HCT: Conventions of a Horror Film Opening

Donnie Darko (Kelly, 2001)

 

• The title sequence for Donnie Darko is 2 minutes long and uses varied techniques and classic horror generic conventions to portray a large amount of realism and enigma. This is created through little information given to the audience in the sequence and a seemingly peculiar situation.
• The director uses camera techniques to great effect in this sequence. Although very limited in obscurity and quite simplistic, an extremely effective scene is created.
• A steadicam was used to create a very smooth panning shot from the landscape with silhouettes of trees to the long road which is an etreme long shot
•  This is very elegant and quite obscure, this helps build suspense and almost makes the audience feel uneasy and cautious.This involvement of the audience is quite common in other films with similar genres.
• A wide angle lens (probably 20-50mm) has been used. When the camera pans over there is a body on the floor, the camera slowly moves forward and because of such a wide angle lens the subject seems very distant. Therefor a lot of negative space is created around the frame, this is dark space that makes the audience feel scared because of audience association of darkness with the unknown
• The body is centred in the middle of the frame and clashing with the rule of thirds, an audience is not used to this and feels uncomfortable, this also helps us associate with the character in question.

• Throughout the whole scene there is minimal editing, There is a short sequence at the beginning consisting of various titles including names of production companies/ owners and the director. These are all in white, with Gothic style typography on a black background with a second of black screen in between each title. This is very simple and ads a tone of seriousness to the sequence. The main title is also in a Gothic style and zooms into the camera along with a lens flair edit.
• Pace of editing shows only 2 separate cuts are used throughout the entire 2 minute opening. This adds suspense and realism and with a steady approach, much like walking speed to the character on the floor, it allows the audience to feel as if what the camera is capturing is what they are actually seeing. As the audience has no control over the camera and what they view they have no control over a very odd situation is created and therefor one which is enigmatic.

• The sound that is used is very steady and calm.. At first there is a lightning sound track, however once the camera pans to the figure on the floor the sound changes to a synth sound almost like blow pipes and is eary, suggesting the situation is odd. All sound in this clip is digetic sound.
• The music track then changes again when the character sits up, a piano starts to play selective notes of high pitch suggesting new life or even could be considered as a wildtrack.This also further implies an odd situation
• The scene is very strange as the main character is lying on the floor, this is very odd as you would not associate a road on a mountain as somewhere a man would rest his head. The audience think about how he could have got there and therefor enigmatic. 
• The mise-en-scéne shows he is wearing what looks like pyjamas and this also enables the audience to think about why he is wearing such inappropriate clothing in such a situation. When he stands up he smiles. One would think that he would be shocked to be in this location however this non verbal language makes us think about what possibly could give him this attitude so such a strange scene.