Haunting of Radcliffe House Specifics

I watched the opening of this short Channel 5 film back and showed it to the rest of my group, because I think it's close to something we'd like to replicate. The opening is made up of several long landscape shots. They show an eery, almost completely- grey setting from different angles. There are shots from behind trees, behind fountains and behind windows, creating the idea that the audience are hiding or spying on the forest setting.

The very first establishing shot is 12 seconds long, and the following 8 shots are roughly 8 seconds long. The long takes allow the audience to look at everything in the scene, giving them enough time to notice the emptiness and lack of mise- en- scene. There are also two time lapses in the opening, this is something we had always planned to incorporate in our opening. In the Haunting of Radcliffe house, the time lapse emphasises the unchanging setting, for our opening; a time lapse would be used for the same purpose but also to show a dramatic change in time period.

I also think the written credits used in this film would be a good starting point for our credits. They are plain white names that slowly fade in and out. I think the fade transition of the words is quite chilling when used with the fading of the long takes. They are effective in this opening as they are subtle and do not distract from the long shots.