Ideas For My Thriller

After watch thrillers and thriller opening sequences I have picked out some ideas and elements that I would like to incorporate into my own thriller opening sequence.

 
In the mindmap above I have outline some ideas and themes that I would like to use. I picked from two sub-genres of thriller - crime thriller and psychological thriller. For both sub-genres I have picked from a couple of ideas. For example for a crime thriller I would have the opening sequence in a serial killer's lair where he is singling out and targeting his prey. It would somewhat resemble 'Se7en' with a series of close ups shots of the person busy at work.

Titles:

For titles there are two types of effects that I would like to replicate in my own work. One of the types of titles I have looked at is the 'cutout effect'. It shows an establishing shot so you can see the setting of the film but the titles are placed over it like a stencil. An example of this is the picture below.

Sourced from slideshowblog.com

Another effect I liked was the film projector look. Titles flickered on and off as if it was a projector. An example of this is the titles in 'Se7en'. If I was to do titles like this I would used a handwritten like font such as 'Dirty Deo Handink' found from 1001fonts.com

It makes it look scrawled and almost frantic looking which fits with the genre of thriller.

Sub-genres

There are two sub-genres of thriller I would like to do for my thriller; crime thriller and psychological thriller.  If I looked at crime I would go with idea of either a serial killer choosing his next target or a riot. All ideas would be composed from a series of short clips to create a quick pace opening sequence to add suspense and drama.

If I were to do the serial killer idea the opening sequence would be composed of close ups of the killer doing things like circling names, crossing out people's faces, pin-pointing maps and etc until the last shot where the director is announced where there is an extreme long shot of a wall full of research which is often a shot found in crime television.  

From 'Kick - Ass'

Using the riot idea I would compose it of more prolonged clips in slow-motion to create a peaceful feel to the chaos. It would mainly be hand-held to create a rough natural feel to it as if the audience was a part of the riot. I would use a lot of over-the-shoulder shots and mainly mid shots. I plan on not showing any faces in the opening sequence to create a sense of muted identity. The colours would be murky and dull with glimpses of colour from important props.

From 'No Church in the Wild'

My idea for a psychological thriller opening would include more abnormal images to create a sense of a dream-like state. I got this idea from the 'Skyfall' opening sequence where Bond's unconsciousness is represented with strange images such as a giant hand dragging him underwater. To make it seem like a nightmare I would use haunting images such as one is 'Silent Hill: Revelations' and NBC's 'Hannibal'.