Hurtwood Thriller Opening -"Target"

What is your understanding of the action in the sequence. What is happening?

From the opening of the thriller "Target" you firstly start to listen to a non-diagetic soundtrack in the scene which builds the idea of suspense and tension in the atmosphere and mood of the sequence indicating how something bad is about to happen. A window of the house is forced open showing how the person trying to get in is not welcomed, plus with their clothing being all black, it gives the audience a huge indication of a burglar or criminal. The presumable owner of the house, due to the picture frame shown in one of the shots of the same person, is fast asleep upstairs with the shot of the clock informing you that it is early in the morning increasing tension in the atmosphere. Downstairs in the broken into house, the intruder starts too look through documents and letters left on the side hinting how they are there for a specific purpose and trying to find something in the house. But once they have found what their looking for with a sheet of paper, the intruder starts to head upstairs towards the asleep owner in the bedroom indicating that they have not completed their planned task. Once the intruder has entered the bedroom, the shot cuts to their boots waking towards the bed, then the alarm clock starts to go off waking up the sleepy owner. As the owner reaches for the clock on his bedside table, the intruder gets there first using their finger to turn it off causing a black out and end of the sequence leaving you with a cliff-hanger of suspense of what is going to happen next.

What do you think the rest of the film might be about?

From the sequence I believe that the rest of the film will be about a murder in a victims own home with an investigation showing what the intruder/murderer wanted so much to commit such a crime, linking with the stolen piece of paper in the opening title sequence. The film will focus mainly on the investigation but during it will explore a much more wider story giving an explanation of why the situation occurred.


What is your view on the casting? Have they chosen convincing actors? (not necessarily in terms of their acting but in terms of their suitability for the role/the right look etc.)
Well, for the character of the intruder you never clearly see their face of have a full body shot only parts of their bodies like their boots or hands, apart from the shot on the stairs where it shows how they are dressed head to toe in black clothing. Due to the shape of the body you would assume that the character is a male but the way they are shot in the sequence is well portrayed to create the sense of a criminal/intruder. The other character is the owner who is clearly showed with his sleeping in his bed. I think they have chosen a convincing character for the owner as he portrays a typical normal family man sleeping innocently in his home.

Are the characters interesting?
The main characters that captures your attention the most would be the intruder in the house as they are the ones performing the actions in the sequence, resulting in capturing the audience's attention on the screen and keeping it throughout the sequence.

If there is dialogue, what do you think of it?
In this sequence there is no dialogue which adds to the tension on the screen with the sound bridge and music chosen.

What do you make of the camera work, editing, sound, how convincing is the mise en scene?
The camera work used to create this sequence was well done due to the result in creating tension on the screen. The sound is very non-diagetic which really helped to create the mood and atmosphere of suspense and something sinister with the heavy music, really catching the audiences attention and keeping it on the screen. All the close up shots with the intruder showing his actions helps to give an indication on whats happening or whats about to happen as there is no dialogue used, also adding more tension to the scene as well. A bit of criticism about the sequence would be that the build up of tension and shots with the intruders actions does tend to drag on a little bit which has the risk of losing some of the audiences attention, so maybe quicker and neater editing of the shots can be done to help the flow of the sequence work well together.