Thriller - Red Dragon

Analyse how the film’s opening establishes genre conventions and reaches target audiences through technical codes, narrative and characterisation

Red Dragon is a thriller film with elements of horror. Red Dragon is a prequel to The Silence of the Lambs, although it was filmed later and released in 2002 and directed by Brett Ratner. It had a budget of $78 million and made $209 million at the box office. The film is about is a retired FBI agent who has psychological gifts and is assigned to help track down a serial killer known as ‘The Tooth Fairy’ who is helped along the way by a criminal genius who is imprisoned called Hannibal Lecter.

The film starts with a wide shot of a theatre in which you can see the audience and the stage with what looks like an orchestra on; the diegetic music accompanying this scene is what the orchestra are playing. There is then a series of close up shots on the people playing the various instruments including some close up shots on the instruments themselves there is also cuts to the conductor. The cuts go in time with the different points in the music and increase in frequency and tempo alongside the song.  The camera then zooms in past the conductor to give a view of the audience as the camera tracks down the proceeds to zoom in on one of the characters until the camera is close up to them. The character then winks, the camera then switches between him and a person on the stage each time it does this it gets closer to each of them before cutting to a scene of a house. This scene showed the audience the importance that this character will play throughout the film and will leave them wondering about what he is capable of as well as what will happen to the man he winked at.

The next scene is in a dining room, the man is standing up giving the appearance of a low angle which shows his dominance and importance compared to all the other characters who are sitting down and therefore on a lower level. The camera pans around the table as he is walking round it and then cuts to a close up on him. There is dialogue between him and another character which again highlights the low angle on him. There is no non-diegetic sound accompanying this scene this is because they wanted the audience to listen to what is being said as well as understand how important the man is. When the characters start talking amongst themselves there is a focus pull on him which shows he is the most important one in the scene whilst the look on his face suggests that he knows something that the others do not. The audience become aware of the importance of the character throughout this scene as well as see that perhaps he has something to hide that that other people aren’t aware off. Whilst this scene isn’t overly thrilling to watch the audience see more of a story and learn about the characters, which is key.

The next scene starts with a close up on a cup and saucer before you see a view of the dining area, a doorbell then rings. There is a shot reverse shot between the two characters although it looks like over the shoulder shots too.  There is dialogue between the two characters whilst they are sitting down shot reverse shot is used again through much of this scene with each one getting more close up. Towards the end of the conversation non-diegetic sound begins to play which gradually increases in volume suggesting that something could happen soon in the film. The audience will also use the soundtrack of understanding that something could happen as well as to notice the change in atmosphere in the scene. This is also conventional of the thriller genre as a way to build up a scene. As one character leaves the room the other gets up and starts looking around. There is close ups on various props while the soundtrack continues to play but is now getting louder the camera pans showing them. The soundtrack increases in tempo and frequency as he picks up a book there is another close up on his face before he opens the book and then the camera zooms in on a section of the page quite quickly. There is a quick cut back to his face before back to the book and then the other character comes behind him and stabs him. The audience would expect a scene to build up before anything happens as this increases the thrill of the film and build the tension and suspense.

Overall this film shows the conventions by using a variety of close ups and camera angles that help to both build up the story and add to the experience for the audience watching it. The soundtrack almost acts as a warning for the audience to make them suspect that something is going to happen.  A lot of close ups are used throughout the opening scenes to show importance but subtly suggest something is going to or may already be happening which is very conventional to the genre.