analysing film of choice

Today I watched a thriller film of my choice. I watched ‘Phonebooth’ directed by Joel Schumacher, made in 2003 , starring Colin Farell, Forest Whitaker and Kiefer Sutherland. The title sequence included digital writing, which faded into the sky. The title sequence was not eary in any way and the background music was a man singing about a telephone operator. This gave an indication that the film will be based on or around technology in some way. There were many different shots including birds eye (which showed the city), close ups, long shots, high angles and worms eye view. The shots start off where the title sequence is moving through the sky, as the clouds disappear you can see the sky which then has a satellite flowing past the camera, then the camera focuses on a view on the Earth , which then zooms into a part of the earth, which zooms into a city, which then zooms further into a city street. This is very cleverly done and already takes you on a journey from outer space to earth. The camera uses quick movements, it zooms in and out on different people on the street, all the focus of the camera is on technology focusing on people using phones, or some sort of technology based object. The camera uses different speeds including fast, slow and normal. The generic themes include a narrative structure of a man doing a voice over giving information about technology, use of phones, networks etc. The use of sound is non-digetic and digetic, phones ringing are digetic and the men singing but there is non-digetic music which is a type of technological beat which runs through the whole sequence. There is a busy setting which is a Manhattan city, its naturalistic with everyone going about their everyday jobs or duties. All costumes are just every day wear. After watching ‘Se7en’ and ‘Momento’ this was a very different opening sequence and I don’t think it was as effective, during the first three minutes the viewer was not introduced to any characters, although in some ways this was effective as viewers knew the film was based on some sort of technology but did not know any of the characters so in some ways it leaves the viewers wondering what’s going to happen next. It keeps the suspense going much longer than ‘Se7en’ and ‘Momento’.