Category: Research

The Murder On the Orient Express (2017) is the sort of feel Sitara and I want for our title sequence. So, I thought it would be appropriate to do a case study following the path of the movie through its pre-production phase, the funding phase, the production phase, distribution, and exhibition. Doing this will allow me to see which studio would best fit our genre and film idea.

Beginning Stages

In December 2013, the project was announced as a remake from the original released in 1974. Michael Green wrote the adapted screenplay with three producers beside him, Ridley Scott, Mark Gordon and Simon Kinberg (Variety, 1). Joining the crew as a director, Kenneth Branagh also made the executive decision to star as the main detective, Hercule Poirot. The production companies involved were Kinberg Genre, The Mark Gordon Company, and Scott Free Productions.

The genre picked for the movie after writing the screenplay was mystery, crime, and drama. This was due to the mysterious elements and dramatic portrayals of each character through acting and different cinematographic elements. The target audience would most likely be among an older audience with the presumption that they saw or have heard of the 1974 version of the movie. Moviegoers with this background would most likely want to see how the movie changed from the four decades earlier or how the movie made the narrative of the original book that much better.

Production

The principal photography phase started in late 2016, November 20th (Daniels, 1). This continued until May of 2017, the year of the film’s release. On the set of the film, Branagh also brought on the grandson and great-grandson of the author, Christie, to help bring the story to a somewhat modern light without taking away its essential story.

The film had a pretty big budget to work with, having it be at 55 million. They set their shooting location in the UK on the train that goes from Paris to Istanbul. It wasn’t the real train, since that one has been decommissioned since the 1970s. They shot the movie on film with a 65mm camera. In doing this, it saved time and gave the movie the type of feel that they wanted. They faced a few challenges with the 65mm film, since the only place that could process it was Los Angelos, so the Executive Producer Jenkins ended up opening his own processing building in the UK.

After shooting everything for the few months, Audsley, the film’s editor, edited the film in a short amount of time so the producers could see it. This then led to the distribution and exhibition stages.

Distribution/Exhibition

The distribution company the film went with was 20th Century Fox. Our film most likely won’t go as big as Fox, but along the same lines. It was a wide release film across theaters as it wasn’t released in select theaters in the UK or Ireland, but wasn’t released everywhere else until a few weeks or months later. It grossed domestically $102,826,543 and $352,789,811 internationally. The movie made $10,000,000 the first day of release.

Sources

‘Murder on the Orient Express’ Reboot Sets Michael Green as Writer (EXCLUSIVE)

Kenneth Branagh to Direct, Star in ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ Remake

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3402236/

https://www.provideocoalition.com/art-cut-murder-orient-express/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_on_the_Orient_Express_(2017_film)

As some people are mentioned, I liked their Wikipedia site to their name if clicked on.

While this might not be totally helpful, it could be nice to know if any decisions come down to specific color and meanings behind those colors. Color Theory refers to the meaning and description of certain colors and what they could possibly represent.

There are the obvious primary colors: red, yellow, and blue. They are the most easily identifiable colors and are easily associated with memories. That’s why a lot of elementary classrooms are mostly brighter colors and more memorable. Warmer colors are usually orange, red, and yellow. While they are warm and could represent gently, passionate feelings, it could also evoke a sense of danger if seen in a dark fashion or scary situation, like a murder scene covered in blood. Neutral colors, like grays and shades of black and white, make good backdrops and easily established colors, like a relaxing detective’s office. How coincidental huh…

There are different qualities of colors as well.

Hue– “color” defined as hue
Chroma– purity of a color, one color alone without introduction of other colors
Saturation– How weak or strong color is*
Value– How bright or dark color is*
Tone– when adding grays to a color
Tint– Introducing white to a color
Shade– Introducing black to a color

*Value and saturation are easily confused, but have distinct difference of vibrance and brightness.

Taking different strategies of creating colors and making certain meanings with each of them can change the meaning of the setting or even a simple costume change. Maybe it’s a little extra, but a little more knowledge couldn’t hurt in the long run.

I figured that getting as much out of the few films that somewhat match our genre, since it’s kind of avant garde for the modern times, would be a good thing, even if the analysis is short. Getting even the slightest bit of inspiration could be the difference between a good shot and an amazing shot. Momento is a good shot for this since this film is also kind of non-traditional. It is completely reversed anyway, so taking inspiration from a film that isn’t done too often in modern films could help us out a lot in the long run.

This clip from Memento shows the calm after a sort of “storm” and that men are aggressive in certain ways. Mise en scene aspects, such as props and lighting, add to this meaning very well. The placement of the blood, the gun, and the bullet shell all indicate violence; we see the main figure in this clip shoot someone towards the end, which shows that men have violent tendencies. The pacing of the clip is slow in the beginning due to very long shot durations, specifically a close up shot of the polaroid. The pace quickens, however, with insert shots of bullets, blood, broken glasses, and a dead man. It is important to note that the clip is reversed/backwards. The pacing of the clip shows how cold hearted men can be after an act of violence. The non diegetic sound in this clip is slow, almost eerie music, which contributes to the overall creepy vibe of the whole clip.

Christopher Nolan had a mystery, low budget film called Following in 1998.

Since this is a mini-case study, not much in depth research will go into it, but a few surface level information tactics will be in use.

The executive producer of the film was Peter Broderick. He’s dabbled in many other films, not just mystery films and produced those as well. The film’s budget was around $6,000. Compared to today, that number might be higher, but it’s very low budget even for the late 90’s. This movie was shot on film rather than digital. Nolan himself said they did it to challenge his crew to film the movie and to save money. Film itself can save money since there isn’t as much technology to use as much as digital film might use. Production for this film took about a year to finish. Some issues were the money since no film could be wasted. This led to the actors always having to rehearse their lines and actions very well so they could do it in minimal takes. The lighting was a challenge since it could’ve halted production since the time of day may be not the best and he had to use his local friends and family’s homes to shoot some scenes. Finding how it was distributed was difficult, but it was through the use of platforming. It was released in a few places at first, then to many other cities and countries following it. It grossed $240,495 upon release, so the money was definitely earned back. This film was independent, since it was released under Next Wave Films. Momentum pictures distributed the film to many major theaters afterwards. He marketed the film so that hints and clues were given to the audience for the story but didn’t show any real concrete or confirmed information through trailers and teasers. The film didn’t have much media synergy with any other sector of business, so there was no cross promotion or any of the sort. It was exhibited through theatrical release in theaters in 1998-1999. A person can find the film on iTunes, Google Play, Amazon Prime, or YouTube.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memento_(film)#Marketing (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

https://www.nextwavefilms.com/ourfilms.html (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/people/chart/?view=Director&id=christophernolan.htm (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

https://www.imdb.com/search/title?genres=mystery&keywords=low-budget-film&sort=moviemeter&title_type=feature (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Following (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momentum_Pictures (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

In order to get a real feel for what our title sequence should feel like, I thought I should analyze a few other title sequences to get the feel of what a mystery movie should be like. I chose to do both version of Murder On the Orient Express, one from 2017 and the other from 1974. Not only will it show a comparison between the two movies, but also the change over time of mystery movie sequences.

1974 Version

Since the first two minutes are literally just titles, I chose to look at the following scene of the sequence. The crime is introduced through newspapers with various superimpositions and graphic match cuts of said newspapers. The lighting of the broken into house is dark with some color correction to make it look blue and most likely evoke more sadness. The editing isn’t too fast paced as the crime is taking place and the villain would need to be quiet when committing said crime. The use of a newspaper superimposition shows that the story is newsworthy and a big deal if it made the front page, so someone would need to investigate the crime that took place. The dark lighting concealed the criminal’s identity, so we wouldn’t know who did it. The sound is mostly non-diegetic as it’s just a soundtrack over the events taking place. The fonts and letters appear black and red at the reveal of a murder of the kidnapped little girl. The first scene just reveals what the detective is meant to investigate rather than the detective starting an investigation immediately. Different cinematographic elements such as tracking shots of the killer, long shots of the car driving away, and deep composition demonstrates the evasion of the killer and how easily they can hide their identity. The few props used (teddy bear, newspaper, crushed toys, etc.) showed that a little girl was the one taken and the destroyed things could also represent a destroyed childhood.

2017 Version

As seen in this title sequence, they don’t introduce a mystery at all, but more introduce a detective and that he has some crime to solve, but it is unknown to the audience at the moment. The sequence shows a tracking shot of a child running in the beginning, the audience doesn’t know what for. The child is dressed in the attire appropriate for the region they’re in, Jerusalem. Little ellipses are used to show the child running up to a house and the small time passage within it. The child then delivers what is now seen to the audience as eggs, the props used, to a chef, as seen by his white costuming and the decor of everything in the kitchen. A close up is then seen of an hourglass to show the eggs cooking, but could also show the time crunch of the detective in the future of the movie. A midshot is seen of a man with a French accent, but the back of his head as the eggs are delivered to him. The non-diegetic sound in this scene is high pitched and fast paced to demonstrate the child’s rush in collecting the eggs. The next few shots are short fast shots of the child getting eggs and cuts to a long shot of the man about to eat the eggs. He then measures the egg very precisely. The significance of the measuring shows how precise he is and hints at him being a detective. The guard even says how he needs to “perform a miracle” to solve a mystery. The dialogue hints to him having to solve a mystery quickly, or something significant if it’s a miracle.

The differences between the two of these shows how mystery has evolved over the last 5 decades, as there’s more symbolism in modern mystery movies instead of just having the titles and the crime revealed to the audience as in 1974.

Audiences can vary depending on the sort of movie you want to show to them. After looking at certain demographics and effects movies can have on an audience, finding the right audience for mystery movies proved to be a bit of a lot to research, but I was able to find what I was looking for using a variety of websites and different psychological concepts.

Demographic for Mystery

Mystery narratives tend to draw in the older crowd, typically 18+. Not particularly because of the content, but it deals with a lot of mature themes that usually don’t appeal to a younger audience like and action super hero movie would. According to Paul Ardoin, a mystery genre novelist, his demographic of age is only 5% under the age of 30, and the rest 31 and above. Seeing this age curve when it comes to the mystery genre in simple novels translates to film, but can be skewed lower since younger people won’t have to read and instead enjoy a movie. Mystery movies used to bring in more males with the use of many male leads, but as these sorts of movies evolved in representation, women and men seemed to even out a little more.

Another thing that goes into the demographics of mystery narratives is the idea of the Hermeneutic code, introduced by Roland Barthes. This code refers to the idea that an element in a story isn’t explained or is left for the viewers to wonder why it’s unexplained and it keeps them hooked on the story. This creates a sort of enigma, and the story throughout is able to tie up any loose ends and give the audience the answer they are truly looking for (Chandler, 1). For a younger audience, they might get impatient or ask too many questions/get confused as to why it isn’t out in the open for them. An older audience would be able to try and figure out why this happened or why it didn’t and their anticipation to figure out what’s going to happen next.

Demographics in thriller

Thriller films typically draw in a younger audience. As it says in the name, a thrill comes along with seeing a film like so. When I say younger audience, I typically mean young adults, as reflected in the graph, from 18-24 years old. Since thrillers typically depict more heavy subjects (such as violence, drug abuse, etc), it makes more sense that a more mature audience would be the dominant demographic of that genre. Since our film isn’t too much focused on thriller demographics, not too much research shouldn’t be extremely required since most of our research has steered towards two genres.

Sources

https://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/elljwp/5codes.htm

https://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/elljwp/5codes.htm

https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-key-demographics-for-mystery-crime-novels

https://cmpalexgilbey.weebly.com/uploads/3/8/8/7/38878453/horror_film_research.pdf

Since I’m doing a more Classic Detective title sequence, analyzing a film with that same sort of genre and its title sequence would be beneficial to my own film. I thought Crooked House, directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner, would be a good representation of the genre I need for my title sequence. It has elements of crime, mystery, drama, and thriller content.

Mise-en-scene

• 

• 

• 

Lighting

• lowkey lighting
• done so to create an ominous and mysterious mood
• couples with the non-diegetic sound

Props

• needle and liquid create a mysterious aura
• needle associated w/ poison

Costuming

• man in plaid shirt to show a normal person
• woman with red nails and bracelet
• contrast between the two characters

Framing

• open framing
• keeps the character’s identities hidden
• offscreen space used to keep up the mystery

Blocking

• woman standing over man
• position of power
• could show the evil ways of women

Cinematography

• 

• 

• 

Movement

• pan-tilt after woman leaves frame initially
• pull-back as woman leaves the frame

Angles

• low angle shot of house at the end
• tilt moving from a low angle to a high angle

Distance

• long shot of woman
• close-up of needle

Misc.

• establishing shot of woman (also a long shot)
• open framing
• shallow focus

Editing

• 

• 

• one long take
• possible cutaway from man in the chair to the house
• superimposition of titles
• continuity with long take

Sound

Diegetic

• mysterious coughing in the back
• clicking of heels (possible femme fatal)
• slight sound of needle injecting liquid

Non-Diegetic

• low pitched soundtrack all throughout shot

Summary

All throughout the title sequence, every little thing done is meant to show a sort of mystery. The setting being dark with the lighting and the use of a needle with an unknown liquid all equates to a mysterious atmosphere. The contrasting costuming between the two characters show that the women are represented as evil or manipulative with the use of the needle and the mysterious liquid. The blocking of the woman and man showed the woman in power since she resides above him and is injecting something in him. For the use of cinematography, the establishing shot is of the woman, but in shallow focus since her identity is still a mystery. The close-up of the needle shows the importance of it within the next scene while also preserving the identity of the woman. There wasn’t anything too significant with angles, just that the house being shot from a low angle could show its superiority. The editing didn’t have too much within it, since the whole sequence was one long take rather than shorter and quicker paced editing. The scene possibly cutaway from the man in the chair to the shot of the house to show the importance or connection of the house to the woman and her antics. The titles were superimposed onto the screen just to display the titles of course. The diegetic sound added to the mystery since there was coughing coming from offscreen and the audience would have no way to tell where it might’ve come from. The clicking of heels might’ve signified the woman as classy/materialistic since heels are expensive, then might’ve symbolized a femme fatal character type. The non-diegetic sound, just the soundtrack, which is low-pitched, adds to the mystery since its suspenseful and spooky sounding.