Research Thriller Openings - The Gambler

The first scence of the gambler shows of a medium close-up of its protagonist, Mark Whalberg. The camera shot is used to show his emotion and feeling toward the current situation. The background and his clothes are quite dark, this technique is used to emphasise the facial features.

Second Scene – Man on hospital bed dying  that you would assume to be the protagonist's father. You may notice that, compared to the other character in the room, he stands out from background in bright light  which possibly shows the goodness that was in Mark Whalberg’s character dying from the beginning . adding to this that it is clear that he’s in hospital.

Third scene – shot reverse shot of father and mark whalberg is continuous. Father asks question “so… what are you going to do for me?” – straight away makes the audience think about what is happening and what is going to happen by asking a question that’s mixed with the enigma of this character.

Fourth scene – cut to sudden 5 second flashback of them in a car this shows what sort of relationship they had with each other before this scene. They look quite happy shows they had a healthy relationship.

Fifth scene- focus pull/dissolve shows a forward skip in time to people walking into a building wearing black, emotionless. Would assume the father has died and this is his funeral with the protagonist being the main focus.

Later scene – Mark Whalberg is emotionless, sitting near the back of the room at his father’s funeral creates a further enigma in which the audience to ask “Who is this man? What is his story?”

Last scene – Mark Whalberg leaves the ceremony with everybody still in the room without raising awareness – as he leaves rock/blues music takes over from the harmony music and creates tension and suspense to find out what is in the rest of the film