Examining the opening scene of Orphan:

As a homework assignment we were asked look at the opening scene of a thriller and answer some questions about it. We were asked to take a print screen to back up the points we are making. I chose the psychological thriller called Orphan, before watching this film I googled it to see what it was about.

A brief description of the film from www.IMDb.com reads:

"A husband and wife who recently lost their

 baby adopt a 9-year-old girl who

 is not nearly as innocent as she

 claims to be."

The questions we were asked to answer were:

What is expected from the film by what information you are given in the opening scene?
What makes it a Thriller?
What atmosphere, moods and feelings are presented?

Right from the start. Even at the menu's Orphan shows that there is a dark side to this film. The hidden message might be that things are not always what they seem because the menu flashes from being a very normal film menu to a dark and twisted sight. The music used at the backing track for the menu is very violent and created a creepy atmosphere:

These dark effects are also used in the production company logo's this will set the mood for the film making the audience feel a little on edge as to what might happen:

The use of red in the menu may make the audience expect murder or blood and violence of some sort.

In the opening scene we see blood which makes the audience expect murder, a pregnant woman which may lead the audience to believe that there will be children within the film:

The use of blood will may make the audience feel a little scared and start them asking questions about why there is a blooded baby? ect.

Other questions the audience will be asking through out the scene is why is the husband recording the womans miscarriage, this is unusual:

There are other odd elements to the film like the blurring lights, and the exposure of some shots:

The blurring lights and the strange way the doctors/husband are acting as well at the creepy backing track all make the atmosphere eery and mysterious which are key conventions found in thrillers this and the fact that the audience do not know exactly whats going on which keeps them guessing all add to the reason that this film has been categorized as a thriller. 

The mood throughout this scene is uncomfortable and weird, because of effects like the blurred lights. 

What the audience might expect from this film is violence/murder ect.

From watching this and anaylising it i have learnt that the use of lighting and lighting effects such as blurring in Thrillers can create moods and set atmospheres such as mystery. And that an eery sound-track can do the same thing.