The counting up creates tension, it gets people asking, when is this gong to stop? Why is it counting? These questions and build up of tension are conventions of a thriller. Heart beat sets in at this point to set the theme and over this is the sound of a train leaving a station, and this sets the scene, we then know where the action will take place.

We then get this lovely shot of two young teens. We can infer by how close they are and smiling they are boyfriend and girlfriend. We can see it is day time and this is where we go against the conventions of a thriller, because dark scary scenes are associated with dark, gloomy nights but as we attempted to film at night but we quickly realised the camera didn’t work well in low light, so we changed it so we could convey the idea that you can be taken at any time, anywhere. Like Horror films that begin with normal happy family life, to make it relatable and more realistic so it can be more scary.

This shot establishes, a blackened figure, boarding the same train just moments after the couple. Yet we are not sure why he is following the couple and this creates enigma, which is a convention of a thriller. Yet we can tell he is bad news because he is covered in all black on a nice sunny day.

This very clever shot is maybe used in the wrong order, it should have been used before the mysterious figure gets on the train, as it can be seen as a POV shot from the mysterious character, spying on the couple. And we can see as the girl scrolls through her photos, we see that this mysterious figure has been following them for a while, as if you look closely you can see the mysterious man in each photo. I see this long scene as the calm before the storm.

The tension builds and now the first physical encounter between hunter and hunted. The editing is clever as when he hunted gets hit the exposure goes over the top and flashes. And a loud sound. And then goes to black. This works for a thriller. I wanted a fight scene, but that wouldn’t work for a thriller. This is the climax of the opening.

After the cut to black the Title inserts its-self and now we wonder why the title is called station 43? And then link this to the counting to 43 at the beginning and ponder o that situation. This creates enigma and mystery two main conventions of a thriller.

And when the visual kicks back in again we see a train rolling into the distance, not sure where the train is going. But yet going back to fundamental idea, that this mysterious man can take you from anywhere anytime, which creates a scary atmosphere. Introduce the director of cinematography.

Train continues to leave the station and the director traditionally is introduced at the end of the opening.

The end of the opening suggests there is going to be a back story to one of the three characters to explain why this boy was taken. The 3 dots create tension and keep you thinking.