Analysis - Waking the Dead

I did this analysis of a TV series, which is smilar to Thriller films.
I was looking how shots, sounds and music, creates tension, atmosphere and suspense in such a short period of time.
The opening to our thriller will be of a similar length so for extra research i looked into TV series that create the feeling we wish to create.

Analysis of the Opening to ‘Waking the dead’;

The opening starts with extreme close ups and varied close ups of the chains of a swing, with strongly enhanced diegetic noises. This causes a sense of tension and torture, which immediately makes you feel anxious about what to expect. These images of the chains appear frequently throughout the opening of this episode, which constantly reminds you of the sense of torture and keeps you feeling anxious and nervous.

After the first few shots, you are taken to a shot of a police station, with close up of evidence bags full of belongings and a cross fade of what appears to be a detective. Using the cross fade shot, gives you only a very short period of time to analysis the situation, but just enough time to inform you that there is a case in the process of being solved. This immediately links with the sense of torture and danger given by the chains.

During the opening sequence of shots, we are shown a man sat in a car. We only have a couple of seconds to acknowledge this man, and at this point we have no idea who he is, where he is, or what he is doing, but this one shot is just enough to inform us he is significant to this episode. We immediately begin asking questions as to who this man is and what he has to do with the story. We already have this sense of fear, danger and torture, so you are lead to think he is someone significant to the crime of the story.

We are then taken to a shot of what appears to be a bedroom, we only see a shadows and the lighting is very effective, low key lighting again gives the sense of danger. A very clever shot used gives impression of being under this person’s bed. The camera is positioned at a very low angle with low key lighting and the top half the screen being black creates the sense of us, the viewers, being under the bed and an uncomfortable feeling of being there. All the shots in the sequence so far have slowly built up the same atmosphere, of torture and danger.
No clues or information about the situation have yet been given, all the atmosphere has been created by strongly enhanced diegetic noises and the way low key lighting creates certain feelings and emotions.

Around 2 minutes into the opening sequence we are shown an evidence board of photographs and names of victims that have been murder on the same case, and it is revealed that they are attempting to solve the case of a serial killer. We are given a short glimpse of a picture of a dead man on his back, with the word ‘sorry’ carved into his back. This immediately lets us assume that the murderer is different to most clichéd criminals. We get the sense of fact that the murderer has reasons for who and why he or her kills, though we do not know this for definite.

The shots of a man being tortured and murdered are very effective. The close up and low key lighting reveals just enough, and avoiding showing what exactly is happening to him and who is doing this. A very effective shot is watching the action as a shadow on the wall. You don’t need to see any facial expressions to create the deadly atmosphere. The extreme close up and enhanced diegetic noise of the rope is one of the most effective shots. The noises almost make you feel the pain yourself. The small close up shots are just enough, rather than using full shots and giving too much away.

The next significant shot, very cleverly done, is where the camera is placed on a maid’s trolley and being wheeled down the corridor. This again does not reveal the full surroundings and still leaves the viewer asking questions and unsure of the location. As there was not an establishing shot during the sequence to reveal the building, it creates a sense of mystery and uncertainty which links in with the murder case; not knowing facts, who the murderer is etc.
The whole of the opening sequence of this episode creates the same atmosphere, using the same techniques of close ups, low key lighting and effective shots. We are still unsure of any facts or information of the case up to 4 minutes in.