The location is given away easily because the first shot in the film is a shot of the Los Angeles sign. The audience immediately know where the film is set without having to think about it too much as there is more important things for the audience to be focusing on such as the car that is speeding down the road. There are bright street lights that are down the middle of the road, and the lights make a channel down the middle of the picture (using the rule of 3Rd's) so that the viewers eyes are focused on where the car is coming from. Also the lights help to reiterate that it is nighttime where the film is set, which is a key convention of a thriller movie because everyone finds nighttime spookier and more fearful that daytime. This leaves the audience to be a little scared before they know what is actually going on.
There are a couple of costumes and props used in this clip. There is the mans walking stick which he is using to walk which could insinuate he is already injured or that he got injured, and that the film is going to explain how he got this injury. The Dictaphone is also a main prop because it shows the time that the film was set in, and also shows how much wealth the man has. It also gives him a type of mysteriousness which makes you wonder why he records everything onto a Dictaphone, does it mean hes got something to hide? Secondly the costume that the man is wearing also shows him as a bit creepy and mysterious. He is wearing a hat which covers his face and a long dark coat, because you cannot define what he looks like properly and his face is hidden from the audience for so long, it makes him mysterious and seem dangerous. He looks shady from the trench coat that he is wearing, also because the director chose not to reveal his face straight away you don't know whether he is happy or angry.
There isn't much interesting camera work used as it is quite an old film, so they did not have much technology back then. There is tracking used with the camera when the car is speeding down the road, by tracking the car it emphasises the speed that the car is travelling and the urgency to get to wherever he is trying to get to. It makes the car look like it is moving frantically and the driver speeds through a red light which shows it is important, and that the driver is distressed.
The title and font style in the opening sequence are much like all the thriller films and fits in with the conventions of a thriller film by using plain white bold fonts. By doing this it means that not too much is given away at first and it leaves the audience wanting more and wanting to watch on, because they still don't know what the film is about. By having the man walking closer and closer to the camera it shows who the main character might be and it makes the film seem shady.
The story is introduced and slowly unravelled by having the car speeding really fast, the viewers know that the man in the car is trying to either get away from someone quickly or getting someone quickly and because he goes through a red light it also shows that it is very important that he gets to where he is going to quickly. This also shows signs of danger. He also walks like he has been injured so the audience begin to ask what has happened to him and how did he get injured? Later on in the film we also find out that he has been shot and so that leaves the audience with the question of why was he shot and who by and is he the bad person or the good person in this film?
The thriller genre comes across in this film a lot, mostly because it is set in the night time in an unfamiliar building, so it seems unsafe and dangerous. The audience then wonder why he is going into work late at night. They show the man injured, and because he is injured it shows that he has had some confrontation with someone, and makes him seem dangerous.
The characters get introduced when the shadow of the man is getting closer and close. When it finally fills the whole screen the film starts, this is a nice way of leading into a film because it seems like we are delving into the mans life. Mr Ne ff is frantically needing something, but his face is hidden so we don't actually know what he looks like until later on in the opening sequence. We want to watch it and see the identity of this man. Then we meet Mr Neffs butler or friend who is smaller than him, and opens the door for him so the audience immediately know that he is inferior to him.
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