Research into existing products - Halloween opening.

 Halloween was made in 1978 and directed by John Carpenter, who also directed the likes of Assault on Precinct 13 and The Thing.

Halloween was an American independent horror film set in the fictional Caucasian, middle class, suburban town of Haddonfield, Illinois, USA, on the evening of Halloween.

On the eve of Halloween, a psychotic murderer known as Michael Myers who was institutionalized since his childhood for the murder of his sister, escapes and unleashes a mindless rampage on the town while his doctor chases him around Haddonfield, trying to stop his rampage.

It was produced on a budget of $320,000 and it grossed $47 million at the box office in the US.

It has been credited to be the first of the 'slasher' films, inspired by Alfred Hitchcocks, Psycho (1960).
This film inspired low budget horror film cliches in the 1980s and 1990s.

To begin the opening, we are faced with a black screen and we hear the non-diegetic sound of the famous 'Halloween' theme, a childlike composition of piano keys repeating over and over again, mixing in with occasional low piano notes.

We first see the Compass International Pictures company logo, as they distributed the film, which turns from yellow to red, which are the colour associated with the time of Halloween.

The titles appear in a certain order, first the producer, (Moustapha Akkad), then the main star actor Donald Pleasence, (who plays Michaels doctor), then to the director, (John Carpenter) which then leads to the film title, of 'Halloween' and because it is the main production, it has a bigger, bold, dominant title, then another reference to John Carpenter.

All of the titles appear in yellow or orange, then fade to red, possibly to represent the blood that will be spilt in the storyline, or a theme of death throughout, or to give an obvious element of horror.

While these titles appear, a pumpkin with a candle inside it, is to the left of the screen and the shot begins with a Long Shot of the pumpkin, but as the titles proceed, the pumpkin gets closer to the screen until we end up in an Extreme Close Up of the pumpkins eye before it flickers out. This zoom is done quite slowly, for a dramatic effect and to draw you gradually to the pumpkin more and more. Adding an obvious Halloween theme, but making the dark atmosphere more eery, as it would often scare little children as they'd find it disturbing.

As the opening scene begins we hear children singing a rhyme, giving a more eerie feel to the gloomy sequence that will follow. We are then thrown into a subjective point of view shot, starting from a long shot, of a typical suburban house, the camera moves forward as we move closer and closer to the house, hearing nothing but silence and the diegetic sound of crickets in the background. It's night time, it's very dark outside and there isn't much to view around the house.
As the camera reaches the front door of the house, through the glass we can see a young couple kissing each other, we then hear the diegetic sounds of the couple playing around and talking to each other. The camera pans to the right, where we see the same pumpkin that was shown earlier, sitting on the porch. The camera continues to pan until we're at the side of the house, peeking through the window, where we again see the couple kissing and making jokes lit by the artificial light of the TV. The couple then turn off the TV and run upstairs, still laughing.
Then the camera pans from right to left, deciding to move left this time, surrounded by pitch black, we reach the porch again, the camera then tilts upwards to show an upstairs bedroom, when the couple turn off said bedroom light, we hear the non-diegetic sound of a chime, which is almost childlike.
The chime now stays constant but quietens slightly as the camera tracks back behind the house, still in subjective POV and in the darkness.

We are then walking into the house, which is pitch black, we can see the outlines of paintings on the wall and general furniture, it just looks like any other home, which gives it a sense of reality and horror to the audience. Suddenly a series of keyboard notes can be heard, not following into a tune, just the constant beating of a keyboard / piano note, again, sounding childlike and basic.

A light is turned on and the camera pans to a kitchen draw, here the camera blurs for a minute while a hand in a green sleeved costume picks up a giant kitchen knife. The camera pans back up and to the left as we slowly move now through a dining room, full of ordinary items. When we reach the hallway, the chimes and keyboard notes are now welcomed by the diegetic sound of a ticking clock.

The camera stops at the stairway, where we see one character of the couple, Brad, putting on his shirt and making his way downstairs and out of the door, as we pan diagonally to the left. We now make our way, shakily, which shows everything is not okay, up the stairway as the diegetic sound of church bells can be heard from outside.
The camera pans to the floor of a badly lit room from natural light at night time, here a childlike hand picks up a mask off the floor. The church bells have stopped now, but the chimes still carry on.This mask is then placed over the camera, this hinders our vision a little and we are now seeing out of two eye holes, this is the first hint to the audience, that we are looking through the eyes of the person that just picked up the mask.

Still on the floor we see scattered clothes, as the camera pans up and out into another room, we see a naked girl, the other character of the young couple at her dressing table, as soon as we do, we hear that non-diegetic loud chime that we originally heard when the bedroom light turned off.
The camera pans right and down to see a messy bed, with scattered sheets as we move closer to the girl, she the notices and speaks to our character, panicked and worried.
We then hear a loud, bellowing, almost trumpet like noise as we move in-front of her, our character then stabs said girl with a knife as we hear her screams and the camera pans upward to see the knife jabbing back and forth through the air. The camera then pans down to see the girl lifeless on the floor, covered in blood.
We suddenly hear diegetic heavy breathing from our character as the bellowing music stops but the keyboard notes begin again.

Our character then moves out of the room and down the stairways, to open the door. Once outside we hear and see a car rolling up to the house. We then hear an adult say, 'Mike?' The camera then switches off from being a POV, now we see a mid shot of a young boy in a clown outfit with the knife, with his worried parents beside him. The camera then zooms outwards and upwards to a long shot of the family unit as the music reaches a dramatic climax and the scene ends.