Film Project Genre Research- The Gift

The Gift is a psychological thriller released in 2015, to begin with the first scenes are the production credits. The first three minutes of the opening scenes tell the viewer that a couple most likely married are looking to move into a new house, moving from Chicago to California because of a new job opening. The opening scenes are being filmed with a track camera or steady cam, resulting in a smooth steady side to side movement horizontally throughout the scenes. Multiple short takes are recorded at the beginning of the film when jumping from room to room indicating the house is empty and no one lives there currently. Long takes are shot when the actors are walking into the house and having a conversation of the houses features. This gradually changes to a master shot which includes all the actors in an entire shot. When the two main characters start to talk the shots taken are two-shots which show the two in the frame, as well as an point of view shot when the women is looking out the window into the horizon of California in which this shows an establishing shot of the setting. There is continuous dialogue in the scenes and it gives a clear understanding of what is going on. The shots are complimented with sounds that are presented as soft intense background music throughout the first three minutes until the movie title appears. These sounds are sound motifs which mark the creepy emotions coming from the introduction. The budget of this film was 5 millon and the overall sales were 60 million. It gained a nominee for Saturn Award of Best Thriller and Empire Award for Best Thriller film.