The Machinist is a psychological thriller starring Christian Bale and I have chosen to look at this film because it is mysterious, dark and enigmatic which I what I would our finish opening sequence to be like. I originally saw the opening scene in class and got me interested in the dark thriller genre.
The opening sequence of The Machinist begins with an outside view at night, showing a man in his home rolling up another person in a large rug. This poses many enigmas such as: who is he? What is he rolling someone up in a rug? and Has he killed them? While this is happening you can hear mysterious music in playing in background which creates tension and leaves the viewer in suspense.
When he finished rolling the person up he walks over to a table and puts a cigarette in his mouth, he then comes close to the window allowing us to get close up of his face. As he smokes his cigarette he looks out of the window almost paranoid as if he is watching out for someone. Enigmas that are created from this include; is he looking for someone? Is he being spied on? What is he going to do with the person in the rug?
The scene changes to a setting near a large body of water; still night time we get a sense that something bad is happening, we then see Christian Bale park his car near the water and drag out the body from his car. We see that he is struggling carrying the body to the water and makes us question why he is struggling, we then get a close up shot of his face which is looks beaten and painful. The Music is quite scary and fits well with the scene as it emphasises the feeling that something bad is happening, Christian Bale then spots someone with a torch approaching him. He then tries to quickly get rid of the body by dumping it into the water; however, the body gets caught on some rocks which intensifies the situation as we need to know if can get rid of the body before the person comes. He goes down on the rocks and manages to get rid of the body. Relieved, Christian Bale returns to his car but gets stopped by the man with the torch who questions him about who he is and what he's doing, here the light illuminates Bale's face and we can clearly see the marks and bruises on his beaten head.
The scene quickly changed and we see Bale in a bathroom washing his hands in a sink. What grabs our interest though is the fact he is using bleach to clean his hands. This further suggests he has done something bad and keeps the enigma fresh in our mind of what has he done?
The use of low key lighting is effective and contributes well to the overall dark psychological thriller aspect of the film; also, the use of dark, gritty isolated places make this film more thrilling. The main character looks like he is from the thriller genre as he is beaten, looks as if he has been up to bad things and has a twisted personality about him.
From this I can take away and apply the dark psychological themes to my final film which will be a psychological thriller. The use of low key lighting to convey the mystery and fear of situation can be applied to my film and hopefully will be as effective as it is in 'The Machinist'. The use of close ups is also something I can implement in my film as it shows the emotion of the character and build tension.
This has some good specific close reading on the clip, Jack, and maybe just needs some reflection at the end on why you think this is good and how it does everything an opening needs to do. Reflect, too, on what you can take from this to try and incorporate in your own work.
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