Draft

How does the opening of CSI: One Hit Wonder attract the audience?

In the CSI episode One Hit Wonder there is a Peeping Tom who is spying on girls and then he sexually assaults a girl in the opening and then starts to rape women later on in the episode.

The audience’s expectations of CSI are similar as all episodes begin in a similar fashion because they use all the typical conventions of the horror/Thriller genre this makes the audience build up their expectations and anticipation of who might be the victim or who will be the killer in the current episode.

In the opening of One Hit Wonder it starts in a high long shot view of Las Vegas to imply that anybody in that area could be a victim then it uses a quick fade to white then to another shot of the city to unnerve the audience. The diegetic sounds are used such as the police sirens to symbolise fear or a threat in the city.

The episode then graphic matches the city to a table with bottles on it this makes the audience think that the city is trapped in a way as the buildings are inside the bottles and this means that the city can be moved at someone’s own will.

Quickly, there is a fade to black and a fade up, this shows you a room with a red towel which represents violence then it shows you a pair of trainers and the single pair means that there is one person in the apartment. This shows that this person is vulnerable and open to an attack. The camera then pans through the rom the director uses this to suggest that someone else is there; the sound is also used to create an eerie atonal sound. The audience would then think that the woman in the apartment is the victim or something will happen.

There is then a dissolve then the camera tracks towards the bed, the angle of the camera is looking down on the women making her look Vulnerable and weak and as if someone is looking down on her, the mise-en-scene adds to the scene because of the darkness in the room making her more vulnerable in the dark because she can’t see, the shot then fades to black implying that it is over.

The shot fades up to a close up of the young women; this is used to make the audience want to see the surroundings as they will be curious to the surroundings because the noises add to this as you can hear the sound of a door unlock and then a patio door or window sliding open. You then see her wake up and she slowly turns her head around, the camera angle is high making her look vulnerable, you can hear a low string sound which suggests that something is there or something is wrong. Then you see her go down the stairs and as she walks down them you see the bars form the shadow of the window this suggests she is trapped, you then see the woman is dressed in her underwear to show that she is sexually attractive, young and vulnerable making her an easy target. You see the door is shut implying that everything is fine and or the person inside has left the apartment.

There is a draught turning over the pages of a magazine this suggests there is an intrusion in the room, she then looks at the fan and the director cuts to a high angle shot through the fan making it seem as if someone is watching her through bars suggesting she is trapped. She then turns to look at the fan switch and there are marks on the switch suggesting that someone has turned the fan on as a crescendo happening as well.

There is then a cut back to the woman in a medium shot in the middle of the frame, this will make her seem alone and vulnerable because no one else is there to help her. The director then cuts to a shot from under the table looking up at her looking at the table then uses a focus pull to the glass which has been spilt and a crescendo builds up toward the glass suggesting someone who is not the women has done this and to build up the tension. There is then cut to her framed next to the door showing her reaction which is scared she shows this by pulling her hands up to her head and gasps.

The director then jump cuts/zooms toward the door handle and as this is happening you can hear screaming in a crescendo as we get closer to the door handle another jump cut happens and special effects shot to go through the woman’s lock to her neighbours key hole and then another special effect shot happens though the neighbours key hole this puts the audience  on edge and continues into her bedroom where a man is harassing her, the man is holding her down on the bed in an unreal blue light then see the man jumping off of the bed and you see his shoe, this makes the audience wonder who the man is as you have evidence to who it might be because of his shoe sole.