Student Opening Analysis - The Grove

I chose to analyse this film opening because it stands out in comparison to the other student films; which nearly all resemble a 'The Grudge' type character who eats human meat and is smothered in blood. I chose to analyse 'The Grove' because it reminds me very much of the popular film Arlington Road (1999) which is a discrete title sequence in the fact that the opening is stylized and very edited giving a creepy and chilly effect without even seeing a dead body or blood everywhere and The Grove has instilled this into its opening very effectively.

The opening starts off with the expected Production company introduced first; the shot here is stylized and looks very creepy, the tree stands out the most in this shot.

Straight away we are introduced to the director which makes a nice subtle change to the director always coming last. The effect of the stylized edit makes the leaves look blood soaked and eery.

In this shot the water drips upwards; they filmed the water dripping and then reversed it and the outcome is brilliant and I would consider using this in my own film opening. However, the font colour change i do not agree with because it looks unprofessional and contrasts greatly with the preceding shots.

I like how twice they get a shot of the streets name but in different types of shots and edits; this is similar to what 'Arlington Road; does. The fact that 'The Grove' is shot twice emphasizes that it is imperative to the film opening.

The shot fading into another shot looks really good and adds a spooky supernatural element to the film opening. It shows that this is a thriller without having to use the obvious blood and gore.

I really like this shot because it looks very artistic.

The fact that the film title came last in the opening would mean they were definitely given a lower mark and i would have suggested putting the film title somewhere between the stylized shot over shot or just before the dripping water. I think this is the only real drawback of their entire film opening and I would have given it a very high mark overall if I had to mark their piece.