American Psycho Research

American Psycho Title Sequence/ Opening Credits

1. Lions gate Films presents

2. An Edwards R. pressman Production

3. In association with Muse Productions and Christian Halsey Solomon

4. A Mary Harron Film

5. American Psycho 

6. Christian Bale

7. Willem Dafoe

8. Jared Leto

9/ Josh Lucas

10. Samantha Mathis 

11/ Matt Ross

12. Bill Sage  

13. Chloe Sevigny

14. Cara Seymour 

15. Justin Theroux

16. Guinevere Turner

17. Reese Witherspoon

18. Casting by Billy Hopkins, Suzanne Smith and Keerry Barden

19.Costume Designer Isis Mussenden

20. Production designer Gideon Ponte
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21. Music Supervisor Barry Cole and Christopher Covert

22.Music by John Cale

23.Editor Andrew Marcus

24.Director of photography Andrzej Sekula

25.Co – Producers Ernie Barbarash, Clifford Streit, Rob Weiss

26.Executive Producers Michael Paseornek, Jeff Sackman,  Joseph drake 

27.Produced by Edward R. Pressman, Chris Hanley, Christian Halsey Solomon

28.Based on the novel by Bret Easton Ellis

29.Screenplay by Mary Harron and Guinevere Turner

30.Directed by Mary Harron

In the opening sequence we have a variety of close up shots of what appears to be blood right from the start, but as the opening scene progresses we see that it is only red sauce for food which automatically makes the audience presume the setting for the opening scene is in a restaurant. When we see the red sauce it makes the audience think that it is blood by the thickness and the tone of the red. Also, with the camera being on an extreme close up, we see the sauce is being pours as droplets, which we usually relate to a wound dripping with blood, which each of the droplets are falling in slow motion but only by an estimate 25%. By doing so, we get to see a closer detail and be able to make out what is falling which fools the audience to thinking it’s blood.  Along with the droplets of blood, we hear a stringed instrument playing one sharp, short note each time a droplet falls. While the blood falls, we get the selection of the opening credits, also after the 4^th opening credits, the title of the movie appears (American Psycho).

 The title fades into the shot after the second droplet falls and hits the white background, which is also slowed to see the effects of the blood splatter across the background.  The title is aimed exactly in the middle of the shot, leaving two white boarders to the right and left of the shot. At this point the music is playing normally without it being in sync with the droplets. The next shot we the “blood” like substance being poured straight down with opening credits which then jumps to the next shot which now the audience knows the substance isn't blood but a red sauce. They know this by how the blood is being squirted in a “squiggly” line, implying that it is being squirted on a plate for food. This also creates a foreshadow as later in the film, the main character (Patrick Bateman) bites the victim which implies that he is a cannibal. This is done by making the audience see the sauce as blood which to Patrick is food.

 The next shot is of a knife coming in from out the shot at the bottom, and moving in and out the shot and it moves up. This could imply the knife being the main murder weapon, also during this shot we see the actor name “Christian Bale” which is the main character and murder in the movie. This implies the character that is played by Christian Bale is the murder as the knife is shown in this shot while could foreshadow him using the knife to kill someone. The shot then fades out and into a meal of meat which is then cut with one slice of the knife and then fades out into the next shot, then quickly fades out and into the next shot which then the opening credit “Willem Dafoe” is the faded in while strawberries fall onto the plate which is then shown in the next shot. We now see that the opening credit scene for the movie is places in a restaurant and someone preparing the meal for a customer. We then see the plate ready to be served and is taken away to which “Jared Leto” is open for the opening credits. The music then changes from the mysterious sounding string instruments to a restaurant sounding song which is more suitable for the scene as the next show is of the food being placed onto a table to which then the camera then pans around the table and jumps to different tables. We now get a shot of the menu for the restaurant to which pans up to a couple having lunch. As we see, the couple are dressed reasonable smart and “well-dressed” for a meal meaning that the restaurant seems to be highly rated. The camera then pans around tables again looking at the different food and meals which are being served. As we can see, the meals seem to be small but well-presented which also indicates that the restaurant is high end range. We then start to hear a waiter speaking to the customers in a well-spoken accent, and with the names being read out, we hear that the food in the restaurant seems to be top class food. We then get another pan but of the whole room and restaurant which we can see the types of people who come to the restaurant. By doing so we see that the majority of the people who go there seems to be upper class by the way they are dresses. Males dressed in suits while females dress in “fancy” dresses.
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We then cut to a shot of a group of males sat round a table, which appear to be moaning about how much they hate this restaurant. This gives the audience the impression that these males seem to be “stuck up” that they seem they can do better. As the conversation progresses we see one male coming back from the scene which he then says “they don’t have a good bathroom to do coke in” implying that these seem to be drug dealer but by the way they are dressed we know that they’re not. At this point we see the males to be stuck up business partners as they seem to be talking and “bitching” about other employees. Continuing on from the cocaine part, we get the impression that these males are well paid enough to actually buy and take cocaine as they don’t need to take place in a criminal act to get the drugs from what we see in the opening scene. We then got more back to back shots of dialogue then cuts to the next scene.  

There are not many scene and shots that create tension in this opening clip, although through-out the first minute, the opening scene tricks the audience to thinking that the red sauce is blood which makes the audience believe that someone has murdered someone. Also with the knife coming into the scene, this builds tension as we presume the knife has been used to murder someone.

Throughout the scene, they keep the same font and font colouring. The font which they have used all seems to be in capitals and blunt, making the opening credits stand out more.  All the lettering appears to be in a capitals apart from “by” which seems to be a different font. The font used seems to be “fancy” looking which stand out if it was the same size as the other font but it appears to be smaller to blend in with the rest of the fonts around it. The sizes of the fonts are the same throughout the whole scene and don’t change unless something needs to be shown in the film. The colour does change to a white if it seems to collide with the background. The title seems to be using the same font as the rest of the opening credits but much larger and “Psycho” appears bold. 

The video above is the opening scene to American Psycho. By analysing this opening clip i will have a general idea on how to open a psycho thriller as this is one of the best psycho thrillers ever created which has a massive influence on thriller task.