Thriller Opening Research - Dan Fairhall (3 of 4)

Die Hard 4.0 - Len Wiseman (2007)

Camera:

• Uses a lot of close ups and slow moving shots to create a sense of suspense and it has you wondering from the very start just what is happening in the sequence as you are not show what is happening.
• when we are introduced to the John McLain character be can see from the shot reverse shots that show a normal life.

Editing:

• although the shots are slow the editing makes the pace of the cuts at the very start makes the sequence speed up and shows thriller aspects but not of an opening but of a disequilibrium or a confrontation.
• when the sequence with John McLain the pace slows down and shows more aspects of thriller openings. with the use of shot reverse shot dialogue and sound bridges in the confrontation.

Sound:

• The Sound is mainly Non-diegetic soundtrack to create suspense and build drama when the characters are hacking into computer systems.
• The sound is also on screen for the dialogue and then it is also off screen for dialogue and some of the sounds of the keyboard being typed on

Mise en Scene:

• the costume of the hackers is what you would expect as they are not in a contradictory costume and you can see that they seem to be young males.
• when we are shown the John McLain character we can see that he is in the typical costume of a detective policeman. 
• the lighting is also typical of the place in which a character like this would operate.

the way that these areas make the film conform to the thriller genre is by creating a sense of disequilibrium for the start. I also feel that it is easier to distinguish this as a thriller because it is a franchise film and we know that the other films in the franchise are also stylistically Triller.