Analysing Thriller/Mystery Opening Sequences - 'Now You See Me'

'Now You See Me'

• Starts off with an extreme close up of one of the main characters
• He is breaking the fourth wall staring right into the camera, which is a point-of-view shot of the girl opposite
• The camera focuses on the deck of cards, blurring out his face, so the audience move their concentration to the cards instead (suggesting manipulation, a common theme in the genre)
• He asks the girl lots of questions in a quizzative and confident tone
• The lighting is split so half of his face is much darker giving us the impression that he is not fully trustworthy
• There is intense fast-paced non-diegetic music playing, creating mystery
• The camera tilts upwards showing a worms-eye-view of a building (unusual angles are common in thrillers)
• It then changes to a birds-eye-view showing the city and all the cards falling down on the people cheering and clapping, suggesting they are being controlled and manipulated
• This introduces the first character telling us that he is a very talented magician
• The non-diegetic music transitions to an upbeat celebratory tune
• There is then a transition to the next character
• As he says "look into my eyes" the camera zooms out of a photo of him when he was younger to show him in the present, giving the idea that he used to be famous and now he is older he's unrecognisable, making the audience wonder if something happened to him
• He speaks in quite a passive-aggressive tone making us think that he is antagonising the other man
• He appears to be patronising and wanting to show that he has power and something over the other people
• His character is presented as rude and talented at hypnotising people
• There is then another transition to an establishing shot of a yellow boat in the sea
• The third character is shown as a confident, cocky personality as he gets the people on the boat to gather round him to watch him bend a spoon, risking losing money if they can figure out the trick
• The crowd claps and cheers showing that he is impressive
• He then gets humbled as someone figures out how he bent the spoon, but quickly takes back power as he pickpockets that person
• He uses a defeated tone, trying to trick everyone that he is sad and it wasn't his plan to lose (again, manipulation)
• The last scene transitions into a woman in front of a big crowd that are shouting and cheering making us as viewers wonder what she is going to do
• She gets handcuffed and jumps into a water tank risking drowning as it gets filled with piranhas
• The camera switches back and forth between the clock and the woman in the tank, creating tension and panic (crosscutting is a common technique in thrillers)
• Fast-paced and dramatic non-diegetic music starts playing and the audience shout worriedly showing that she is in danger and that she was meant to be out before the time runs out
• This makes us want to keep watching as we are unsure how they are all connected and how they ended up in those positions