Analysis…The Life Of David Gale.

The typical conventions used in thrillers are, flashback/flash forward, red herring, dramatic irony, foreshadowing, pathetic fallacy and twist. In ‘The Life Of David Gale’ the first few minutes we see Pathetic fallacy, which is shown through mise-en-scene, especially through lighting. The lighting is low key, due to the weather being dull and cold, which conveys the mood of the narrative. The mood of the narrative may be that it is dreary and depressing. Also when the character Barbara, says “Hey, maybe he’s even innocent.” could be foreshadowing that he is innocent and hinting that someone possibly ‘Bitsey’ will try and prove this later on in the film.

In thriller opening sequences, you will always see titles, themes being represented, mise-en-scene, a narrative, sound, and dialogue (very little). Also opening sequences will aim to get the audience to ask questions. Having watched the opening sequence of The life Of David Gale, it made me ask ‘where are we?, what happened? Who is she and why is she running away from her car? And Who is David Gale, and what did he do?

The opening: weather is dull and looks cold.

‘Where are we?’

‘Why is she running away from her car?’

Who is she?

Why has she got a tape? What is on the tape?

In the opening sequence, it opens with a long shot, and we see a car pulling up with a women running away from her car. We then see what she is wearing through camera work, and we see that she is carrying a tape in her hand. This could be suggesting that she is being chased by someone due to some important information on the tape. We then move to a different location, New York, in an office. We see a women sitting eating, and watching the news. In the news we see ‘David Gale’ and a protest happening , stopping capital punishment - execution. We then see the women who was running entering saying , “Gale is going down”. Which may imply that she found out information about David Gale, which is why she was running with the tape. In the opening sequence, the audience are given clues to what the narrative of the film will be. For example, when we see the news being watched, and see that the “BREAKING NEWS” is about David gale and the protest. This gives the audience some information that the films narrative will be about Law, protests and capital punishments. Also to add the sense that it will be a film based on law, the typography of the title ‘The Life Of David Gale’ is written in Ariel and plain, which is a font type mainly used formally, especially in newspapers, conveying that it is important.

Whilst watching the opening sequence I was able to identify some themes of the film. The themes are, Law/Legal, capital punishment (execution), and crime.

One of the codes used in the opening sequence is camera work. This long shot was used from the opening, for roughly two minutes. The camera shot emphasises the genre, thriller as it does not give the audience any information about where there are, and why they are here. Also, when we see a car pulling up and someone coming out, running away from the car, make it difficult for the audience to see who the person is. This shot gives a limited view of the film, creating suspense.Another code used in the opening sequence is Sound. First we

hear Foley sounds of birds, then as the women gets out the car and starts running the music starts of being creepy, and then becomes a little faster as she is running in order to create the atmosphere of the film. We then get a Foley sound of her breathing. Sound in the opening sequence is used to emphasise the thriller genre of the film.