Confusion effect research

In the opening 30 seconds - 1 minute of our film, we wanted to immediately establish a dream - like feel to the sequence in order to create enigma and to establish the thriller genre. 
We looked at the opening to the film 'Arlington Road' which uses specific codes and conventions in order to demonstrate a confused/drowsy effect - putting the audience straight into the POV of the character being represented as feeling this way. Unfocused camera effect, blurry transitions and slow motion were all incorporated into creating this effective opening.

These techniques work together to present the confusion whilst cutting to and from first person perspective.

Another good technique we looked at from the 'Arlington Road' opening was the use of different angles/shots. The shot of just the boy's shoes is very effective when the blood begins to fall as the source of blood is not in the shot it and so the audience don't know where it's coming from, this therefore creates tension.

The opening also uses high key lighting as an effective way to unsettle the audience and also show them through first person perspective what the character is supposedly seeing. (his vision is going blurry/bright because of how much pain he's in and how much blood he's lost.

From watching this opening we've gained an understanding of how to present the feeling of confusion through a range of techniques. As an affect of this, we will be incorporating similar techniques into our opening in order to effectively demonstrate the confused feel.