Scream Opening Sequence
During the first five minutes of the opening scene to the horror movie scream, we are set the scene for the rest of the movie.
The movie first starts with a title screen, from this we are given the immediate impression. The title is ghostly white with a blur of red for blood. The blurred red colour pulses with the tense sound in the background, giving the impression of a heart, until it comes to a dramatic close in which it ends with a 'Scream'- intended to be like the title of the movie, and a sudden bang, and swishing noise like a knife being hurled around. We then know her life comes to an end when the heart sounds stop and her scream is drowned out by the ringing of the telephone. This title uses mis en scene in that as the screaming in the title fades out it is also drowned out by the noise of the telephone ringing, giving the impression that no one will be able to hear you scream. The white colour of the title is used to represent the pale scared white face of a character, and also the mask of the killers is also white, with a spooky expression.
As the beginning scene actually starts after the title, we are given a connotation of the fact that she is a blonde and is representing the other horror movies we have seen in which the blonde character is in trouble and does the things we would normally expect her to do, like search round her house for the 'killer'.
As the beginning scene actually starts after the title, we are given a connotation of the fact that she is a blonde and is representing the other horror movies we have seen in which the blonde character is in trouble and does the things we would normally expect her to do, like search round her house for the 'killer'.
We are then listening to the conversation between her and the character on the phone, we cannot find anything in his voice that is recognizable, it comes off cold like that of robot, almost indexical in that we find no emotion in the character voice, like that of a robot.
As the camera then moves into the garden we are confronted by a luminous tree, it branches dark and web upwards into the night sky with small skinny branches at the end that hang over. This is also connotation in that they hangover like giant puppeteer arms controlling the swing, like the bloke is actually controlling the women inside, by the fact that the swing is moving also suggests that there has also been someone there.
Next as she picks up the phone to talk again, she is putting the popcorn on the oven, this popcorn, builds tension through this entire scene as it creates a large tense background noise, this builds and builds, until the character enters the house. While also talking to the character, she picks up one of the knives from the counter, and we see the weapon that is actually used to murder her later, but as she picks it up it creates a sound effect that resembles that of a stabbing noise, we hear a whoosh and a clunk as she places it back in the holder. This is used as foreshadowing for what is later to happen when he stabs her.
The two characters then start a conversation about horror films and this sets a very eery atmosphere, as we begin to recognize similarities between those movies and this one. For example the character on the phone even later calls her "blondie", like the blonde female character in many other horror movies.
The tense background music then starts when the character lets slip "Cause I wanna know who I am looking at", this builds with the scene as she becomes more frightened and the character on the phone becomes very angry.
After being frightened she makes a move to the doors of the house, ensuring they are locked and as she looks through the windows, we are given the suggestion that she is trapped inside the house, this created by the connotation shot of her looking through the frames of the window, this almost looks like that of prison bars.
When the door bell rings, she next asks: "Who's there, ... who's there!" and the character on the phone, again relates the similarity of her saying that, to that of other horror movies, and we relate the two to understand what is going on, and this creates fear in the viewer.
The camera angles are also used for effect in this video, in that the camera follows her almost like she is being followed by the killer. The camera also pans in for close ups when she is frightened so we see the terror in her face. But it first starts when the killer lets slip that he is watching her, the camera pans in for the close up, but the next time it happens when he releases his anger and his tone of voice completely changes, the camera then moves for even more of a close up.
The lighting in the first scene also changes with the situation, as she become for frightened, she moves through the house, and into the corridor where there is less light and there is only very dim light, from the back door, and from the small lamp next to her. The whole situation takes place at night, this lighting all perfectly represents the darkness of the situation she is in.
By Stuart Fuller
As the camera then moves into the garden we are confronted by a luminous tree, it branches dark and web upwards into the night sky with small skinny branches at the end that hang over. This is also connotation in that they hangover like giant puppeteer arms controlling the swing, like the bloke is actually controlling the women inside, by the fact that the swing is moving also suggests that there has also been someone there.
Next as she picks up the phone to talk again, she is putting the popcorn on the oven, this popcorn, builds tension through this entire scene as it creates a large tense background noise, this builds and builds, until the character enters the house. While also talking to the character, she picks up one of the knives from the counter, and we see the weapon that is actually used to murder her later, but as she picks it up it creates a sound effect that resembles that of a stabbing noise, we hear a whoosh and a clunk as she places it back in the holder. This is used as foreshadowing for what is later to happen when he stabs her.
The two characters then start a conversation about horror films and this sets a very eery atmosphere, as we begin to recognize similarities between those movies and this one. For example the character on the phone even later calls her "blondie", like the blonde female character in many other horror movies.
The tense background music then starts when the character lets slip "Cause I wanna know who I am looking at", this builds with the scene as she becomes more frightened and the character on the phone becomes very angry.
After being frightened she makes a move to the doors of the house, ensuring they are locked and as she looks through the windows, we are given the suggestion that she is trapped inside the house, this created by the connotation shot of her looking through the frames of the window, this almost looks like that of prison bars.
When the door bell rings, she next asks: "Who's there, ... who's there!" and the character on the phone, again relates the similarity of her saying that, to that of other horror movies, and we relate the two to understand what is going on, and this creates fear in the viewer.
The camera angles are also used for effect in this video, in that the camera follows her almost like she is being followed by the killer. The camera also pans in for close ups when she is frightened so we see the terror in her face. But it first starts when the killer lets slip that he is watching her, the camera pans in for the close up, but the next time it happens when he releases his anger and his tone of voice completely changes, the camera then moves for even more of a close up.
The lighting in the first scene also changes with the situation, as she become for frightened, she moves through the house, and into the corridor where there is less light and there is only very dim light, from the back door, and from the small lamp next to her. The whole situation takes place at night, this lighting all perfectly represents the darkness of the situation she is in.
By Stuart Fuller
This is really good Stuart just think about the three points below and the fact that your discussions need to also link back to how the genre is being communicated for genre analysis.
ReplyDeleteLine 3- Immediate Impression of what?
Line 20- Good discussion but wrong use of indexical.
Line 55- "as she become for" doesn't make sense.