Title & Opening Sequence Textual Analysis

I am analysing the opening sequence for Gone Girl as it is a psychological thriller and it sets a good idea of this genre by giving the audience very little information to go on- very similar to the effect we want to achieve in our opening sequence.

By Izzy Swanston

Mise en scene- What we can see as an audience is just a woman’s head

looking at us in quite a cold way. The

lighting is also quite dull which contrasts with the paleness of her skin. The lack of information intruiges

the audience to want more.

Camerawork- the camera shot is a point of view shot front the husband’s point of view, this is to try and

help us understand things from the husband’s perspective rather than hers, giving us a sense of

mystery about the wife.

Editing- in terms of editing, it’s very simple fade in and out and no effects on the actual visuals other than

maybe a filter to ensure that the shot looks cold to put

the audience on edge. The simplicity is to give the

audience as little information as possible to

add the mystery.

Sound- over this clip is dialogue from who we assume is the

husband where he states he wants answers and to

“crack her lovely skull” from his

wife but that this is normal, trying to normalize a situation that clearly is not

normal; which introduces the psychological

aspect. Also the voice clip and the

spooky background music is non-diegetic to imply that what’s going on in the clips doesn’t

match up with the sound.

Editing- again, they have kept the editing

very minimal and gone for a very basic white text on top of a black

screen again to give as little information as

possible to the audience.

Mise en scene- You can’t actually see anything other than the name ‘Ben Affleck’ who plays the main male

character and gives you no other visual information with a black background

and white text, not even colours to set a theme or plant an idea.

Camerwork- There is no camera angle as it is a textual

shot. The darkness of the black contrasts with the white text but overall the darkness overpowers to emphasise the

thriller side of the story.

Sound- non-diegetic music is playing in the background to add to the eerie and

unstable effect of the whole scene.

Sound- the creepy non-

diegetic music is still playing quietly in the background to

build up suspense however

diegetic sound comes in from the river and

the surroundings to emphasise

that this is real life now which

makes the audience feel scared as they

have no information to

go on yet other than an

unstable marriage.

Mise en scene-we can see a very

normal scene of a harbour type location during twilight and a boat is going down

the river.. The title of the film is very faint

and small in the middle of the screen. Again, this is a rather

normal scene and provide the audience with nothing to go on

and whether this location is significant or not. The cold blue colours and lack of

movement are used to make the

audience feel fearful of the situation as

they are uncomfortable. The low lighting may be to represent danger as this is the type of time people may feel cautious about going

out alone.

Editing- the lights in the corner have been emphasised possibly to show light in a dark situation

however again the editing is very basic and the visuals very plain in order to give the audience very little information apart from the cold colours and dark lighting.

Camera work- the angle is an extreme long shot which is used to set the scene, in this case of a

very normal harbour scene in what we can only assume to be a

very normal town.

Mise en scene- a house is in view with a reduced sign above the for sale

sign, this may imply that something has wrong with it or an event happened in it. Also there is very little

movement and all the lights in the house are off

other than the grass waving , which adds to the

eeriness of the atmosphere.

Editing-the grass is slightly out of focus however is the only thing moving, this may imply that the audience need to

keep an eye on things that aren’t in focus.

Sound- the non-

diegetic music is

still playing the

background however contrasts with the

normality of the scene which

suggests that

although everything may seen

normal something unusual is going on.

Camerawork- the angle is another extreme long shot to set the very normal suburban scene of a very

normal town however in the shot we can only see half of the house which suggests that we could be missing

some information.

Mise en scene- this time we finally see another person who we assume is the voice from the start as he is a male, this gives the audience more information where they can realise that he is the man who is married to woman and has slight psychological tendencies. In terms of everything else, the rest of the scene looks very normal and suburban with the house, the bins and the car

however his expression where he looks lost, hopeless and despondent shows that something is not right. He looks like he is looking at something in the

distance.Editing-it’s very

simple with little effect other than

possibly a filter to ensure that the shot looks cold to make the audience

feel uncomfortable. The man has been kind of emphasised possibly to prove he is important.

Camerawork-the shot is a mid long shot and again we are given very little information from this shot other than a

single man outside a house. There is a shot change and

then back to the original shot which gives us another point

of view.

Sound- there is no

dialogue or diegetic sound to give the audience

little information

and non-diegetic music is

playing in the

background to add to the

unstable effect of the whole scene.

Mise en scene- we can see the house that was in the previous shot with the man returning to what we assume to be his house. We can still

see all these very normal things like a car, house and a street with more houses however the text in the corner “the morning of” implies

that an event is going to happen but the audience don’t know what and this adds to the

tension

Camerawork-the short is an extreme

long shot so that the audience can

get all the information they need however

there isn’t much to see. This creates

tension as we don’t know where or when the event

that is implied by the text will occur.

Sound- diegetic sounds like birds can be heard to set the scene of innocence

and normality and the creepy music fades out implying that an event is about to happen that may require a change of tone- this creates tension and adds to the psychological effect

with the normality of the diegetic sound and the eeriness of thenon-

diegetic music.

Editing- again the editing is very basic and the

visuals very plain in order to give the audience very

little information apart from the cold colours and

dark lighting.

conclusion

Overall, the general effect is very eerie due to the creepiness of the music contrasting with the normality of the shots, which adds to the thriller aspect.

Also very little information is given about the narrative or characters which builds up suspense and makes the audience suspicious about the characters individually, this adds to the psychological aspect.