Thriller Research - George Harding-Montgomery

Mindhunter
I watched the film here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3xeBBMonCk

Sound:

- Low pitch, steady drum. Ominous and scary

- The only diegetic sound, the soundtrack, continues throughout the introduction.

- Girl screaming, echoed, pain and dying, emotional intro that really grips the audience

- Screaming stops when text fades up then carries on when we see the girl drowning again. We hear her pushing through the water. This happens twice more, then the third time we don’t hear screaming just the sound of the water rushing like we are under the water. Passed out? Dead? Given up?

- Once the title has faded, the underwater sounds fades away to be replaced with thunder and rain hitting the car. We then hear the screaming again, but distorted, as if the lady is thinking or dreaming about it.

Mise en Scene:

- Light breaks out over water. Text: ‘Dimension films’, Girl kicking and screaming in the water, flailing, drowning?

- More text: Intermedia Films present’, fade out to the girl screaming and drowning again, more text: an Outlaw production, more drowning then more text: an Avenue Pictures Production’.

- Then we see the drowning girl but no screams. Passed out? Dead? Given up? More text: in association with Weed Road Pictures’.

- We see the girl sinking further into the water, dead and water dripping down the lens of the camera before the title ‘Mindhunters’ fades up.

- The entire intro makes the audience ask questions, who is the girl? Why is she drowning? Is there just one girl, or more people?

- Title fades out and the camera pans right to show that the water on the camera lens is actually water dripping down a car mirror.

- The camera continues to pan right until we see an extreme close up of a woman sleeping. We then hear the screams of the girl again, but distorted, so we assume that the woman is dreaming/thinking about the drowning girl.

- All the shots are very dark, apart from the one light at the beginning, which goes away after a few seconds, showing the disappearance of hope and making the shots darker. The darkness makes the scene seem scarier and more ominous.

Editing:

- The film fades up from black to under the water looking up at the sun(?) above the water

- The transitions between shots in the beginning are quick cuts, showing the panic of the girl and making it more fast paced

- Before the title fades up, when the girl finally drowns, there are very few edits. The girl sinks slowly. The contrast between then and beginning emphasises girl’s death

- The transition between the underwater shot and the shot of the car window is a dissolve,

- The end of the introduction is all one shot

Camerawork:

- First shot, the camera is in the water really low angle, maybe worm’s eye view

- I can’t tell what angles the next few shots are, but this effectively creates confusion and a feeling of disorientation

- The drowning shots all seem very random, but when the text fades up the shots seem very calm

- In the final shot, the camera pans right to stop at an extreme close up of a woman’s face