Analysis of a student made opening sequence

Analysis of a student made opening sequence:

Chain Mail – Umar Sheikh

Theme well displayed with the 'eerie' text message sent, the audience knows straight away through the connotations of the text message, which are: the build up of suspense due to the scary text message. This is going to be key to the narrative in terms of a new equilibrium, which in turn relates to Todorov’s narrative theory. The text message itself represents the new equilibrium because after the ‘killer’ takes his victims, he sends another text message to each other one of his victims – signifying that their next on his kill list.

When the killer appears in the frame, the music is added and creates adrenaline. However I think this was done poorly as there was no music before the introduction of the antagonist meaning there was no build up of tension. Therefore, the impact and effect of the music isn’t as good as it’s potential. Another successful point is the use of the jump-scare that communicates the genre and scares the audience making the film more gripping to watch.

A negative of when the killer is introduced is the poor mis-en-scene; it is a bright sunny day, which does not work well with the intended effect of the introduction of the killer. In addition, there are no conventions that signify the intended genre of the film.

The diegetic sound of the scream of the victim is not convincing and therefore takes away from the intended fear and horror that is supposed to be inspired into the demographic. 

There is no tension built in the closing stages of the opening sequence meaning it has a poor affect, as the audience will not want to continue watching.

From this I have learnt how tension needs to be built before the main event in the sequence as well as the fact that the mis-en-scene can greatly affect the scenario.