CF:Technical analysis: "Run Lola Run" (Twyker, 1998)

Camera techniques and MES	Duration of shot
Static shot with black background, some sort of symbolic evil looking chime swings back and forth to hide and show the major credits including the creative triangle (producer, director, writer).  The chime has a evil devil-looking face on it.	37 seconds
Next there is a zoom into the symbol and then a pan to show where it is coming from, which is then shown to also be evil looking.  Specifically, it looks to be a small statue/monument made of some sort of stone. The monument is actually a clock but the gargoyle like features attract the audience’s attention; to subtlety create a persona of evil. Next, there is a static shot of the centre of the monument; it is a gargoyle like mouth, which is then shown to open.	20 seconds
There is then a fast pan towards the mouth of the gargoyle, when the camera is then shown to be ‘in the gargoyle’s mouth’, and all that the audience can see is a blank black screen.	8 seconds
There is then a slow fade from black, to a shot of a dark screen, compiling of a large number of people. The shot is sped up to create a sense of pace, which is later shown to be a recurring theme throughout the movie.  Many of the people in the shot are shown in a dark manner, thus giving little of their identity away, which implies a large sense of mystery, which is also a recurring theme throughout the movie. The speed of the shot sometimes slows down to focus on certain characters, displaying them via medium shots. These characters are later shown to be quite important characters. This is a form of enigma.	79 seconds
The last focused shot of a supporting character shows the person to be kicking a football into the air. The camera then rapidly zooms out to show the crowd of people in a Bird’s eye view. The people are shown to of now moved into position so that they spell out the title of the film. The camera then pans back towards the original location as the ball heads back towards the earth.	29 Seconds TOTAL DURATION: 173 SECONDS

Soundtrack:

• Firstly, there is a slowly increasing tone of sound in terms of the pitch, this is typical of thriller films which often do this to build suspense.
• Overlapping with this sound is the ticking of what sounds like a clock. This is a key example of an enigma code, as time is one of the most important factors throughout the movie.
• When the camera begins to show the gargoyle like clock, a number of darker and more dramatic sounds begin to play, this fits in with the theme of the gargoyle, as gargoyles and such sounds are both naturally inferred to be related to evil by the audience.
• One of the most distinguishable things about this movie is the techno-dance soundtrack, which is thought of to be very eccentric. Even at the very start of the movie when there are sped up shots of the crowds of people, this soundtrack is playing. It could be said that sub-consciously, this is setting the theme of the soundtrack for the audience, as maybe if it is played from the very start of the movie, the audience may know that it may be recurring throughout the film.
• When the ball heads towards the earth, there is again a noise of which the tone and pitch rapidly increases, again creating suspense, which ties in with the path of movement of the football itself, as it is come to the possibly most important stage in it’s path of movement; impact.

What to take away from this technical analysis:

• The first thing that is noticeable is that the duration of shots are all very long, this is typical of thriller films as it leaves the audience to ponder on what the screen portrays, thus adding suspense. This is very traditional of thriller films, but not necessarily essential, this is something we will consider when we come to filming our opening.
• I think it is now clear that for a director to properly create enough suspense to be on par with professional thriller movies, certain sounds with varying pitches and tones could be used to create the required amount of suspense.
• As conveyed by the gargoyle like features in this opening, I believe that a key part of a thriller movie opening is the use of enigma codes.
• A large variation of shots must be used in the opening to our project, as continued use of the same shot would leave the audience bored and not in a suspenseful mood, which would contradict the mood of an audience member in a professional thriller movie.
• From the use of cartoon in this opening, I believe that we may be able to incorporate the use of more than one median in our project, although cartoon may not be feasible for us to pull of, there are other medians we could use, such as the idea of portraying the credits of the film subtly, like incorporating them into a newspaper clipping or something along such lines.