Thriller Analysis: Out of class 3

Gone Girl:

Gone Girl is a thriller of which was directed by David Fincher in 2014. The film Gone Girl is about a guy named Nick Dunne who returns home on his fifth wedding anniversary to find his wife Amy to be missing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VODaDc-dnT8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyYkttbnPK0

The opening scene for Gone Girl includes a title sequence at the beginning to establish what is happening. This then continues into the film, where the acting and dialogue takes place. 

Titles that appear in the extract:

•  Twentieth Century Fox and Regency Enterprises 
• A David FIncher FIlm
• Ben Affleck 
• Rosemund Pike 
• Gone Girl 
• Neil Patrick Harris
• Tyler Perry 
• Kim Dickens, Patrick Fugit 
• David Glennon, Lisa Banes 
• Casting By Larry Mayfield, CSA
• Music BY Trent Benznor and Atticus Ross 
• Costume Designer Trish Summerville
• Production Designer DOnald Graham Burt 
• Executive Producer Leslie Dixon and Bruna Papandrea
• Produced By Cean Chaffin and Joshua Donen 
• Screenplay By Gillian Flynn 
• July 5th, The Morning 

Scene 1:

Scene 1 of Gone Girl is built up on the title sequence that is shown through different clips, that have been edited together to make a slow montage clip. The first part shown is a close up, that includes a voice over. By putting these two ideas together it is suggesting that they link to each other very well, making sense of the situation.  The words used at this point, that are said by Ben Affleck of the character Nick Dunne 'when I think of my wife, I always think of her head. I picture cracking her lovely skull...unspooling her brain trying to get answers'. The words used are trying to explain the difficulty of marriage for him and how he does not know any answers, making things a lot harder and if this really happened he would be able to say the right things to her and if he does say the wrong thing he can easily get out of the hole that he may have caused. While he is saying these words it includes a close up of the girls head. This implies a very uncomfortable situation for the audience which coincides with the way that a thriller is trying to present what Is happening.

Scene 1 of Gone Girl lets the audience to get an understanding on the way that the film is being presented. By adding the opening sequence you get a good glimpse into the eyes of Nick Dunne and you are able to see the way that he operates. To adapt this idea non diegetic sound is used in the background of this to add the intense, suspicious and mysterious vibes to the thriller. A lot of different transitions are included at this point of time, like a wipe or a fade to add the sense that a strange turn of events may evolve to what seems very peculiar and puzzling to the audience. After the first few names and images have appeared on the screen, it is just a straight forward cut from one to another, however a use of camera techniques to make it look like more is happening.

Scene 2: 

Scene 2: This is the scene of which takes place in the bar. The idea of this maybe to show that Nicks character is avoiding his house as he is very fed up with the way his marriage may have been going, and the idea that he has just been away and when he comes back he still does not go home as he may feel unhappy in the situation. As the second scene starts to open up you can start to identify that the relationship between Nick and Margo. This can be suggested due to the two of them having the same last name of which Margo mentions giving the close bond between siblings, however a close up is shown of Nick giving Margo a present of a board game that goes against this idea. This suggest little knowledge or care that Nick actually puts in when it comes to presents. Adding on to this it represents the typicality of the male gender, as he is both useless when it comes to giving gifts as well as the idea on listening to what people say. 

The scene also shows the ideas of the bar being Nicks safe place, as the idea that Amy will less likely be in sight, which gives Nick free range to say anything from it being positive to negative. A way of presenting this is through the idea that he can have a drink to allow him to forget about what is happening. The type of shots used to portray this is singular shots of the glasses, as a way of showing the props and pieces to make it all tie in together. As well as this a fade to black is used at the end of this section that went from the blur to add a sudden change of people and location. This may have been added to add an ease of going from one situation to another, as well as adding the knowledge of the change of time. 

Scene 3: 

Scene 3: In Gone Girl, the first 6 minuets allows you to learn a lot about the characters with one of being a back story of how Nick and Amy actually met. The idea of adding this gives the audience the information to put together the pieces of what is happening. The main type of shot that is used is over the shoulder shot reverse shot, including dialogue with also being able to hear the ambient sound in the background. Adding all of these ideas together it is showing the reality of what it is like with the ambient sound of people talking in the background by making it strong for people to roughly get the idea that it is not just them in the room. Furthering on this, they may have added this whole conversation to allow the innocence and unguarded personality to be shown of them five  years ago, when they did not know any better of what was going to happen. 

Through this scene of Gone Girl it includes a few different types of shots such as: Long shot, Mid shot and a Two person shot of them in a few different locations of which are: The party, The lifts and the streets of New York City. The reason these shots may have been added is to show the typical film of exploring together, as well as them trying to impress each other. This can also be spotted by the sophisticated language and the body language of which is hidden away to show that they are not trying to give away to much of who they are at this point in time.