Institutional Context

To start the making of a film, you start with the idea. This involves a source of inspiration, where you get the idea from. e.g. a book, a conversation or something that has happened to you. Then the producer decides whether to make the idea into reality. After that the director can visualize how to put the script onto the screen. The writer then defines and clarifies the idea, the story and main characters. The relationship between the producer, writer and director is the key creative triangle in the film business.

You then move onto the development finance and pitching the project to raise funds to make it happen, also approaching production companies. The producer can offer future sales in return for money to develop the script. The producer can also pitch the film to private investors in hopes to support the project.

After that, the writer has to put together the product the financiers and producer want. Firstly the writer creates a synopsis which is the first step to a good script. Most writers create a step outline to help them with the script. The draft is done next and can be the hardest part of screenwriting as the writers fee depends on their first draft. Once the writer and producer are happy, it is sent of to the financiers, whom all have different ideas of their own. Only after everyone is happy it gets locked off and the writer is finally paid. After, the producer will create a sales treatment.

With the script complete, the director and producer decide how they want to film it, and who they will employ to help them. The financing is sorted out and the cast is chosen as well as the head of departments. To turn the film into a proper business proposition, the producer must know how much the whole project will cost. The potential investors would want to know how the producer will raise the money and how they will get paid back.

There is yet again more investment searching, and the producer most likely has to travel to find some money. However this is difficult as there are many others doing the same, with sometimes the same package as them. Once all the essential funding and insurance is secured,the film gets the 'green light' and the producer can celebrate.

After the head of departments are hired, the script is passed round. The casting director, with producer and director, starts the process of casting the actors. Then the storyboarding takes place by the storyboard artist, with sometimes the DoP (photography) present. The production designer plans every aspect of how the film will look and hires people to design and build each part. The special effects are also planned carefully.

The filming can then start, and the filming team are responsible to capture everything the director and editor need to tell the story. Once the sound are lighting have been set up and the hair and make-up have been checked, the shot can begin. The actors need to be good to make the film a success, as they are the only ones being seen on screen by the public. Every special effect is carefully constructed and must be filmed with minimum risk of injury to anyone. Film productions need to be kept on schedule, otherwise they may go over budget and the insurers and financiers may step in.

The editor then makes a rough cut and puts the scenes into order. In post production sound and special effects are made and added, as well as the credits and titles. The colour may be tinted to establish the aesthetic of the film, also in the post production. After the final cut, the film reaches full cut and the film is ready for duplication.

The producer then secures the services of a sales agent to help sale the finished product. A trailer is made and highlights the most marketable aspects of the film, to make it appealing so people go to see it. The producer and sales agent collect everything together they need to sell the film to the distributors. The producer must go to extreme measures to attract attention for their product. As it turns into a hot product, the producer can negotiate good deals with distributors from around the world.

For marketing the marketing team runs test screenings to see how the film is recieved, knowing the audience is essential. The potential audience of the film are targeted with posters, cinema trailers and adverts. Also with newspaper reviews and T.V and Radio can help make a film a success with good reviews. To get the films to audiences the distributor must negotiate with cinemas to screen it. Then a premiere is used to boost the appeal with the stars that have feature in the film. With being shown in cinemas for the audience, the exhibitors take their share of the box office receipts, after which the distributors recoup their maketing costs.

There are then other windows the product can be taken. For example DVD and Video, being the most likely, but also a video game of the film or inflight movies, and the last source of revenue, terrestial tellevision or pay-per-view.

Music Ideas

Phil and I have been talking about the music tracks we may use in our film. We have decided to used two different types of music to contrast the horror to the psychological aspect.

The first track is Rammstein - Mein Teil http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=lk06_ll_vgo

The second track is The Kooks - Seaside http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=z8OLb1DK9HY

The third track is an instrumental we may not use, but will see if it fits in with the film and would only use the first bit. Ophidian - Butterfly Vip http://uk.youtube.com/watch?feature=related&v=KddV9Hq9P8Q

Planning information

Tom and I are preparing our material for the pitch on Friday right now. We decided to split the work so that he did the audience research and is preparing the Powerpoint layout and I wrote the treatment. Together we fill the rest of information. We agreed on a title and a one liner and have a clear idea what will happen in our opening sequence. During half-term I will do our storyboard.
On Friday we will see how the others react on our idea, what they find good or what should be improved. After the pitch we will post different parts of it to show our final story and all the other thoughts we have at the moment.

Analysing preliminary task

In our preliminary task we had to take the camera, go outside the classroom, take some shots of a conversation and edit it in post production.
You see a CU of a doorhandle when it moves down, we track out and tilt up to watch our character coming back from work in a MCU. We stay with him to see the shock coming over his face. This connotes that he's seen something scary. When he says "what are you doing here?" we realise there is another person on the other side of the room. We then cut to an over-shoulder shot of this person to not reveal his face. We use rule of third placing him in the right bottom corner and the other guy's face in the left top one, so we can watch his body language when the mysterious person says in a dark voice "I've come to see you!" He is filling one third of the corner whereas the other character has a bit leading room left. We had some problems situating our characters in the right positions after each shot so that it was easier to produce continuity editing. We have to be more careful with that when shooting our final task.

We tried different methods to make it look like the door shuts itself and the first attempts pulling it with a line from outside didn't look good so I just pushed it with my foot which you don't realise when you don't know so it looks much better.

As we only used diegetic sound we realised that we don't need extra sounds for everything to make it sound real. For example I liked the creaking of the door handle when it gets pushed down or the banging at the door when it's closed later.
Unfortunately the chatting from the other classrooms around disturbed a bit but we couldn't help it. When shooting our final task we have to make sure no one's around or if it is a busy place that we're just pacient and wait for the right moments.
The voices in the video are quite clear so we had no problems like wind with that.

The most difficult part to achieve was probably continuety editing. We already had our piece finished in the lesson after shooting it but there was a incident so we had to re-edit everything again and it looked different after the second time. This is why we had to do the fade to black transition so it looked at least better than the pretty harsh cut we had before. For next time we must shoot more footage to have a bigger amount to choose from, but for the first time we are pleased with the result and it was fun to make it.

Feedback #2

Tom/Phil,

You show real creativity in your preliminary task and your research is focused and informative, but not always complete. You must fill in the gaps.

Also - I would like to see more evaluation of the preliminary task, how you used continuity editing and issues with filming.

2nd analysis

13 GHOSTS

directed by Steve Beck

2001

Watching the opening of “13 Ghosts“ you realise that it is a horror film with an action element. The conventions are the deserted junk yard at night and the title which is blended on the dark images in a fire-coloured, slightly moving scripture. The contrast makes it appear more powerful. It looks like it is glowing and something is in there since there are beams of light coming out of the letters connoting evil and danger. This is supported by non-diegetic sounds like strange screams and camera movement such as steadicam tracking back instead of tracking in shapes the film to be a horror. Reading the title in this mysterious scripture the audience creates an image of ghosts as evil creatures, as they might have seen in different films.

In the first part of the opening Beck lets us get familiar with the stock location to feel the atmosphere. Cars are piled up very high, plastic bands are rustling in the wind and between all the junk there are ways where the camera moves connoting narrowness and mystery. The ground looks wet and not as if someone has been there lately giving the effect of loneliness. So the audience work out that this is an evil place to be or that something evil lives in it. Through non-verbal language we learn about the nature of our characters. Cyrus’ movements seem to be controlled and connote power and self consciousness. He doesn’t wince when one of the cars of the junk yard falls down right in front of him whereas Dennis screams and backs off. Through this one scene we learn that Cyrus is very calm and can judge situations. When he talks to Dennis after their arrival Dennis sits leaned to the car and Cyrus stands next to him connoting the power who has the power. The other men running around setting the material look very cautious as they watch out for something. They work and move very quickly connoting that they don’t have much time. Another example for the calmness of Cyrus is that his car drives into the scene very slowly compared with the impressive appearance of the rest of the crew in the big trucks. His face looks confident. But you get to know his other side when he kicks Dennis’ medication away. This connotes a lot. Not only that he doesn’t tolerate unconcentrated action but also that if necessary he doesn’t wait for others to help him and demonstrates not only psychological power. Cyrus’ costume, a large black and red coat, and his classic car make him look like a baron. The men wearing black suits with a plastic cover are identified by the audience as a special unit. The stereotypical image of the person wearing classes as being weaker than others is put on Dennis who is represented as an assistant.

The light is set very carefully used since in the darkness every lit part becomes even more powerful. The natural light of the location comes from the moon connoting that it is night. This is another convention for the horror genre and makes the whole scene look eerier. When Cyrus arrives his face is half lit, the other side left in shadow conveying that he is a man with two sides. Whereas Cyrus’ face is especially exposed the faces of the other men aren’t but their plastic jackets are. In this way we realise among other things that he is the main character whereas the light focus on the other men’s clothes connotes that these people work for him. When the cars arrive there’s fire on each side of the way which creates a frame on our screen to focus on them but at the same time make them look more dangerous.

There’s diegetic sound used e.g. the waving plastics bands rustling in the wind as well as a lot of non-diegetic sound e.g. we feel like some one is rushing past the camera even though we don’t see anyone. Right at the beginning there is a thunder used as a sound bridge from the “Dark Castle Entertainment” symbol to the first image which connects the two images audibly and adds to the horror feeling. Sometimes diegetic sound is exaggerated to enhance the dramatic effects. Beck uses this for example when the first truck breaks through the gate in the fence by letting the sound last longer than it would have done in reality and making it louder. The music comes from an orchestra and is dramatic and fast-paced displaying the speed of the images seen. We realise that the men are working very fast. To increase tension, for instance when something significant is just about to happen, the music gets louder.

There are many CUs of the main character’s faces in the opening which concentrate on their reactions and feelings, like in the conversation between Dennis and Cyrus. To make the junk yard look more bizarre swaying camera is used in canted angles for the first images. Another unusual element adding to the sense of obscurity is that we have a steadicam tracking out very fast instead of tracking in which gives the strange effect of walking reversed. To get a view over the location we see a panning over the junk yard as an ELS. When the special unit arrives the men’s lower legs are framed and we see them running. Their equipment is shown in CUs e.g. the control desk and the “cube” so we work out that they are trying to trap something or some one. Knowing the title and hearing the dialogue between Cyrus and the two captured activists the audience can work out that Cyrus captures ghosts but we don’t know the reason. When he is in a dialogue with Dennis walking through the junk yard the camera distance changes frequently from MCUs to ELS to be with the characters but at the same time see what is going on in the environment around.

Supported by camera angles, sound and verbal/ non-verbal language Beck presents us Cyrus as a powerful man who enjoys the action by climbing on top of the junk to have a good view about what’s happening. Hearing his voice giving commands you realise that he enjoys his work and being in that mighty position. Also we see that he is ruthless as he doesn’t care about other peoples opinions which disturb his work. Another negative feature of him is that he has concealed to Dennis that there is a 13^th ghost to capture, and Dennis thought the 12^th ghost was the last one.

The narrative is structured in the order that everything happens; there are no flash-backs or flash-forwards. In some parts the director uses jump cuts, however, they don’t bridge too much time. The narrative style is objective, sometimes we have shots that are similar to POV of some one lurking through the junk but most of the time the story is objective, like an unconcerned narrator in a book who just tells the story. We get dragged into the story by being shown the creepy junk yard and the feeling of some one being there in spite of the silence. This hooks us so we wonder what happens next. Tension is kept by putting action in the following scenes which shows the capture of a ghost. When we see Cyrus the first time we do not know if we should like him or not but slowly getting to know him better we alienate from him maybe because of the slightly mad expression on his face and his will to show his power. When the two activists criticise his work we wonder if what he does is ethnically right and we sympathise with them.

Ideological discourse such as male dominance is reinforced by showing men in almost all significant positions, like Cyrus in the role of the powerful ghost hunter, but no women. One of the two activists is a woman and later she cries for help like she doesn’t know what to do when the other male activist is injured.

In my opinion the target audience are men from the age of 15 because that’s the age level. Men are more likely to watch horror and action movies than women and this it what “13 Ghosts” is about. The preferred reading is that if you keep together as a family in troubled times you will surmount difficulties, even if it is a hard way. Ghosts are presented as cruel creatures that used to be human but are now dead.

Priliminary Task

Lesson - Preliminary Task

Today, we had a go at premiere elements on the computer to edit film. first of all we had drawn up a storyboard and then went out to shoot a few scenes. After coming back and editing, we found a few weak links in our final product. we found out that the changing on shots did not flow, and so the film looked quite jerky/jumpy. This was quite dissapointing and so we may have to shoot a couple scenes again. However, this is all practice towards our film opening, atleast we can learn from this and make a better video for our final piece.

Analysis of Film Opening - 'Death Sentance'

'Death Sentence' 'James Wan' '2007'

The Film ‘Death Sentence’ is a thriller/horror. This is one of many horrors that include a murder, also being of slight psychological status. The opening sequence doesn't give away the expectations of a horror genre, but instead shows the audience a home video of a young family at Christmas with the titles. The video begins to show hobbies of the children with one child being more involved with his mother painting and the elder child being into sport playing with his father. It fades into more home video, but this time the children are teenagers, all laughing connoting the close relationship between their family. This opening is an enigma as it isn't under the horror genre but you want to find out how it ties in with the rest of the film. The video goes into an office party, then fades to the office at which Nick works. A leading line is involved with a fellow worker walk into his office. Nick Hume is sitting there with a suit on and glasses. This connotes intelligence and high authority, with people coming to see him in his office. “You’re the one with the perfect kids” is a line of dialogue which sets off the change of scene to home where his two kids are fighting. The iconography and mise-en-scene in the house shows the woman cooking whilst the man comes home from work. There are typical family photos on the wall and open spaced rooms, typical of the wealthier American home. Nick only seems to talk about sport to his eldest son and the camera shows the youngest son’s reaction to his father. This tells the audience that relationship between these two could be closer. This is also evident when the father goes to see his eldest son play hockey instead of his youngest play soccer. There is CU shots in the car on the way back from hockey using the rule of thirds, so each character is never in the centre of the screen. The light shines through the front of the windscreen highlighting their faces. The camera changes to see two American muscle cars accelerating, then a CU of the car hood shows decal, showing that they are gang cars. Going back to Nick’s car the camera peds down to see his lights flashing signalling to the gang cars as they have no lights on. The camera shows the father talking with the window behind him as the two American muscle cars come speeding past him to box him in. The camera begins to shake a little bit to connote urgency as he starts to brake. Then a POV shot is used to see the two cars turn off the main road. After another CU of the dashboard with the fuel level low sign flashing, a high angle shot is used to see the car turning into the gas station. The same shot used as before, probably meaning they attached a camera onto the side of the car looking in, shows an ‘out of order’ sign through his window on a gas pump. There is a long shot of the gas station to show a homeless woman in the foreground, with what seems to be shown as her trolley of belongings, picking rubbish out of a bin. This connotes that the area isn’t very wealthy. Nick begins to talk on the phone as the rule of thirds is used again to show his son in the background getting a drink through the shop window. Unfortunately, there is an ironic line of dialogue as Nick says “course, we may never see our son again” as he is talking to his wife about his eldest going to Canada for a Hockey scholarship.They break the 180 rule by shooting from behind Nick to see a dark alley in front of him, where more homeless people behind a fence, another POV shot is used to see Nick look at the homeless women across the street with her trolley. The American gang cars appear from behind Nick, where camera changes to a shot of gang members getting out of the cars with balaclavas on. A steadicam being purposely shaken with non-diegetic music is used to build the tension and urgency. A steadicam is also used in the shop spinning round quickly to see the whole action. A CU is used to see the son’s reaction on his face when a gun is pointed at him. The shots change quickly and once again the 180 rule is broken. The iconography in the garage shows little stock on the walls with very little space to move, so once again reinforcing the idea that this area isn’t wealthy. A POV shot from father is used to see murder through the window. Going back to Nick, the CU shows shock and horror on his face with slight tracking in. Also more non-diegetic music is used to show the process of thought. A handicam is used following the father as he stumbles, then quick shots of a fight makes it seem more intense. Another POV shot is used to see Nick look at the gang member’s face when he rips off his balaclava. Once again another POV shot is used when Nick stumbles into the shop and sees his son on the floor. Sound effects of blood gargling would have been added in at post production.

The ideological discourse of this film is challenging the typical American family, by getting the father involved with a gang from a different lower class neighbourhood. It also shows the father being the money earner, with the mother as a housewife.

The gang is represented as tough people who owe money to a hierarchy, doing petty jobs to make it. They are shown to be a lower class than the family who live their lives as law abiding citizens.

Discussion #1: collecting first ideas

Tom and I discussed our first ideas for our opening sequence and decided that our genre will be hybridised. It will probably be based on a thriller with elements of mystery and psychological horror.
We decided to find music as a non-diegetic soundtrack first to build up our images on it. Until now we have found some instrumental parts of songs that would help to create our preferred mood.
We think about showing two different locations, a wood in Sevenoaks for the first scene and a house at night in the second one which would both be suitable conventions for our genres. In the wood scene we want to show two male characters. First a chasing sequence just showing somebody's legs and later as a jump cut seeing him lying on the ground, a different character standing next to him who might be our main character. What we do now is find ways to introduce our characters properly and to connect different ideas to a coherent story that hooks the audience but doesn't reveal to much.
I thought about some interesting camera movements that are easy to shoot but look unusual and impressive, like moving the camera "through" a closed door or shooting a part of a conversation as a long take just using camera movements instead of cutting to change angles.
We now concentrate on discussing storyline, mise-en-scene, conventions and choosing actors.

Feedback #1

Well done - you have both significantly improved your textual analysis and this is a promising group blog. However I would like to now see posts that document your chosen genre and any discussions about ideas for your sequence - that way I can see how they tie in with your research so far.

Tom - make sure you post the rest of your analysis asap.

Analysis og film opening - I Am Legend

I AM LEGEND
directed by Francis Lawrence
2007

The genre of the film is not quite clear at the beginning as there are few typical conventions. The gun and the car are signifiers of action and the empty city has a touch of mystery. In the opening there’s no sign of the horror element yet.

Mise-en-scene is used to show us where we are and what happens. From the shape of the city and the famous places shown like Union Square and the UN building we know that we are in New York City. The silence and especially all the streets crowded with cars which are left alone leap to the eye and connote that the city is deserted. The weeds growing everywhere and the wet dirty tarmac add to this connotation as well as the few birds flying around. The director Francis Lawrence wants the audience to understand that every human life has gone. From the posters of Wicked and Mamma Mia and all the shops like H&M we are aware that the time everyone left was about 2007, the current time of the audience in the cinema. This is when we see an interview on a television screen like we were really watching it on our own one. A doctor has found a way to cure cancer. The current time in the film is given by the words “three years later” over the first image of the deserted New York to let us know that it’s been some time between the interview sequence and the new one. We make the connection between the interview and the new images so we are hooked and want to know how all of this had happened. Police and armour barriers and the cars lined to leave town help us to understand that an evacuation was going on, which signifies something dangerous was about to happen. Some houses are even packed in plastic cover, a sign of protection. Seeing one single man in this huge deserted city where everyone else is gone raises many questions. For example why isn’t he gone too, why is he alone and again what has happened to all others then? But like that we realise that he is the main character. He wears a black outfit which together with his equipment and gun makes him look like a professional. The dog sitting next to him must be his own, because we see it in all of the scenes with him. Also there are no names of actors throughout the beginning. This is unusual compared with other openings and adds to the feeling of emptiness. The title is shown at the end of the opening sequence, not disturbing the audience’s thoughts about the images seen. Thereby we have time to read the connotations properly, e.g. the professional sniper rifle of the only human character in the city combined with the scene of the running deer as a sign of his intention to hunt them. Lawrence uses natural light for his first images showing the city and sunny weather. This takes away a bit of the strangeness of the sequence whereas a thunderstorm would have connoted a current danger. But like that the lovely weather seems to be natural and gives the scene a more peaceful feeling. The warm light is used to highlight the time of the day which is the beginning of dawn.

Camera distance, angles and movement control speed of the action e.g. the tracking on one side of the car rushing past other things or static cam and slow pan up or down are used in ELS or MS to give the audience the opportunity to study the whole image and the effect of calmness. The ELS shots are used at the beginning showing the town from different places when there is no main action going on yet. This changes when the main character gets introduced. This happens with an overhead ELS tracking along a street between buildings when a car moves into the image from the bottom. The following shot is a CU so we are dragged into the action with two different camera distances. Also the windscreen of the car is used to frame the shot showing what is going on in front of the car. This gives the audience the effect of actually being in the car by themselves. The CUs of the main character’s face following draw us emotionally nearer to him, especially seeing his face deciding not to shoot the lion’s family and leave his prey he has been hunting so long behind. Lawrence lets us look over his shoulder and we see the gun aiming on what he focuses, panning left and right, like a POV shot. The character’s shape is blurred whereas what he’s focused on -in this case his prey and the lions- is sharply focused. Handicam is used when we follow the main character while hunting the deer. He runs, bends down and hides behind a car. The director uses a CU of him hiding with the car filling the background, and then panning left he reveals the deer, blurring our character once again to switch focus. We have a POV shot when hunting the deer with the car. The camera placed in front of the Ford Mustang gives us the effect that we are the car following the escaping deer.

There is almost no non-diegetic sound used except a mysterious tone when the car comes to a halt at one of the barriers and we see all the other cars just left there. There is no soundtrack during the opening and no dialogue, simply because there’s only one person. In the background you here natural sounds e.g. rustling of the trees, grasshopper humming, birds flattering and singing, seagulls screaming or the waves of the sea, but nothing human until we here the powerful motor of the Mustang. This lack of non-diegetic sound highlights the emptiness of the city and anchors the images of the deserted places. When our character hears his watch’s alarm the visual as well as the audible focus change from being concentrated on the lions to an ECU of the watch. At the same time the distance changes the volume of the alarm raises too.

The only human character in the opening is introduced only through non-verbal language because he has nobody else to speak to. The way he walks and looks around connotes he is a survivor and hunting the deer we see he does everything on his own, even getting his food. The gun and the red Ford Mustang he drives signify a tough character. But we see that he’s still touched by not shooting the lion family who took “his” prey to let them survive. The dog he’s accompanied by shows that he is not entirely alone and that he must have a very deep relationship with it being the only living creature being with him. We realise that he must be a man determined to take risks when we see his highly dangerous hunting by car. So we learn a lot about him without listening to a dialogue. It is very important for the director to let a big star like Will Smith play the main character, because he is the only actor playing.

There are leading lines and rule of third used throughout the opening. For example vertical lines of the skyscrapers and the streets disappear with distance and the lines of the pavement leading towards the main focus. When the survivor hides behind the car to shoot the deer, his prey is in the top left corner in the background whereas he is placed in the bottom right corner of the foreground. In post production Lawrence has edited the images using jump cuts, for example when the car races to the other side of the tunnel the deer is running through and a long take in the scene where the main character hides behind the car watching the deer to give the scene the effect of happening in real life time.

The narrative is structured in the order that everything happens. Right at the beginning we have a jump from the interview to the new New York City. Between those two points on the timeline there’s a gap of three years. The director uses the scene where our character spares the lions’ lives as a technique of identification so we like him. Tension is created by showing the deserted city and maintained by keeping this picture of a catastrophe in mind, for example seeing all the mysteriously left cars, the posters and all the sign of former human living.

As there’s only one human in the opening you can’t tell much about social groups, and you can’t tell much about this person’s background because there’s no society left, it’s the same with any social structure. The ideological discourse with reference to gender is that the only person who survived is a man, so we see him as the one strong hero. He is muscular, black and tall so physical strength connotes power and it challenges racism, choosing a black actor. Killing non-human live to survive is reinforced like the old model of hunter and prey, whereas unnecessary killing is challenged. Since there are no female characters or children at all you connote there aren't any left which makes men look more powerful than both women and children. This is a common ideology in many films, for example all superheros like Batman, Spiderman and Superman are as their names denote male.

The target audience are basically male teenagers and men favouring action, mystery and horror who are able to put the connotations together to a story that makes sense. The preferred reading is that human race has been vanished for some reason having to do with a cure for cancer discovered 3 years earlier. The audience can hardly miss that there is only one person left in New York City that has somehow survived. This character is tough and has managed to stay alive all the time. The reading can be influenced by different factors, for example the target audience has probably seen other films with Will Smith so they know what kind of film it must be and may suspect what could happen in different situations. The director wouldn’t have paid that much attention to the hunting scene where the survivor hides behind the car if he had just wanted to let his character shoot the deer. Showing this scene we get to know the character’s mind when we see how he acts.

Analysis of Film Opening - 'Disturbia'

'Disturbia' 'D.J Caruso' '2007'

The Film ‘Disturbia’ is a teen-targeted thriller/horror. This is one of many horrors that are psychological. The opening sequence doesn't give away the expectations of a horror genre, but instead shows the audience a traumatic experience for the main character, Kale.
This opening is an enigma as it isn't under the horror genre but you want to find out how it ties in with the rest of the film. As the film starts there is a voice over of a mysterious man talking about whether 'He can see us?' but 'He can feel us watching him'. This is ironic for a later part in the film, but yet no characters have been introduced, connoting the mystery. The conventions of a horror are the stock characters, with one main role, Kale, who has to compete with the stock plots with a kidnapping or murder. The stock locations may include an old haunted house or woods, but this film challenges that idea and sets it in a normal everyday life of the normal everyday American teenager. Kale still strongly remembers his father and this is evident in the film when his mother agrees to go out with the next door neighbour but Kale answers at the same time with “that’s never ‘gunna’ happen” , with the typical language from a teenager.

The iconography with mise-en-Scene conveys a happy relationship between two characters, father and son. They are shown from the camera panning up with non-diegetic music with a peaceful, derelict landscape with only a river and the characters with mountains surrounding them. An ELS is used to show this. Whilst the two characters talk, there are motivated cuts where the cuts coincide with changes of speaker and so cause the audience to accept the comparison of time. The rule of thirds is also used quite a lot in the opening and throughout the film to make the audience focus on particular things first. There is also leading room and head room for the characters so they don’t look squashed into the shot. The camera changes to a close up of a fish to show a POV shot from the character to see what he is seeing. The main character appears fist with his father apart from him, but then gets closer connoting the father son 'bonding' experience.
In the car the camera is focused onto the father’s face, which means that something important will happen to him, although you can here Kale talking on the phone, because of the camera trick, you automatically focus on what the father is doing. Kale is talking to his mother which triggers a motivated shot tracking their house, still talking on the phone. Their joking with each other shows that they are a close family who get along with each other really well.
There is a close up of the wing mirror as a POV shot to see a car, with, what seems to be sound effect of a car, to make it sound louder. This connotes dangerous driving, when you hear a loud car engine. With the crash, there are many CU shots with quick changing cutting rate, which are used for deliberate interruptions to shock, surprise or emphasize. So this is used to elaborate the crash. Non-diegetic music gets played with a panning shot through the windscreen to show what condition the characters are in, and then close ups in the car to feel like you are in the action, but not upside down. Another close up of Kale's face shows shock on his face as he says 'Dad'. This also shows that something is going to happen, then cuts to another car hurling towards them. A tracking shot of the car with a Steadicam shows the personal belongings in the car boot sprawled along the road with one character struggling to get out. But no identity is shown for a bit which leads to a bit of an enigma. As Kale struggles to get out there are many sound effects like ripping clothes and broken glass which would have been added onto it in Post Production. Kale looks at his father in shock with the camera tracking into his face to emphasize the emotion. As violin music starts playing, to set that it is a sad time, the screen turns blank and the title fades in. There then is a sound break with a school bell into a school corridor at a high angle with writing along the bottom saying one year later, telling the audience that one year has passed since the car crash. As the bell finishes, the camera enters a classroom panning across the students. There is a typical clothed teen rebel reciting a Spanish essay, being the class clown, which introduces a character which seems to be popular with everyone but one girl in his class, but no main lead to whether this character is involved with the story or not. Kale is asleep in class and not concentrating, showing that he has gone off the rails after witnessing his father’s death.

The narrative is linear but with a gap between the opening sequence to the rest. The audience are positioned to camera shots from behind him and POV shots, being ‘on his side’. Kale is shown as being a normal American teenager at school, but having lost his father in a car crash, he has not been concentrating in class and he has become further apart from his mother. The tension is maintained in this film with many double bluffs from the killer and little clues with irony too. There is also silence in some films which makes the audience nervous to what is happening.

The ideological discourse in this film is reinforced that the main 'hero' in a horror is male. Also the killer stock character seems to be male too, also with a typical ‘girl next door’ who plays a part. The representations of social groups whom may be discussed in this film may be the teenagers who may have lost a parent and showing how they deal with the stress of their loss. This is very evident in this film as they used to be a close family, and now the mother and Kale seem to be further apart in terms of their relationship. The target audience would seem to be the teen age as the main role is taken up by a rising star in Hollywood at that age. This actor is important for the film as many teenagers know who he is, so would maybe like to see this film.
Tom Johnson 12Y

My moodboard on Thriller/Horror/Mystery. You see
some stock locations such as a foggy wood, dark basement, colours which are dark and faded and iconography e.g. a knife or the crucefix (rather religious). This will
help us to create our opening sequence which is a psychological horror. The persons'faces shown are fearful because they are under huge psychic pressure. It's all about fright, murder and seeing people's desperate reactions when they face their biggest fears.