Analysis of The Sixth Sense, The Village and Lady in the Water by M. Night. Shyamalan

During a lesson at school, we analysed the opening of three thriller films by M. Night. Shyamalan as a class. We carried out this task in order to see what real thriller openings look like in comparison to the work we had produced. We also wanted to see what they all had in common and what the general codes and conventions were of these three openings to see if our thriller openings followed the same conventions. By doing this, we would get a general idea of what we needed to improve, change, include and not include in our thriller openings and also this would give us an idea of how professional our final thriller openings look in comparison. These included The Sixth Sense, The Village and Lady in the Water.

The Sixth Sense, The Village and Lady in the Water are all very different films in terms of narrative, however they are all very similar in the way in which they use the same conventions such as quiet music which builds up, includes a shot that is held for a long time at the beginning and slow paced titles all of which contribute to building up tension, creating suspense and as a result keeping the audience engaged and interested.

The Sixth Sense

• Quite ambient sound
• Slow paced editing
• The quiet music builds up, gradually getting louder and faster
• Background music – spooky, innocent, sinister, scary – creating suspence
• Sound introduced before images – creates impact
• Slow paced fading titles
• Titles - white font against dark black background
• Engaging music leads the sequence
• Long held first shot – helps the audience to identify the main character and engage with them
• Very few shots used – mostly titles – doesn’t give to much of the plot away
• Titles – transitions- fade in and out

The Village

• Creepy/high pitch music - goes into loud banging sounds
• Suspenseful background music
• Sound introduced before images – creates impact
• Flashes of trees bleeding through background
• Title - white font against dark background – appear through trees
• Music gets louder/faster towards the middle of the opening (builds to a climax) – this slows down towards the end – more quite before film opening starts
• Music pace quickens, titles shorter
• Slow paced editing
• Long held first shot – helps the audience to identify the main character and engage with them - low shot establishes character
• P.O.V shot of man and coffin – zooming in and out
• Very few shots used – mostly titles – doesn’t give to much of the plot away

Lady in the Water

• Quite music – creates suspense
• Titles - white titles over dark black background
• Black and white animation - contrasting - similar to titles
• Voice over – keeps the audience engaged/informed – tells story
• Long held first shot – helps the audience to identify the main character and engage with them
• Black background screen held – screaming introduced
• Cuts to next scene – close up of man’s face introduced – camera is in cupboard
• Mid shot shows family – introduces them as charecters
• Very few shots used – mostly titles – doesn’t give to much of the plot away
• Pace of music starts of slow - increases after the main title -therefore is very effective

From analysing these three thriller film openings, The Sixth Sense, The Village and Lady in the Water by M. Night. Shyamalan, I have learnt that they all include the following:

• Quite music – creates suspense - gradually builds up in pace and volume - common to the thriller genre
• Sound before action – creates suspense – builds impact
• White titles over dark black background
• Long held first shot – helps the audience to identify the main character and engage with them
• Very few shots used – mostly titles – doesn’t give to much of the plot away
• Pace of music starts of slow - increases after the main title - therefore is very effective
• Main focus on one particular character in beginning of opening- this character has the longest amount screen time

In conclusion this activity has made our group reconsider some of our choices on sound and shots in our opening. As a group we believe that we can make some huge improvements to our work, e.g. by changing our background sound as it is too much and very in your face rather than following the common conventions of quiet ambience sound that gradually builds up. As well as this, also from analysing these three thriller openings it has become clear to the group that our opening is deficient in slow pace music in order to build up suspense, consists of to many shots, giving to much of the plot away and finally isn’t creating as an effective amount of suspense as it could do with a few changes.