Comparing Film Intros

Cruel Intentions and The Hangover have the same kind of happy/romantic music whereas in Twilight the kind of music we hear is very energetic like something, or someone is being chased. In The Hangover and Twilight, the music changes some time in the introduction and funnily enough it's western which again, is the same genre of music, however, in Cruel Intentions the music stays the same and doesn't change. In Cruel Intentions, we actually hear a song called "Every Me and Every You" by Placebo, but in the other 2 films we only hear music. In Twilight, there is music playing practically all the way through it and it stops when we hear dialogue but gets louder when no one is talking - this is the only film that does this as for the other 2 films, the music eventually stops. Despite the music in Cruel Intentions, we come across a graveyard which leads us slightly off edge, it's like the music is a red herring trying to make us believe nothing bad is going to happen when clearly something is. This is the only film where the music mis - leads us as the other music in Twilight and The Hangover stays true to its word.

Each of the films uses camera angles. In Twilight for example, it starts off with a high angle shot and then goes to a close up of a deer. We then see a deer wandering round at first, and then we see various camera angles of the deer running and we don't no why until a mysterious figure grabs it, during this the camera uses high angled shot making it look more vulnerable and then goes down to the deer’s height. We get the effect of someone running with the camera, it's like the audience is looking from the attackers point of view and we know the deer is the prey, at this point it's obvious a chase is going on. This is the only film which uses that camera effect. In Twilight and The Hangover, the camera uses panning so that the audience isn't given everything they're supposed to see all at once, but is gradually revealed. Even though both films use panning it's used in very different situations as in Twilight, the camera pans to Bella's step dad about to put something in the car, whereas in The Hangover, the camera pans where everyone will sit for the wedding. Cruel Intentions doesn't use panning, but the camera angle looks down revealing the graveyard, works itself up showing the city and zooming in a little. We then see a close up of the guy’s eyes in the mirror in his car, after this we see another close up of the guy’s eyes but this time he's lying down and the camera zooms out to reveal his whole body and gives us a clue to where he is. Zooming in and zooming out are also used in The Hangover but in different situations. The camera zooms out from the wedding cake and zooms in to the bride's wedding dress which is an important crop in the film.

In The Hangover and Twilight, some different special effects are used. In The Hangover, a fading technique is used to fade out of a scene and then goes on to the next scene - it's a way of pulling a scene to a close. Also, it starts off with a scene later on in the film showing the grooms friend phoning the bride to say they've lost him which makes you want to find out if he does get found. Twilight does not have any of these effects, but like I mentioned earlier, it has the effect where it's sort of like running with the camera which speeds up things which was relevant as there was a chase going on to catch the deer. Cruel Intentions doesn't use any special effects to attract the audience, it sticks to the camera angles.

In The Hangover, you immediately know what the theme is as you can see white dresses, cakes, flowers and decorations which all suggest one thing: a wedding. In Twilight, you hear birds chirping which sets the theme as it makes you think of nature, but then you get caught up in a chase which suggests it's not all about nature and wild animals. For Cruel Intentions however, there isn't really anything significant although it does confuse you with having the happy music but then seeing a graveyard which again I mentioned before.

The settings for all 3 films are completely different from each other. The Hangover is different from the other 2 as it's the only film that's set inside a house at the very beginning, Twilight is set in a forest which suggests wild animals as that is what you usually come across and Cruel Intentions is similar to Twilight as it's set outside, but not in a forest. Twilight is the only film which is about family, even though you would expect The Hangover to be about family as it's about a wedding, the plot mainly focuses on the groom and his friends.