Analysing 'Splice'.

The opening sequence of Splice is ambiguous and intriguing and doesn’t give you any idea of what the film is about. The camera is travelling in what it looks like underwater bubbly substance, and goes across an unknown object that seems to be of a green colour. The use of tracking makes the audience feel like they are looking on the surface of this object and are exploring it so that they can find out what it looks like themselves. Because we don’t know what it is, the audience may become fearful or wary of what the object may actually be. The green colour of the object may suggest that the object is unknown, perhaps an alien. All the shots are close up, except for the end when we start to see the object move, indicating it is alive. The use of close up helps the audience get to know the object, but may also make them fearful of what is around it. All the shots are dark, which creates a scary sort of tone, and the only source of light is when we are looking at the item. This shows that there is a sense of unknown within the object.

The only sound that can be heard is music, which is non-diegetic. This music is slow, with some fast parts where the music builds up on itself. The main source of the music is piano, which creates a spooky sort of tone but also makes the object seem unknown. The music is quite jumpy and builds up a sense that something may happen within the film to this item that the music is based around. The music doesn’t give anything away, which would make the audience question their actions and what’s going to happen. As the object starts moving, or beating, the music builds up as to make the audience think that your actually going to see something happen, but then it quietens down again and the audience realises they have to wait for something to happen.

The titles in the title sequence are a mixture of typewriter text that has been superimposed over the opening scene, and text that is built into the green object. The actor’s names have been placed into the green object, which implies that the characters have something to do with the creation of this underwater animal. The crew names, such as the director and editor, are in typewriter text superimposed over the opening scene and this shows that the crew perhaps has something to do with a report on the creature. All the texts that are in the green object are just made into 3d, and give the audience something to question.

The editing in this scene makes sure that the cuts are not jumpy and are continuous. The editing does not play a big part in this title sequence, as you don’t need to look too much into the cuts as there are none. The biggest piece of editing is the titles that are built into the green creature.

From watching the opening of ‘Splice’ I have realised that it’s okay for title sequences to be ambiguous and you don’t necessarily have to show the characters within the storyline. I also realised that although you are not seeing any characters as such, you can still follow a story line. I see that you shouldn’t put too much into the opening sequence, but also not to make it too long otherwise the audience may become bored. I have also learnt that the titles need to fit in with the sequence and cannot be a random font.

The video I used does not seem to come up when I search, as the Embedding code has been disabled.