Research and planning: past students Thriller openings

I chose to look at The Witness by Lewis Parker and Mistaken Identity by Daisy Beaven.
I seem to remember watching both of these as nominations in the Thursties and thinking I hope my thriller comes out as well as theirs have.

The Witness:
The soundtrack created tension throughout and gave depth to what was happening.
Using chiaroscuro lighting during the flashback helped to clearly depict what was present day and what was flashback. Another way he built tension was enhancing the sound of the footsteps in the flashback and the chink of the mugs in the café. This highlighted the sound to the audience and made an ordinary sound more distinct therefore building tension.
The narration over the top of the scene was very clear and was a key convention of many thriller films.
The only weakness I could find with The Witness is a pretty rubbish one and that is that it was clear the masked villains were not kicking the victim that was pulled out of his car. This of course is excusable as you don't really want to properly beat up an actor- who is most likely one of your mates- on camera.


Mistaken Identity:
The idea of a voiceover narration by the onscreen character was a great convention to use as it has a great effect as the narrator is usually the character and stays with the audience the whole way through the film.
The 50s soundtrack was great as it suited the detective character as a detective is associated with old thriller films. Using a 50s detective soundtrack was highly effective as it juxtaposed the fact that the detective was in present day driving a modern car. This allowed the audience  to see that the detective might fancy himself a bit as an old 50s detective.
The use of the red herring was amazing as the detective says he wouldn't be the sort to go killing himself and then we see the bottom of a body hanging from a tree in roughly the same as what the detective was wearing leaving the question. Has the detective killed himself or is the victim the detective is investigating just a lot like the detective?

As I said at the start, both these films were amazing and if mine is too come out as good as these I would be very happy due to the high standard that The Witness and Mistaken Identity have got in them.