As you can see there is a lot of intertexuality between our main character and the main character from "The Stepfather" this is because we were really inspired. You can see the stairs, a very typical scene recreated in all thrillers, we got different angels, but it still created the same effect. Furthermore the character staring back at himself in the mirror, also a very typical move all thriller directors will use, as it creates a lot of suspense as us as humans will always have our mind playing tricks believe you may see something in the reflection. We have intertexualised the characters to show that both representations are similar.
We represent our character using props also, with beer bottles, dirty dishes and cigarettes which all connoted his character.
The title sequence I am comparing mine to is 'Dexter' because of all the similarities between them.
Above is the 'Dexter' title sequence. I've set out screen shots of our title sequence the way they have so its easier for me to explain. In the first box we can see the word 'Dexter' in big bold capitals which we incorporated into our title aswell (see image below). Both title sequences show what the main characters do in the morning once they've woken up. In image two of the 'Dexter' title sequence he's looking into the mirror which we kind of copied in our version (third image).
In the 4th ikmage of both title sequences you can see both characters are using the sink. Images 5 and 6 of both sequences show breakfast being made which adds to the suggestion that its the morning time.
Once we had reached the last 3 images the only mutual features were that they were all closes ups of what was going on at the time.
The seemed to have incorporated a lot of the 'Dexter' sequence without even noticing but we're quite happy with it because of how good that sequence was. We could of done much better the some of the shots of ours though.
The first box has an image of the title. The shot is in clear bold writing. We have also got similar writing as our one is bold also. In addition the background colour for DEXTER contrasts very well with their bold red writing the same applies to I.C.U the black is great with the white writing.
The second shot is an over the shoulder shot of the man looking into the mirror, we have a familiar shot when faysal is looking towards the laptop, this I think is great in to different ways, as both the mise en scene is used very wisely in DEXTER he is looking into the mirror, however in I.C.U he is looking at the laptop our key prop. The third shot is a very close up shot of the male actor shaving, however here we do not have a similar shot but one that can match is when Faysal is brushing his teeth using a prop, just like in Dexter when he is using a shaver. These closes up shots allow the audience to see the normal activities these individuals are doing but a very suspenseful meaning behind it. The 4th shot is the most familiar shot we have with DEXTER, this is a very close up shot of a plug hole , however in I.C.U this shot is not a close up shot and is not a main shot , in ICU the character just spits out his toothpaste into the plug hole. The next shot, is just a close up shot of a prop, both these shots must give an indication of something in particular, in Dexter the shot of the egg, is amazing it is clearly shown to give some sort of indication of something, in ICU the close up of cigarettes are there to show that the character is stressed and has some sort of tension about something. Another conventional shot used is the mid shot of the characters face, in DEXTER it may show stress and some sort of suspense; however in ICU this is just a mirror reflection of the character.
Overall, I believe Dexter is the closest we can get to comparing; however we have also used interxuality from “the stepfather”
In this title sequence shown above (DEXTER) there are many similarities to our opening to a thriller also. I have shown this down below in comparison.
As you can see the first still shot of the film DEXTER is in bold capital letters, we have also got a similar title in capital letters, centred and bold, contrasting with the background and standing out, letting the viewers know exactly what our title is and lets the opening carry one.
In the second shot it is a over the shoulder shot, of the man looking in the mirror, we have a shot where it is angled so that the camera is not viewed in the mirror, very similar to the opening of DEXTER. We also have a title in our sht as well as the real media production.
The 3rd shot is a very close close up of the male actor shaving, we do not have an exact matching shot, but we do have a close up of the toothpaste and the toothbrush, presenting to the audience that this man is going to brush his teeth, the delayed action of our male actor squeezing the toothpaste onto the toothbrush builds up a lot of tension within the scene.
The next shot is almost the same as our shot, we have our character spitting into the sink, and the still shot of the real media production has blood. Both shots are very similar, and both link to the previous shot, helping the audience link the actions of the character together.
The centre shot of the very close close-up of the egg, is amazing, we do not have a close up of anything, but the idea of food it is similar as we have a shot of our actor mixing the tea.
The next shot in the real media production there is a really close up of a knife going down on the orange. We yet again don't have a close-up shot but we do have a shot of cutlery and lots of plates left in the sink. The 7th shot is a close up of the actors hands, and we have a very similar shot of our actor taking the CD out of the packaging, this is very similar as it is suspenseful as we don't know what both characters are going to do with these props. Close ups are used int he next shot once again, in the real media production the prop is so close we can barely tell what the prop is, which makes it very suspenseful, also our close up explains our character, he is very stressed, smokes, wants to take his mind off things etc. The last still
shot is very similar to the real media production, rather than a portrait view of our character we have a side view of him lighting up his cigarette.
It is clear that we have used the inspiration of the real media production ‘Dexter’ to help with our shot types in our thriller opening. We have also used intertexuality from ‘The Stepfather’ also, forthe opening of our thriller, intertexualising the idea of a male waking up and getting ready, we have some clear intertexuality shots from our thriller.
Furthermore, we have also been inspired by the opening of the real media production ‘Seven’, as the title sequence begins with its production company, after about 00:40 seconds, as the research we have produced before in class, showed us that normal real media thriller openings, titles do not roll in until 00:30-00:40 seconds. We followed the sequence of the titles, of what comes next, intertexualising the title sequence of ‘Seven’ to try and convince our viewers that our opening was professional.
