RESEARCH: ART OF THE TITLE - MINDHUNTER

I used the website Art of the Title to explore how various companies present their movies/series to their audiences. Mindhuter is an American crime thriller web television series created by Joe Penhall. It is based on a true-crime book written by Jon E.Douglas and Mark Olshaker that explores how the Serial Crime Unit attempted to catch criminals through the science of profiling serial killers.

 I chose to analyse Mindhunter because I took interest to its success in creating a dramatic build up of tension and I aim to follow similar steps when I work with my group to devise my own film opening. 

Throughout the title sequence for Mindhunter, there are clear visual codes that indicate the style and genre of the series and influence the audience to feel a certain way. A build of tension is successfully created through the cross-cutting of clips from the recording devices to dead bodies. The momentary flickers are effective because they show distressing images that may shock the audience but the cuts are so quick that the audience does not have time to analyse the pictures and get a full understanding of what they are viewing. As well as this, the close-up shots of the bodies eradicate any feelings of comfort the audience may be feeling because the image is very distressing and you cannot see the whole picture. This adds to the mystery and this lack of context, leaves the audience full of questions and confused.

The recording device and the man setting it up is a focal point in the title sequence which infers that he has a large significance within the series. When this is followed by the broken-up glimpses of bodies, it questions whether this man and the bodies are linked - perhaps they are flashbacks from his memory?  This  results in the audience feeling intrigued about the story and role of this man in the show. Furthermore, the man seems very calm when putting the device together despite the flashes of gory images. This contrast from calm and monotone movement to sharp and violent pictures develops the audience's questions about the plot and relevance between the two clips. 

In addition, the title sequence presents achieves an eerie and sinister tone through relatively plain and simple elements.  For example, at the start, a sense of tension is instantly presented through the dull and cold colour schemes. The lack of warm colour gives the audience the indication that this series is going to follow a darker and intense theme and makes the viewer feel on-edge and slightly cautious. Also, this realism adds to the ominous feelings that the shots of the corpse have implemented into the viewer expanding on their distress and puts them on edge. 

The simple audio codes in this series opening plays a big part in producing this physiological-thriller and adds to the tension dramatically. This is achieved through the repeating motif played by the piano which is based on the F minor chord. This minor tonality emphasises further the sense of unease depicted in the sequence. The non-diegetic sound includes music played by the piano and the violin giving it a very thin texture. This helps add to the eeriness as it makes the viewer focus more on the action of the recording device which solidifies its importance. Digetic sound includes the sfx of the recorder starting up which is very effective because it increases the atmosphere and tension, reinforcing the psychological-thriller genre.