Research: Art of the Title – Mindhunter
The Netflix series that first released in 2017 is about FBI
agents, Holden Ford and Bill Tench as they attempt to catch serial killers by
studying their damaged psyches. The director of Mindhunter has been
Oscar-nominated.
I have chosen to study and write about the trailer of Mindhunter as it looks
unique and captivating, just from watching the title sequence.
To begin with, sound is very important throughout the trailer.
The sound begins after the man has started to move around the objects and it
seems as if once he starts spinning the nuts and bolts in place, the disks
start spinning. To me, this looks like the man is connoting a turntable as it
looks like he is playing an imaginary one. The sound creates atmosphere and
even tension just from a small sequence. The sound used is synchronous as we
can hear every movement of the character fiddling with the equipment.
There is also a rhythm throughout as every few seconds a
flashback photo of a corpse is shown. The sound is used as when there is a
flashback the piano stops and a high pitched buzz is played every time we see
the photo. The photo only shows up for less than a second giving the audience a
brief idea of what the show has to offer.
The scene of the corpse shows multiple angles and sometimes
zooms in quickly enough to create atmosphere. The audience is intrigued at all
times when watching and there is never a moment where I took my eyes off as it
was interesting and captivating.
As the speed of the piano begins to slow down, the speed of
the whole scene begins to also slow down as we stop seeing flashes of the corpse,
but we begin seeing longer and detailed images and we get a clearer
understanding of what is happening and what they are showing.
The editing is done very well in this with lots of small
features that makes it even better. For example, there was a scene of both the
disks next to each other and the flash of the corpse is a scene of his eyes and
it flows perfectly so they align the disks and the corpses eyes to make a good
transition.
You show understanding of how the genre is conveyed in the title sequence to Mindhunter, in particular, to the creation of tension, and the references to crimes, such as the corpse. You draw attention to how the sound effects create meaning.You could analyse the period details (old tech) & the use of monochrome but you write appreciatively, particularly of the editing.
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