Sixth Sense Opening Sequence Analysis

Youtube Sixth Sense Opening.

The Title of the film

The sixth sense title refers to the sense the boy has that enables him to see 'dead people'. if you had not seen this film before you would be intrigued by the title as you would want to know the sense that it refers to which would entice potential audiences.


Setting/location

The film opens in the basement of the families home, we appear to be spying on the lady as she picks out a bottle of wine to celebrate her husbands achievement. the house the film opens in is a very posh American house (8). we can tell that it is American because of their accents and we also know it is a posh household as we can tell from the size and their costumes (4).


Costumes

The costumes seen are very typical of posh people as they are very smart but we can tell the characters are not comfortable in their dining clothes as they change into a sweater and the female covers up. The costume of the previous patient is very clever as he is only in his briefs, this makes the audience feel uncomfortable and we can tell it makes the characters uncomfortable, it also helps to show the character is disturbed.






Camera work/editing

In this opening sequence there are a lot of closeups of the characters (1)(2)(12) which helps to show their emotion and show the audience that something is up (12)but some mid shots are also used to show how the characters feel about each other (4). I think it is very effective where the shadow of the character in the bathroom passes over the other two characters and they then both react and we see their facial expressions (9). There are no unusual editing techniques in this opening like 'Momento' but i think that the normal cutting of shots is very effective for this style of opening sequence.

Title font/style

The titles role onto the screen in a light blue on a black background like 'Momento' apart from the title of the film 'gleans' to catch the attendance of the audience. Again, the titles are all in capitals which make them stand out but are in a very simplistic, old font. The font is not important in this film as it is just there to announce who was involved in the film and has no major significance.

Story - how it sets up film

The rest of the film, like the sequence, leaves the audience confused and intrigued in the plot of the story. the opening sets up the film very well as the audience would never expect the ending, but the opening sequence does lead to it. Although the opening sequence is very good, i feel that the rest of the film lets it down as it is not as gripping as the opening.






Genre - show how opening suggests it
We can tell that the film is a thriller as the opening throws you straight into the action and then progresses with the story. Also, it involves some of the key thriller opening elements such as the first scene (2) where the audience appear to be spying on the lady as she gets a bottle of wine. The music at the beginning also suggests it is a thriller as it is very mysterious and chilling which settles the audience before they are sucked into the world created by the film.


How characters are introduced.

The characters are introduced to the audience in the sirst shot. But, typically of a thriller no information is revealed about them until the next scene when the dialogue begins (3)(4). Slowly as the characters are revealed we, the audience, begin to gain a view of there past such as when the character (11) appears in the bathroom we discover that although the main character recieved an award for helping children he isnt able to help all his patients but he does remember them.


Special shots/effects
In this opening i think that shot (1) was very effective as it is a very artistic shot but it also gets the audience questioning what is going on on. I feel this is very effective as it is a nice shiot and it works in creating a spooky atmosphere along with the next shot (2) which suggests the audience are watching her from the shadows again creating a spooky feeling.