as if she's being watched and followed. She notices this and speeds up her walk into the car park where a door slams, making her even more uneasy. Having placed her shopping in the boot, she finally gets in her car. However when she looks to her left the car next to her has a dead body in it/ blood on the window.

Not only would this story be more interesting to film, as it uses a wider range of shots, It also has more potential to show off a multitude of camera skills and editing techniques to build up the tension necessary for the final twist. This idea will most likely be the one we stick with. It's realistically doable, we have people who can play the parts and we have a car park that we can use. However our current dilemma involves the ending of the sequence. We have two options; the original, in which she looks over to the car to the right and sees a body, followed by a cut to black or the new idea, in which she goes to inspect blood on the window to then find the body.

Storyboarding Thriller Ideas

Storyboarding Thriller Ideas...

Having looked over my original ideas, and then been put into groups, today I began to storyboard and visually create some recreation of the visuals I have in my head. The first thriller idea we chose as a group to draw was my idea of a psycho painter. Generally I am quite happy with some of the shots we came out with, although I think I'm going to re-draw a few so that the close ups are more extreme: I want the opening sequence to look more interesting and give less away. The first draft of the opening sequence is below:

                                                           

                                                     

However as we drew through each shot, we figured out as a group some of the floors to making this sequence: Who will actually paint a reasonable looking rose for our video? What sort of painting is it - Life like or abstract? How will we film the short most effectively without making any continuity errors along the way? All in all I think its definitely worth going back to the drawing board to try out a few other ideas so not to limit myself and make things harder than they need to be.

Kyle Cooper's Opening Sequences for AHS

Analysis of Cooper's American Horror Story Opening Sequences

I personally have never been a huge fan of the
American Horror Story series, however I must admit
that I have always found their intros incredible, without the knowledge that they were done by Kyle Cooper. Each season has a different intro hinting at some of the things which will show up throughout and all of them are with the same soundtrack. Each intro is incredibly unique, some done with animations and others with some fantastic sets. All of them follow Coopers style, very choppy with a lot of closeups to disorientate and confuse the audience and keep them trying to figure out whats on screen. Every opening sequence so far has been equally disturbing and hard to watch as the last, which I'm sure was Cooper's intention to begin with.

Kyle Cooper's Opening Sequence For Dawn of the Dead

Analysis of Kyle Cooper's Opening Sequence...

One piece of Cooper's work that caught my eye was his involvement in the title sequence for Dawn of the Dead. The sequence begins by cutting between black screen and short shots of chaos. During the black screen we hear a press conference about a virus, which we can easily connect to the scenes of zombies. The use of red text running off screen like blood instantly sets the genre of a slasher horror, and if this wasn't already obvious enough the sounds of heartbeats and screaming hit the nail in the coffin. I really like Coopers choice of soundtrack; Johnny Cash - The Man Comes Around. It not only adds to the chaos of the following scenes, but it casually gives the audience that the virus is deadly. This soundtrack matched with the 'channel flipping' on the TV, create a sense of realism and relatability. All in all the opening sequence did exactly what it was meant to. It layed out the situation, the tone, the genre, all while maintaining the interest of the audience with impressive visuals of riots and chaos.

Kyle Cooper Bio

Kyle Cooper

Kyle Cooper is a director and designer of film title sequences from Massachusetts. Born in 1962, Kyle grew up to go to Yale University to study graphic design. Over his lifetime he's worked on over 150 film titles from Flubber in 1997 to Tropic Thunder in 2008. Throughout this time he has also founded creative agencies such as Imaginary Forces and Prologue Films, which are recognised internationally.

His most notorious work includes the Marvel 'Flipbook' introduction which is now used in almost every Marvel superhero film and the opening sequence to the critically acclaimed TV series 'Band of Brothers'.

Here is Kyle Cooper's Demo Reel

Thriller Ideas

Thriller Ideas...

With time moving on fast, I am approaching the beginning of my main media coursework for this year sooner than expected, and so here are a few rough ideas for films, along with their opening sequences.

The Glitch

A film much alike I-Robot, in which a 'mad-scientist' style character has modified himself with robot parts, however the procedure went wrong resulting in a rogue cyborg with bad intentions.

In the opening sequence, we see a man, not his face, sat in a chair in the center of a room. He taps his nails repetitively on the arm rest, taps his foot lightly, and maybe even listens to a scratchy record. All of these sounds slowly layer on top of each other as we see them, creating a rhythmic sound.However when the man stretches in his chair, his body 'lags' and 'glitches'. Meanwhile we see a group of men, perhaps work mates or police, en route to where the man is. The sounds increase in sound and speed as the men get closer and finally, as they enter the cyborgs room, we see his face, give a twisted smile, and say 'Good morning Gents'.

Fleurs En Rouge

 A psychological thriller, in which a painter is completely obsessed with the colour red and the majority of his possessions are red. Most of all he is obsessed with the painting of two red flowers and he continually paints the flowers but can never get it quite right. In the end the only red vibrant enough to fulfill the painters needs is the colour of blood.

In the opening sequence we see close ups of paint being brushed onto canvas to an unsettling soundtrack. The shots become shorter and shorter until the painter punches/stabs the canvas. Like before I want sound to play a large part in creating the tone, with an increasingly aggressive piece of classical music to match the painters emotions. Other than this I want to make the sounds of the brush strokes to become louder and louder throughout.

V1RU5

A film about a young college student, making money in his free time from hacking gambling sites for credit card details comes against a rival hacker, who wants to punish him for his immoral actions. In order to do this he plants bombs under the library where the student and his friends come to 'make their living' and takes control of the students camera to make sure he doesn't try to get any help. The rest of the film is about how the student deals with the situation, especially when the stakes raise as more loved ones come looking for him.

In the opening sequence, I picture the boy entering with a few college friends, setting himself aside from the others, opening his laptop and starting to hack. We see bits of code on the screen with the title card within and also a gambling site to hint to the audience what is being hacked. Within the titles we are shown a single alert among the many short cuts of some malware spotted by the computer security.

Coursework Groups

Forming Groups for Coursework...

Today I was placed in my group for the coming thriller opening sequence coursework. I have been put with two guys, named Ben and Archie. It's going to be fairly challenging seeming as all three of us aren't the most creative of types. Unfortunately the other two aren't the most productive of sorts either and so I'm going to have to lead the progress mostly. The groups were formed completely randomly, using a random name generator and so I can't complain!

I'm sure everything will go well (fingers crossed)

What is a Thriller?

What is a Thriller?...

Thrillers are an incredibly varied set of films. Easily mixed up with horror films due to their close relation of tension and uncertainty, thrillers base their tones about building suspense not in order to scare the audience necessarily, but to create intense excitement. This can be used in a multitude of scenarios and so there are a tonne of sub-genres as below;

Action thriller

Comedy thriller

Conspiracy thriller

Crime thriller

Erotic thriller

Horror thriller

Legal thriller

Political thriller

Psychological thriller

Spy film

Supernatural thriller

Techno-thriller

Inception

One example of a science fiction heist thriller that I have seen is the critically acclaimed 'Inception' by Christopher Nolan, who wrote, co-produced, and directed it. Perhaps the reason this film is so successful as a thriller, is simply down to the fact that it makes you think. If you want to keep up with the story, you have to wrap your head around the crazy ideas being put forward, and much like The Matrix once did, you may even question your own reality. This level of philosophical involvement really captures an audience and helps to encompass an audience, which in the long term creates a bigger lasting effect of excitement and tension throughout.

Saw

A more extreme sub-genre of thriller films include slashers and some horrors. Even though ,as I said before, horrors and thrillers are different genres, there are some films in limbo. Both genres use incredibly similar techniques of building suspense, anxiety and anticipation. However the difference is in the climax. Horrors intend to 'jumpscare' the audience whereas thrillers want to create an adrenaline rush. Saw is one of the movies that fits in between. It is a high anxiety film. The climaxes aren't necessarily scary but instead just incredibly intense and violent.

Fight Club

Of all thrillers, my particular favourite is Fight club by David Fincher. The film doesn't fit within any particular sub-genre necessarily. Its action-packed, physiological, crime-based, comedic and the list goes on. The film manages to tell the audience a false story so successfully whilst giving enough information so that the final plot twist is hard hitting and nerve wracking. Much like inception, the film makes the audience think, which in my opinion is the best way for a thriller to create suspense.

Legend

Romance thrillers are less common. My current favourite film is Legend by Brian Helgeland based around the Kray Twins. The film cleverly blends the two genres, to create a sense of realism in the relationship. The romantic side makes you empathise for both brothers and the wife, but the tension and suspense illustrate the darker sides, for example abuse and rape. The 'thrilling' parts of this film aren't particularly action packed (apart from the fights) but are based on the audience's knowledge on the strength of the brothers, and the tension is built up through clever dialogue.

All in all in my opinion, a thriller is a film that gets your heart racing. It doesn't have to be scary, or action packed, it simply has to emotionally involve the audience in one way or another. This can include scaring the audience or simply having an audience feel so empathetic toward a character that the story is able to reach them on a personal level.

Prelim Task

The Final Cut of our Prelim Task...

Having watched it back there are some issues. The audio is slightly off, sometimes words are heard twice between shots. Also one thing to take on board is that sometimes less is more. Tonnes of shots and angles aren't always necessary and sometimes ruin the tone of a sequence and take the audience out of the film as the edits make it hard to watch.

Actual Coursework Task Defined

The Coursework...

Video

Preliminary exercise: Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

Main task: the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.

All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source. Both preliminary and main tasks may be done individually or as a group. Maximum four members to a group

Editing the Prelim Task

Editing the Prelim Task...

Having had a successful shoot the week before, yesterday I got to edit my prelim task. I got to grips with premiere pro fairly quickly once again and was soon cutting and sticking clips together with relative ease. First I put together a rough cut of the scene, without checking for continuity or smoothness. However having watched it through, it had no flow and it felt very choppy, as if the shots were all just put in place with no real reasoning behind them. I then copied and pasted the whole sequence further along the timeline the that I could change it however I wanted without losing the original cut completely.

In my second draft, I wanted to create more empathy for one character, who was being bullied by her older brother. To do this, I lengthened the shot duration for shots of the girl, in order to allow the audience more time to identify with her. Also, for the opposite reasons, I shortened the shot duration on the guy, and I tried to show his face as little as possible. This made a great impact. Not only did the sequence feel less choppy but it also gave the audience a side to be on, creating more meaning to the piece.

One thing I took away from this task is the fact that getting a sequence right takes a lot more time than expected. From the hour long shoot last week, I created a sequence that was maximum 20 seconds long. Therefore every minute of shooting time is sacred as time is money.

Filming the Prelim Task

Filming the Prelim Task...


However on the day I was made to change groups and work with an entirely new sketch about self-harm. The shoot was still very successful and by simply working through the whole scene from every camera angle, we had completed everything we needed fairly quickly. The reason we did the whole scene each time and not just the necessary dialogue was for safety, in case a shot went wrong and so we could cut to any other one. The roles were quite balanced. As a group of three it was quite hard for all of us to be behind the camera seeming as we had two actors in the sequence. I played the less involved role of an older brother bullying her sister but also helped out with camera positioning, continuity and will hopefully be in charge of editing. We didn't have to many difficulties on the day, as we had a simple task with not too many people involved and so the whole shoot was a success. However I did learn from the experience. Prior planning of which shots need to be taken is completely essential for success, especially under a tough time constraint. You don't have time usually to work out what you want to film on the day.

Preparation for the Prelim Task

Preparation and Filming a Prelim Task...

Today I was set my first filming task, to film a short sequence which follows the storyboard shown below. The script is very vague, and can therefore be interpreted in very many ways for example to portray an image of social class such as gang initiations or to capture an image of the problems faced by young people such as mental issues and bullying. For my original group, the plan was to have a gang initiation in which the new
member had to shoot a teddy, but create a very serious tone to make the scene even more ridiculous.
We then wrote the shot list, and matched the storyboard with our own story.

First Edited Sequence

First Edited Sequence...

During my introduction to editing, I created my first edited sequence using Adobe Premiere Pro. It obviously wasn't an Oscar winning piece, but it was ideal for understanding the basics of the software and getting used to the general feel of what I will be doing on a much larger scale in the months to come when I create my Thriller trailer. You can watch it below.

It isn't my best work if I'm being honest! Apart from the very jumpy audio which we were told to ignore for now, there are many issues with these 6 seconds on footage. The clips are very jumpy and abrupt, for no real purpose other than to show some of the footage we filmed on the day and not waste it. Other than this there are multiple continuity errors, and some dodgy acting which I can forgive!

Learning to Edit

Adobe Premiere Pro Logo

Getting Into the Editing Suite...

Recently I was finally able to use the editing software and taught the basics. We used a program from Adobe named Premiere Pro, a system that came fairly quickly to me as it's similar to the software I tend to use; Final Cut Pro.

I started things off by learning some basic terminology;

1. The general folders that contain your raw footage are named bins, a name that originates from back when film strips were used and were organised into various sections by containing the rolls in named bins

2. The raw footage collected inside the bins are technically named Rushes or Dailies for Americans. This is also due to how old film strips used to work. Each day the film strips would have to be 'rushed' off in order that the director could watch over the footage from the previous day and work out if anything needed re-filming.

3. In order to extend or shorten a clip easily, you can use the trim handles. For more precision, the +,- symbols can be used for zooming in and out of the timeline.

Finally there are the keyboard shortcuts for the tools that you can use:

Tools
Selection Tool	V
Track Select Tool	A
Ripple Edit Tool	B
Rolling Edit Tool	N
Rate Stretch Tool	R
Razor Tool	C
Slip Tool	Y
Slide Tool	U
Pen Tool	P
Hand Tool	H
Zoom Too	Z

Analysis Practice

Dead Mans Shoes - First Full Analysis Practice...

In the opening title sequence of Dead Man's Shoes we meet two characters, who we assume to be brothers, going on a journey.

Camera

However, having said that we met the characters, we never actually felt a connection to them. This is down to the fact that we never actually saw their faces. In all of the shots of their journey they are only ever either walking away from the camera or they are two far back in the shot to see their faces. This makes a contrast to the flashbacks that we see of the two boys growing up. In these shots the audience can connect to the young boys because of the use of close up angles. This, on a subconscious level, makes us feel less comfortable with the grown up versions of the boys and so adds to the feeling that something isn't right in the present day.

Another contrast between the young and old boys is that the flashbacks are filmed on a hand held camera, meaning the shots are shaky which gives off the effect of a home-video. Whereas the shots of the journey are very still. Again this contrast makes the two times seem very different on a subconscious level.

In this first shot we see of the grown up brothers, they are very far back in the depth of field and with a deep focus. This is just after having seen a lot of close up shots of the two young boys so this sudden difference in depth is in a way portraying how far away the present day characters are from their younger selves. This could give the audience the impression that something has changed.

 This is also the establishing shot as it immediately sets the scene. It tells the audience that firstly, this is set in the countryside and secondly that the brothers are going on a journey.

The large depth of field of the shots of the older brothers is something that is carried on throughout the sequence:

This big depth of field means that we can see a long way into the distance and so in every shot we can see where we are going. This means that we can see that the characters are going on a very long journey. We get this impression because in every shot the background I different showing us that they are travelling a long way.

Mise En Scene

The relationship between the two brothers seems to be strained now, compared to in the past. In the flashback scenes the two boys seem to have a close and happy relationship as they're always seen smiling and playing and hugging each other.

However, in the present day shots, the brothers do not interact. They walk separately, one in front of the other and do not talk or look at each other even. However there still seems to be a social hierarchy between the two as the older brother is leading them both and seems as though he is in charge. This indicates that somehow their relationship has become harder as they've grown up and they are now not all that close. On the other hand, the leading of the older brother throughout all the present day shots shows the understanding between the two that he is in charge
and should be leading which may indicate a healing relationship.

We learn from the use of costume and props in the flashback that they are most likely real home videos from someone’s childhood, and not staged shots made specifically for the film. The props and costumes in all the flashback scenes seem very authentic and would be difficult or expensive to source now.

In the present day shots, the different use of costume supports the change in the brothers, and the fact that they've grown separate. The costume of the older brother suggests that he was perhaps in the army due to the camouflaged coat and the duffel bag he's carrying throughout the clip. However, the younger brother is dressed very differently and out of place with the countryside. His tracksuit and trainers make him seem more suited for a city. This represents their different paths and personalities and encourages us into thinking that they're very different people.

The different body languages of the two brothers also supports their difference. The older brother walks very purposefully and securely which makes us think he is more comfortable in the environment. However, the younger brother is much clumsier with his steps and this suggests he is not used to walking in the countryside.

The settings for the flashbacks are however chosen carefully to reflect the films aim. The shots are based around the home and the brother’s family to show us the enjoyable childhood they had together, and how happy they were. Contrasting this with the impersonal shots of the two brothers walking down country roads with no contact at all amplifies the change in their relationship and that they aren't as happy anymore. The fact these shots are all set in different countryside settings - from roads to the forest, shows that they are on a very long journey.



Sound

Album cover for the song used - Vessel in Vain by Smog

The use of sound in this particular introduction plays a huge role in setting the tone. Although the majority of the video used are happy scenes of 'family films' and two people walking in the country, the music creates a sense of nostalgia and even melancholy. This makes the viewer question why this emotion is being portrayed; Why are the two brothers walking far apart? What has happened between them since childhood that has weakened their relationship? The brothers were clearly very
close at one point and yet now they don't even look at each other once over a long journey.



Editing

The editing plays a major role in giving the audience an understanding of who the characters are. The use of old footage contrasting with the new footage gives us a sense that times have changed. The use of a fade between some shots like the example shown tell the audience that there is a direct link between the two children and the two walkers, subconsciously giving the audience the idea that the pair are brothers. The shot duration also creates effect. The old grainy shots are short and choppy, giving an appearance of excitement and happiness whereas the walking shots are long and drawn out, giving a sense of boredom and melancholy. The long shots of walking also create the idea that the journey the two men are taking is very lengthy.