The Scary Movie Opening Sequence
Comparing The Rommate Movie Trailer to The Expendables opening sequence
This trailer creates meaning by distinguishing normal life experiences from abnormal. This is demonstrated by the differences from beginning and the ending in both title sequence and shots. The trailer begins with an upbeat non diegetic music which suggests a positive mood, reinforced with the shots of a normal looking college building and formal dialogue between the teacher and pupil. The mise-en-scene creates a connection with the audience as they can relate and recognise that the pupil is registering into a new school. The shots of the girls laughing, clubbing and flirting relate to normal college experience which creates a positive response from the audience who assume that this is movie is normal. However towards the middle of the trailer the genre (which is a thriller) becomes known as the happy, disco sounding music comes to an end and is replaced with a gasp at 0.50. After this the trailer reveals actions from one of the characters (Rebbecca) which are abnormal to girly teenage behaviour such as watching her friend all the time, hurting another girl in the shower when she ripped pulled out her belly button piercing and stroking a girls hair while she slept. The sound enforces the weirdness of the activity on the screen by playing piano notes then a clock chiming, each sound with a pause in between creating suspense. With this the audience is left asking questions about Rebbecca. Why Rebbecca has to take medication? Why is Rebbecca so protective over her friend? Why Rebbecca has only one friend? Why Rebbecca kills everyone? The Mise-en-scene and the character actions have helped the audience to try to understand the plot of the trailer, though not revealing too much. The audience categories the first girl on the set, Sarah as the main character because she appears in most of the shots.The shots of her playing with the cat with Rebbecca and talking to one another show the audience the friendly relationship between these girls. The shot of Sarah kissing the boy, ultimately labels the boy as her boyfriend. So Rebecca's negative and hostile attitude towards these characters, help the audience to understand her personality. As Rebecca's negative and hostile behaviour is directed to the ones that Sarah seems to enjoy having company with. Regardless of all this information provided from the trailer the audience are still left asking questions wondering what has made Rebbecca this way, that she cannot stand Sarah having fun with anyone else? Why Rebbecca feels the need to kill the ones Sarah loves?
The opening sequence of The Expendables, though it is an action movie it uses some of the same ideas. Focusing on the first two minutes, similarities between the trailer and the openings sequence can be spotted. Both clips do not include the title of the movie at the beginning. In addition to that they both leave the audience wondering what will happen in the end of the movie. The opening sequence uses diegetic sound and 'fade in' edit to add mystery to the movie. It is set at the dark; the first shot which is taken from the road differs from the second shot taken from the river. The edits that make this opening sequence narrative is seen after the long shot of the ship at the river, and the next shot, a mid shot taken from within the boat. This technique is similar used in the trailer to help reveal the story.
The difference between the two is that they use editing and mise-en-scene techniques differently. Though both opening sequence of The Expendables and The Roommate Trailer uses sound that match with the clip. Only The Roommate Trailer uses non diegetic sound to reinforce the genre of the trailer, which as a result makes it more obvious. Whereas the opening sequence of The Expendables trailer does not reveal what genre it is nor the plot of the story or the main character. The Opening sequence of The Expendables seems to focus more on cinematography than the movie plot, as master shot is repeatedly used as well as match of action edit. The faces of the characters that appear important are not revealed as the light is too dark and does not show it. The characters that seem unimportant appear that way as they are not doing anything instead they are tied up looking peaceful as if they have given up hope. This is rather odd to be spotted in the beginning of a movie, which can make the audience ask questions about what will happen to these people. Who are the men with the power? What is the connection with the men on the motorbikes and the ones on the ship? Though both clips are successful at making the audience ask questions about the clip, both clips approach their genre differently. As The Roommate trailer uses the titles to narrate the story and the black screen to create suspense. Whereas The Expendables opening sequences uses the title sequence to reveal actor names and location. In addition to that the audience is incapable of creating connections between the characters and their relationship between one another, except the obvious one that some men are captive and some men are in power. The connection, the bound between these characters is not clear to the audience. Whereas The Roommate trailer reveals characters relationships and allows the audience to make connections with the characters. To add on the setting of the opening sequence in The Expendables, though it uses master shot twice, the location is still unknown. Whereas The Roommate Trailer reveals the location by having a shot of a normal school building which the audience are familiar with, also the title sequence ‘there are over 2000 colleges’ reinforces the setting.
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