Halloween was created in 1978, it is a horror film in which a mad killer escapes and goes back to his hometown on halloween and terrorieses people by killing people and breaking into peoples houses and scaring them before killing them. The first thing that happens is you hear a piano being played at the start, the music is self sounds rather creepy and builds tension before you even see any footage. You then see a title come on, the colour of the font is orange, I think it is this colour as it is the colour of the light that comes from a pumpkin when you put a candle inside it. It then fades and another title fades in with someones name on this time with the same colour font. This then fades away and on the black background a pumpkin fades in, it fits in with the titles as it is the same colour. Next to the pumpkin then fades in an actors name, then the producer and then the title of the film, "Halloween". It then fades away and carries on with some more titles until 2.04 when instead of orange writing, white writing fades on it is the name of a place in america, as this is where the film is set, not only that but you can hear what sounds like children repeating a halloween riddle, this builds effect and helps the viewer to understand what is going on within the shot. It then fades to the title and date of "Halloween 1963", the first shot then comes in after this. It is brought in very cleverly as it looks like the effect 'wipe on' has been used but in reality the camera was filming a tree at the start with track movement to the left and it passes the tree, allowing the rest of the scene to be seen and a house comes into view. The camera starts to move towards the house and in the background you can hear an owl, this adds to the effect of spookiness as the noise an owl makes is usually thought of being quite scary. The camera walks up to the steps and you see some movement inside, not being able to see what is going on clearly as the blinds are down makes the scene scarier. The camera then starts to walk around the back of the house, on the corner of the porch is a pumpkin suggesting to the audience it is halloween. The camera then looks in the window as if it is a real person, almost spying on the couple that is kissing inside. The couple then go upstairs and the camera looks at a widow on the second floor. When the light in one of the rooms go out a creepy sound suddenly occurs, it makes the viewer jump a bit, and suggests that something is about to happen. By now the viewer can clearly tell that this is a horror film from the creepy first scene. The camera then walks into the house from round the back and you see a hand pick up a large knife. From here you can tell the camera is from the perspective of someone, making you think that the characters life you are witnessing is a bit weird as they were spying on the couple. The character then goes upstairs and the music starts getting louder and wierder. Then the character picks up a clown mask and puts it on. This is scary as you are seeing through the eyes of a possible killer. I think a clown mask was used as many people are scared of clowns and they are very strange, this could represent the character and the fact that he should be feared. Through the mask you see the character walk into a girls room, who is half naked brushing her hair and singing, seeing through the mask is scary as you think the possible killer is going to kill the girl as they are staring at them and sneaking up. It also builds more tension by the way the girl doesn't realise the character is sneaking up on her. The girl then turns round to scream the characters name, 'Micheal' to then get stabbed by him several times. You then see the girl fall to the floor, so you presume that the girl is going to die and 'Micheal' is the killer of the story. Then this is the end of the first 6 minutes. This starting scene is very good as it uses very clever methods to build tension and also a very clever camera angle and movement, putting the audience in the shoes of the killer, this is clever as it scares the audience reminding them that the killer is actually a normal person. The music is used very well to build tension by using slow creepy noises and music then a short blast of quicker music to frighten the viewer. In conclusion this opening 6 minutes is very good.
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