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.

Improvements Discussed By The Group

Improvements we discussed as a group:
- Production Company with a very quiet sound of running water in the background
- Move titles to the beginning
- Remove music - maybe introduce it at the character
- Increase the length of the shot of the eye or move the shot
- Titles after Jonny washes his hands?
- Replace music with an ambiguous music
- Creshendo music at the end
- More focus on Jonny and his environment. More shots - less of Abbie.
- Music is overpowering - make it more subtle
- Slower zoom to the door
- Move the tilt of Jonny before he washes his hands
- Hold the shot of Jonny looking in the mirror (1-2 seconds longer)
- Running shots are ineffective - remove.
- Use different angle of shots for Jonny
- Jonny - show where he's going as he leaves the bathroom. Follow him into a room
- Include a mirror in the room - reflection of Abbie seen - links in with the title
- Shorter flash backs

Group Practical Feedback

Here is a copy of the feedback our group received from our teacher regarding the first draft of our two minute film opening, Reflections.


Mark: 38
Level 3
Grade: C/D

Feedback:
- Camera work is controlled and steady throughout most of the extract
- Framing of shots is mostly well conceived with elements included / excluded as appropriate
- Shot distances are varied throughout the extract
- The material is appropriate to the task set, however it becomes quite repetitive. This results in the later half of the extract losing focus.
- Mise-en-scene has been clearly thought out with effective use of location choice, colour and lighting throughout the extract.
- Editing is competent - there is considerable scope for improvement here which will also improve pace and continuity. Particularly, in the development of the duel narrative.
- Shot transitions are effective but need to be better timed towards the later stages of the extract.
- Both diegetic and non-diegetic sound have been used effectively throughout the extract. However, as the editing falters towards the end of the extract, the match-on-action loses focus making the mood of the extract inconsistent.
- Titles are well made and feel appropriate to the genre, however they could be more evenly paced across the extract.

Targets for improvement:
- You need to include Production Company etc. at the beginning and hold a single frame of black for longer.
- I also recommend introducing the running water sound earlier and even more gradual - raising the volume very slowly - this will develop the mood of your opening more effectively.
- Later you have lost your way - some poor choices of shots have been included.
- Also, some shots need to be held for longer.
- Your titles need to be more evenly spread across the piece.
- Finally, you need to add more focus on to the antagonist as that is whom you are trying to establish.

Reflections - First Draft

This is the first draft for our two-minute thriller opening, which we titled ‘Reflections.’ We had to change the name of our thriller from our original idea, which was ‘Portraits of Obsession.’ This was due to the fact we cut out the shots liking this title to the narrative of the film to the title. We originally had shots of our main male character looking at a wall of pictures of his target, the female character. We decided on the name Reflections which was suggested to us by another group member and agreed by our teacher which they linked to one of our new shots in which the main male character looks in the mirror seeing his reflection, thus prompting and reinforcing the name reflections, hence he was directly looking into the camera.