Character Comparison

We decided to look at the main character in the film Shutter Island and use his personality and the way he is represented in the film. Leonardo DiCaprio's character Teddy, is very deluded and wary of his surroundings. He seems to be quite depressed and doesn't know what is going on. We decided to make Matt's Character (The main character) reflect his personality and act in the way that Teddy does in Shutter Island. As Shutter Island is based in 1954, the clothing worn could not be considered for the main character, so we decided for him to wear casual clothes, yet with a hint of the "emo" look to represent his personality and that he is distressed in some way. We looked at the way DiCaprio's personality is shown and tried to represent Matt's character like this also, with the way he walks and even the way he looks around at everything suspiciously.

Mise-en-scene

We have put a lot of thought into mise-en-scene for our opening sequence. We will use appropriate props, clothing, locations and much more.
We will use a ball for the first flashback to add realism to the clip, giving the impression that the two were once friends and had played football together previously.


We will use other props, like tomato ketchup for example to create the impression that the second character (the ghost) is dead. We will spread the tomato ketchup on the floor underneath his head.



We have thought about the costumes both of the characters are going to be wearing. There are two seperate days involved in the opening sequence as well as the flashbacks so we need to have in mind that the main character needs to be wearing different clothing per scene; The second character (the ghost) only appears once, apart from the scene he appears to be dead in a flashback, which means whatever clothing he is wearing don't matter.
He should be wearing casual clothes, like jeans and a shirt for example because the target audience can then relate to the character as they are young adult males and male teenagers. He should have a hint of the "emo" look to show his character is emotional and depressed.
The second character should wear dark clothing, perhaps a hood to connote darkness and help to reveal what type of character he is.

The type of hoody character two will be wearingThis is the type of clothing the main character will be wearing.

All of the locations we will be using we have decided are right for our film, making sure they set the scene for a thriller movie.

Analysis of the opening of Shutter Island

Shutter Island is a Psychological thriller about a police detective, who investigates the suspicious happenings in a mysterious island, and then the story takes a huge twist and we uncover that this police detective was mentally disturbed and had imagined the whole investigation in his mind. I would like my film opening to take certain aspects of this, and then change it to something that will be well suited and relatable to my 15-30 male target audience.

In the opening of Shutter Island the audience firstly sees an interesting visual image of a large boat coming forward through a thick fog. The creepy boat like music enhances the suspense and tension in the opening. This is followed by the audience seeing a character which is assumed to be the protagonist of the film in a ship’s toilet throwing up. The eerie, misty atmosphere from the low key lighting creates a sense of mystery for the audience. As the scene continues there are various long establishing shots of the ship and the island that the ship is travelling to, to show the audience the surroundings and inform them more details of the storyline, but still protecting the enigma in the story. Later in the scene there is a brief flashback which is shown with a quick cut into a contrasting lighting with an unknown female character.

All these aspects will be very interesting to use in my own film opening, such as the first interesting scenary/establishing shot, flashbacks, creepy music and the use of various lighting.

The screenshot above is a flashback and the screenshot above this is present time. The difference in lighting is very important as it helps the audience to distinguish between the two time periods. This can also show the different emotional atmosphere. The present time is quite dark which connotes a dark mood, where as the flashbacks suggest it is a happier time in the flashback because the lighting is brighter.