The Prestige film opening

I watched the opening for the film The Prestige as through my research I found that it was a psychological thriller, a genre that i am trying to also create a film opening within.

The film opens with a panning shot of lots of 'magician' hats on the floor of a forest with a voice over suddenly saying "are you watching closely?", then it cuts to some canaries wandering in a cage, with another voice over beginning describing 'the prestige' magic trick, this is reflected in the shots as a man is taking out a canary and showing it to a young girl, which cuts to a big magic show showing the same thing but a man instead of a bird. this continues as the voice over describes the second part of the magic trick. Then another voice in heard, and the shot cuts to the man in a court room where he is being spoken to.

I feel that the voice over running throughout the opening of the film is very effective as it creates mystery around the magic trick, however it also hints to the audience what the film is about. I also like that the shots are representing the dialogue, one in an extreme way, the other in a harmless way as this makes the opening more exciting to watch, but also it acts as an enigma narrative as the viewer does not know who is talking and why they are talking about it, until the very end where it is revealed who is talking and that they are in a court room.

The target audience for this film is perhaps adults within the age range of 25-45 as the actors are all well known to people of this age range, also the film is set in the past which is typically more appealing to an adult audience. In addition, the colouring of the film, props and setting make the opening seem very sophisticated and mature which in turn reflects their target audience.

From researching this film, and from also looking at the opening of Fight Club, i have decided to have a voice over, much like The Prestige, where the shots reflect the dialogue, but mystery is created over who is talking and why, like Fight Club and The Prestige, as i feel that it will make my opening much more interesting and create more atmosphere. Also the target audience for these films are young adults and the shots and voice over reflect their audience as it provides links with the sound and the shots and makes it still very visual and interesting as the viewer is focusing on both things as they correlate to each other.

Music/Sound

Using the website audio network.lgfl.org.uk, I looked at different music clips and sounds to use on my digital storyboard and probably my final opening.
There was a range of audio clips, however I felt that most of them did not fit with the atmosphere that I wanted to create as they were too upbeat. I refined my search to piano clips and found audio that featured mainly piano melodies as I wanted the music to be quite soft and subtle as I am also using a voice over and do not want it to be over powered or difficult to hear.

I have found an audio clip that I really like which is called sadness as it is not a continuous song but rather light chords on a piano that are quite distant from each other with a muted sound throughout. I chose this clip as I feel that it suits the theme of opening and creates a melancholic and eerie atmosphere to foreshadow the feelings and atmosphere further on in the film and to give the audience and idea of what is to come.

In addition, i have also found an audio clip that enable me to hint at the theme of schizophrenia. It is an audio clip of malevolent whispering with a deep drone in the background, which will be over my flash forward clips to create mystery around the shots but also to create a unsettling atmosphere for the audience.