Research and planning – atmosphere/mood

We want to create a variety of different atmospheres throughout our film opening. At first the mood should be very relaxed as the radio plays the sports report and the ‘fun’ images appear on the screen, this will give the audience a sense of security and the impression that the film was going to be happy and upbeat. However as soon as you hear the sound of the mother crying the atmosphere changes and the audience realise that something tragic has happened. Then hearing the news report on the radio saying “another boy has been killed .......” the audience are likely to put two and two together and realise that the boy from the pictures is also the murder victim. The audience will then automatically have sympathy for the boy due to the previous photos that portray him as ‘sweet’ and ‘cute’ etc. The audience will also sympathise with the mum.

As soon as the scene switches to the boy in the car the shots will remain very slow and basic to give it a tense, emotional effect, the audience will be focused the facial expressions of the character on screen and his horror when he looks at the news paper. The camera shots throughout the opening are quite standard in order to give it a calm, real feel about it, however during the flashbacks the camera effects will be very blurry and unclear as if it’s a distant memory. The camera will be purposely shaky as if filmed on camera phone. The flashbacks are there to inform the audience of past happenings but also to shock them and create a narrative twist because through the flashbacks they find out that this boy is not as innocent as they previously thought. The last flashback in which we see the girl being chased is meant to be the most shocking and full of suspense because it is unsure what the boy is going to do to her and the audience fear the worst. I will create this atmosphere by a distorted camera effect and filming in the dark with lots of heavy breathing and footsteps. The end of this scene is crucial because the last thing we hear is “It’s him…” this is meant to be a sort of cliffhanger and should leave the audience asking questions and wanting more.