Finally… the most awaited moment of this century, I have finally chosen a genre! And it is………… MYSTERY!!! WOOOOOO! Exciting right? Yes yes I know. I’m actually super excited for my mystery film opening. I am honestly such a huge fan of mystery movies and literature which is one of the main reason why I chose it. I also leaned into mystery because I have so much fun coming up with different scenarios and plot twists which is going to come in really handy when I start developing my ideas and plot. Now comes the research part. To be able to film a successful mystery film opening I need to really indulge in the genre and learn all there is to learn.
First, I need to look at some popular mystery film opening:
Knifes Out:
Knives out (2019) was a really popular mystery movie that was able to gross about $26,769,548 on the opening weekend. This goes to say that it was a successful launch. The question is why? Amongst the many mystery movies, why was this a hit? The first thing to analyze of course is the opening. The first thing I noticed is the music. Music takes on such a big role in mystery films, the use of the dark and suspenseful music allows to create the ambience for the rest of the film. So the first thing I should take note of for my own personal film opening is to allow myself time to find a good opening music song. I need something that will set the line for the rest of the opening, something that will captivate my audience within the first few seconds. Another interesting thing to take note of is the lighting of these 2 minutes of the film. There is noticeable darkness to most of the shots, this also adds to the suspense and mystery of the film. And of course the most noticeable aspect of this mystery opening… the dead old man. Of course within the first 2 minutes of the film we are introduced to a dead person which we know is what the mystery will be about. This is the classic whodunnit scenario that is of course a theme amongst mystery films.
Memento:
Now this is genuinely one of the most interesting movie openings I have ever seen. The creative decision to use a reverse effect on this first scene is what allows it to captivate the audience so early on, it is such a creative and risky choice. This is an important thing to think about, I have to be creative enough and use new techniques to captivate my audience. This mystery movie opening also contains something that is used in many of these movies…can you guess what it is? Yes… blood, blood, and more blood. Of course the thought of dead corpses isn’t the best but dead people is something that creates a great amount of suspense. This is also a very big theme amongst mystery movies, most of them revolve around solving someone’s murder. Which of course will also take part of my own mystery movie opening.
Pink Panther :
Pink Panther (2006) is personally one of my favorite mystery movies, it is a comedic mystery which is my absolute favorite. While the movie is live action, the opening credit scene is the classic animated Pink Panther. This is also something that is used to attract their audience into their movie. They are also able to use this animation to create a unique set of credits. This allows for the credits shown to not be boring like they usually are. They use creative techniques like setting them on fire to add an interesting illustration. This opening credit scene, while not live action, is also used to introduce the characters and it shows a little of their personalities. This is useful because while there are no words heard, the audience is still able to learn about the characters and plot.
Overall, this research has definitely aided in my process going forward with my mystery film. There are many news things that I will now need to add and look for in my own mystery film opening. The main thing that I need to focus on is being able to really captive my audience with my opening. Using things that are creative and have not been seen before will be extremely helpful.
Sources:
“Knives Out.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 27 Nov. 2019, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8946378/.
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