Editing in Thriller Movies

We thought it would be a good idea that before we started editing our actual film to look at other opening sequences from thriller films to get some inspiration. There are so many thriller film that are all edited is different ways to try and makwee themselves stand out from the rest, but they are all very unique in their own ways which is what we intend to do for our film.
We have chosen two different thriller opening sequences which in a way relate to our film but also how the editing catches my eye. The first one we looked at was the opening sequence from 'THE WOMAN IN BLACK'.. The opening sequence to this is only 1:31 minutes long but it tells you so much about the film in that short period of time making you want to watch more and find out what happens, which would be a good focus point for our film.




The first thing you see in the opening sequence is a close up of a teapot and teacups being played with (pretending to pour cups of tea), then you see a child serving a doll a cup of tea which lets the audience know that their are children involved in the opening sequence. After serving the dolls with tea it goes to a Medium shot of all three of the girls playing with dolls, this makes things more clear for the viewers.. Next we have some short shot duration shots/close ups of the girls brushing the dolls hair and tucking them into bed, which then got to a two way head shot of two of the girls smiling, symbolizing that they are all friends having a nice time playing together. This then goes to a head shot of the third girl smiling back at them and moving forward for the camera to then show a match on action shot of what she was leaning forward to do which is placing a cup onto a little plate. after showing this the camera goes to a slight low angle view of the girls as if someone is looking down on them, this is a long shot duration shot to show that the girls are still playing and slowly all together look up at this mysterious person. This leads to a medium shot of all of the girl turning to look in the other direction which leads to an eye match shot of the window at the end of the room. We then snap to a shot of all the girls standing up, a close up or two of the girls standing up and then a close up of the third girls feet as she has stood up. Next is a close up shot of the girl holding one of the teacups and dropping it which is then shown in a close up shot falling to the floor and smashing into pieces. 

This is to show that the girls were having a good time playing with their teacups and dolls but now whatever they were doing has taken all of their attention and have almost forgotten about what they were playing.

To help with this point there are more close up shots of their feet and them all walking towards the window, along the way they all tread on teapots and dolls faces which all smash and break under their feet. They then use tracking to show the girls all mesmerized by something which is making them walk towards the window simultaneously. Followed by a long shot of the girls stepping up onto the ledge by the windows so they can reach the handles to open the windows, a close up of one of the girls opening the windows is then used for it to then come back to the long shot of the girls this time showing them standing on the edge of the window to then suddenly jump out of the window. To end all of this the camera stays shooting the window while slowly tracking backwards, there is a quick close up of one of the girls dolls, however it comes back to the slowing tracking backwards of the camera to finish it off.

We believe this is a good opening sequence to a thriller film, as the shots, angles and movements of the camera are not to complicated and it has already shown you quite a lot of the film without giving to much away.