AS opening of a student thriller analysis

In this essay I am going to analyse the opening of the student thriller called Nocturnal Windows.

The student thriller begins with the logo of the production in which these students have decided to do go with “the new line in cinema” the logo fades in and then fades out. 

There is then an ellipsis edit which goes on to the opening scene. There is a montage edit of clips and different views of the house. The setting of the first scene is very dark and gloomy and the lighting is chiaroscuro which sets an eerie and mysterious atmosphere. There is then a dissolve edit of to the first scene which contains actors. There is during the characters walk to the house there is a match of action as when the male character walks through the gate leading toward the house. As they enter the house the lighting seems to be very bright and high key this may show signs of optimism.

Then on to the next scene there is an unusual shot which shows the male character switching the light of then it goes onto an ellipsis edit of the couple in bed together.

In the bed scene the lighting is very they use a night vision camera which shows and creates a more dramatic and serious atmosphere. When she puts the lamp on the room lights up a scary effect of the scene kind of shimmers down however there is some mystery. As the room is not fully light as there is only one lamp on. There is then a slow zoom out of the bed from the close up two shot of the couple as the man leaves the bed. It then goes to a number of shots of the male leaving the bed and heading up stairs. It then cuts to a shot of the women alone in bed indicating and connoting a sense of vulnerability and loneliness.

There is then a close up of the woman who grabs a torch out of the draw. After this there is an unusual ellipsis dissolve edit into the woman walking in the very low keypart of the house. There is then a medium shot of her walking up the stairs the same place where her partner went.

After this there is a tracking shot of the camera following her movements coming up the starts however the camera is not on a tripod but is being recorded by hand. I believe they did this due to the fact that it gives the audience a feel of being there almost like a point of view shot. After this there are a number of shot reverse shots of the woman walking up the stairs. The director would do this for the face.

A short while after this there is a point of view shot of the woman opening the door they did this so that the viewer would see the same in which the actors are seeing this is mainly done in thrillers to focus the attention of the viewer so therefore they are more often caught in surprise. There Is then another match on action shot as when the women walks through the door. The opening then goes into slow motion to show the dropping of her torch, her light to indicate darkness is only in her sight.

There is then an unusually long scene of her running away. The camera then goes to a close up of her face and the camera is moving in quick short movements this is done to show the quickness of this chase. Through the chase scene there are numerous cuts from the victim and killer. There is then an extreme close up of the knife of the killer who’s dress codes is very rugged as he’s wearing a hoody a hiking boots. Lastly it cuts to the title which is written in serif writing. In addition to this the titles scenes are in the corner of the video like in the thriller face off. This is done to take keep the focus on the film also if there were full title sequins the reader may lose interest as they take majority of the page.