He's Just Not That Into You Analysis

 

He's Just Not That Into You is a 2009 rom-com that features an ensemble cast featuring Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Bradley Cooper and Scarlet Johansson. The opening shot establishes the location of the opening scene, a park for children. As the camera pans across we see kids running around and having fun. We see a young boy walk up to a girl who is playing in the sand and push her over. The girl is shown through high-angle shots to make her seem more vulnerable and weak compared to the young boy. The shot/reverse shot technique is used to show the boy insulting the girl and then the girls reaction before the boy runs away. The female narrator that accompanies this scene starts off by stating "a girl will never forget the first boy she likes." The film has already subverted audience expectations, making the scene seem as if it will show 2 romantic leads falling in love at a young age (through the narration) but instead showing the boy insulting and upsetting the girl. 2 genre conventions are displayed here, first the supposed love interests disliking each other at the start of the film, and second the unlucky girl who the audience sympathises with. Background music and the general sound of children playing makes up the ambient sound of the scene, which works to set a light tone for the location as would be expected for a childrens play park on a sunny day.

The young girl runs to her mother crying and explaining what happened. When the mother tells the young girl that the boy only did those things because he likes her, the narrator says "there it is, there's the beginning of our problem." This lets the audience know that was not just a throwaway line and must hold some importance to the plot of the film. The realism of the scene is slightly broken at this point, where it looks like the characters on screen can hear the narrator. The narrator asks "do you know what this means?" and the young girl (who is in close-up) shakes her head as if responding to the narrator. There was nothing shown on screen that the girl could have been answering so it can only be assumed she is responding to the non-digetic question that only the audience are supposed to hear. At this point, a lengthy montage begins, and the background music is now more upbeat and faster to match the increased pace of the shots. The montage shows many different scenes featuring women of various ages, ethnicity and cultures all giving different excuses and explanations to other women as to why a man hasn't called them. This is meant to show the similarity of women worldwide and draw in the audience to the idea and theme the film is trying to work with. At the end of the montage the narrator comments on this and asks rhetorically why women do this to each other and mentions "the one obvious truth that is staring everyone in the face..." At this the titles open, as if finishing the narrators sentence.

Rom-Com Target Audience

A romantic-comedy film mainly targets 13-18 year old women although sometimes they can be older. This is because women like to see a perfect relationship or imagine themselves be swept away by a prince charming kind of character. Teenage girls are targeted most as they are an age group with the highest number of single people who would like to imagine a perfect romance. Men are stereo-typically against romance films as films of this genre are always more feminine and a man would be less inclined to see it as it would make him look effeminate. The date scene is also a target of this genre as they hope couples that are out on a date will see a romance based film.

The lead character in a rom-com will almost always be constructed to reflect the audience as close as possible. A young, single woman with a relatively boring life and a tendency for getting into awkward situations will either match most of its target audiences lives or be worse than them. If the audience sees someone who is worse off than them getting into a relationship the film can act to inspire the audience and that they will also find someone, so reassurance is a major reason people like to see these kinds of films. Another reason this genre appeals to certain people would be how these films play on certain themes that the majority of the audience would be concerned with.

Never finding a partner may be of concern to a lot of teenage girls and this is raised and subverted in the common rom-com. Getting into awkward situations and moments are also a major concern of a lot of women and rom-coms always feature a scene where the lead will somehow be embarrassed in front of a room full of friends and family. Seeing a character in an embarrassing situation that exceeds all of the audiences in terms of level of embarrassment comforts the audience, as they can see someone that is worse off than them. The more socially awkward the lead is the more effective their romance is on the audience.

Rom-Com Conventions

This is a minmap I created detailing many of the typical characters, plot devices and  basic structure of most romantic-comedy films.

Nightmare on Elm Street Analysis

 

A Nightmare on Elm Street is a 1984 American horror film that is part of the sub-genre of slasher films. The film follows a group of teenagers who are killed in their dreams by Freddie Krueger, a serial killer with self-made gloves made of knives that he uses to stab his victims. The opening scene begins with us being introduced to Freddie. The scenes background music introduces the dark tone with creepy off key piano music being played. Only parts of him are shown, such as a close-up of his boots and a close-up of his hands as he grabs things. He is shown creating his gloves, hammering and crafting the knives before putting them on the gloves. The use of multiple close-up shots makes it so the audience cannot see the full picture of whats going on, as well as not revealing what Freddie looks like. This builds anticipation. We can see from his hands that he is dirty which conforms to stereotypes of killers in horror movies, being loners who don't care about their appearance or what people think of them because they are psychologically unstable. After another close-up of Freddie wearing the glove and testing it out the titles appear, which are red and bloody. This is an outdated use of titles which you don't normally see in modern horrors, as the bloody titles are now seen as a bit cliche.

After the titles we see Freddie stabbing a thin sheet with the glove and slowly ripping downwards. This is accompanied with the non-digetic sound of someone screaming out in pain.The colour of the sheet is skin-like, which makes the audience visualise the obvious connotation of Freddie stabbing his victims. This also shows the threat that he imposes. We then have another close-up of a young girl, whose expression tells us she is clearly scared. This is a perspective change in the scene so Freddie is no longer the primary focus, instead this girl is. The use of a young girl appeals to the target audience of teenagers as most horror films seek to do, so the audience can imagine themselves being in the situation and are scared more as a result of this. A long shot of the girl running down a corridor towards camera makes her seem very small compared to the creepy corridor, which makes her look more vulnerable and less powerful in comparison to her surroundings. The audience are given many shots of the girl that have a long duration, which gives her prevalence in the scene and makes us sympathise with her. The length of the shots also slows the pace of the film down to a painful grind, building anticipation of Freddie's arrival. Non-digetic cackling is heard which informs us as to Freddie's presence, as well as shots of the girl that show him in the far background or just shows the audience his shadow. 

The location of this part of the opening scene works well to set the frightening tone the film is aiming for through the lighting and atmosphere the location presents. The lighting is always kept quite dark which is a typical convention of most horror films. The location itself seems to be some kind of factory, with metal everywhere representing a dangerous environment as well as drawing comparisons with the metal knives Freddie uses. After a close up of Freddie's knives scraping against a metal pipe, we see the same shot of him stabbing a thin skin-like sheet before starting to chase the girl. We have a lengthy point of view shot showing the girl running away from Freddie's perspective. Freddie seemingly corners the young girl so she has no way out, playing on audiences fears of being trapped. When she stops screaming and opens her eyes, Freddie is gone, before he pops up behind her (still in shadow) and goes to stab her. Just then we have a genre convention displayed in many films across multiple genres as the girl wakes up in bed, showing that it was all a dream. The increasing pace of the shots returns to a normal pace and the background music stops, which juxtaposes the tension of the dream sequence with the normality of real life. The opening scene is effective at introducing our antagonist without revealing him to build anticipation for his reveal later in the film, much like Jaws opening scene does.

Jaws Opening Scene Analysis

Jaws is a 1975 American horror film about a shark that attacks beach goers at a fictional beach side town, and follows the shark hunters and scientists that try to capture it. The film opens with a couple going skinny dipping in the sea early in the morning. Both characters are young people, appealing to the horror genres target audience of teenagers by helping them to relate to the events onscreen. The fact the scene is set so early in the morning when the sun has hardly risen suggests the characters have been out all night, which also appeals to the target audience as they like to imagine themselves taking part in a wild all night party that ends up with skinny dipping on a beach. The scene also opens with establishing shots of the beach and the sunrise, which also introduces the male character who is shown in the foreground. The audience can connote he is unintelligent but sociable, a typical 'jock' character which is a genre convention of a lot of teenage horror films. We see these characteristics displayed by the characters clumsiness, falling down a sandy bank as he runs after the girl but also his good humoured nature shown through his speech. He says "I can swim! I just can't walk, or dress myself," which refers to his falling over and struggle to get his clothes off.

The second establishing shot we get is a long shot of the beach leading on to the sea, with the sea in the background of the shot. The girl runs from the camera to the sea and dives in, then starts swimming away. The girl seems to be having fun, as we can tell through her body language (doing handstands in the water etc.). We have a close-up of the girl, although she is still not fully visible due to the dark lighting of the shot. The non-digetic sound of seagulls also lets the audience know this is a sunrise, rather than a sunset. We then have a shot of the girl swimming from under the water. We know this is from the sharks point of view and the scene is suddenly made tense. The background music that begins with this shot helps create this tension, as it features very slow ominous and deep tones. Another shot shows the camera creeping slowly towards the woman from under the water as she floats there kicking her legs. These shots are very long and drawn out to bring the film to a painful slow speed to increase the anticipation of the audience. The background music slowly changes into a variation of the sound motif of the shark that is now so famous in movie culture. The tense tones lead up to the sharks attack of the woman.

The pace of the shots quicken as soon as the woman is attacked to show the pace of the action and the threat and speed of the shark. The woman is dragged under the water and then thrashed around violently by the shark as she screams for help. Juxtaposed shots between the terrifying situation the girl is in to the calm relaxed situation of the boy lying drunk on the beach makes the girls shots seem more dramatic. After more close-ups of the girl screaming for help and mid-shots tracking her movements through the water, she is suddenly dragged underneath the surface. Her screams and the loud tension music cut off abruptly as soon as she is out of sight, and the shot ends with 3-4 seconds of silence just showing the slow movements of the waves. This shows how quickly things seem to return to normal again after the attack, and the fact the scene happened in the middle of the sea suggests no one will find out about what happened to the girl. This works to make the threat of the shark seem greater, as its victims vanish without any trace. The fact we never actually see the shark throughout this opening scene also makes it more frightening, as this plays on audiences fear of the unknown. This also builds anticipation for the reveal of the shark later on in the film.

Halloween Opening Scene Analysis

 

Halloween is a 2007 horror film directed by Rob Zombie. It is a remake of the original Halloween film, released in 1978. The mise-en-scene of the opening shot introduces the creepy aspect to the film immediately to the audience. A small boy wearing a frightening clown mask while playing with a rat is shown in a close-up shot. The evil child is a convention used in many classic horror films such as Orphan, The Omen and The Exorcist. Although now seen as a bit cliche, the use of children as the antagonist of a horror film plays on audience fears by taking a type of person normally so innocent and naive and turning them into a feared and knowing evil. The audience knows the boy in the first shot of this film is, at the very least, creepy as the lighting of the shot suggests it is daytime and he is inside wearing a evil-looking mask playing with an animal associated with dirt and disease. The background music is digetic, playing from a radio somewhere in the house. The rock and roll sounding music suggests a house that is chaotic and uncaring, as playing that kind of music so loudly suggests the characters do not care about each others peace and quiet.

The following shots introduce us to the mother and father of this house. The man seems unhygienic and suggests he doesn't care about his appearance, we see this through his long hair and unshaven beard. The dialogue exchanged also tells us he is unemployed and the audience get the image of him being a lazy character. We start to see the hateful dynamic of this family as these 2 characters seem to hate each other and using obscene language in front of their baby shows they are unloving. The shots are edited so the baby gets the prevalence of this scene, we as the audience are meant to sympathise with this crying baby and the amount of screen-time the baby gets supports this.

We are also introduced to the parents daughter, a teenage girl who conforms to most stereotypes. She shows her rudeness, uncaring attitude and laziness by throwing a fuss when asked to fetch her brother from upstairs, as well as demonstrating the "environmentally aware" phase teenage girls supposedly go through according to movies. She even makes a joke about her mum having an abortion and seems to genuinely dislike her. The fact jokes like these are being made around the breakfast table without any hint of this behavior being unnatural reinforces to the audience that this is not a normal family and they are all uniquely weird and crazy. The dad then makes another comment that shows his dark personality by suggesting he is attracted to his daughter. This brings in a theme represented in many other horror films, incest. Mainly used to show a weird community or cannibal films, this makes the viewer uncomfortable as well as showing why the evil child we were introduced to may have such a weird personality. The mother reacts to this comment by slapping the man, who then knocks all the objects on the table on the floor. This shows just how badly broken this home is, and demonstrates another theme of films, domestic abuse.

The scene then cuts to show the sister getting her brother, who is locked in the bathroom. We have a close-up of the boy trying to wash the blood off his hands and a small knife. We as an audience wonder why he has blood on him, but know it can't be a very good reason. After a few shots of the father calling the son a "freak" to the mother and saying he is "probably a queer" the boy enters the kitchen. The name-calling of his family and the mans homophobia assures the audience they are right for disliking this character. The boy tells his mother that "Elvis died, I had to flush him." The audience now knows that the blood came from the boy killing the rat he was playing with in the opening shot, proving what a sinister and evil child he is.

Horror Target Audience

Horror films tend to be targeted at around 15-25 year old people. Anyone younger than 15 could only see a horror film that had a certificate of 12, which would be hard to make scary without the blood and gore that 15 and 18 rated films are allowed. Anyone over the age of 25 is generally too mature to be scared by horror films and tend to dislike them. This could also be because the majority of horror films reuse the same old cliches and stereotypes over and over again and most lack originality, meaning by a certain age you're likely to get bored of them as you know exactly what to expect. The way this age group is targeted is by making it as easy as possible for them to relate to the characters onscreen. Almost every horror film ever made features teenagers as the main characters (or victims) so teenagers and young adults will be the age group that can best imagine and put themselves in the situation the film presents. This makes the film more enjoyable to the viewer if they can put themselves in the action as everything that happens in the film feels more real and evokes more genuine emotion out of the audience.

Within this age group, horror films are usually more male-focused. The violence and terror that comes with a horror film is meant to appeal to men, who enjoy proving their masculinity by refusing to be scared by it all. Women are stereo typically more frightened by horror films but still enjoy them and the rush that comes with them. Horror films also target the date scene, with couples often persuaded to see a horror film. This is because the man enjoys "protecting" the women during the films more frightening moments.

Horror films work to play on the audiences interests in order to scare them. For example, a reoccurring theme in the genre is to have lengthy scenes in almost total darkness, or having the villain always in shadow rather than being fully shown (Halloween being a good example). This plays on the audiences fear of the unknown, and interest in what lays in the darkness. If a dark room is being navigated by one of the main characters, the audience is immediately more frightened by this than if they were exploring a room in full light. This is due to the mixture of confusion at the surroundings they have been presented and the knowing that the threat could be as little as a second away, just not in view. Another theme that comes up in most horror films is sex. This again plays with the audiences interests (particular with the age group being targeted) and is almost always interrupted or immediately followed by the arrival of the serial killer/lunatic/ghost. Instead of using the audiences interests to discomfort them like the darkness example, this time the audiences interests are used to make them more comfortable as the situation is familiar and less threatening. This makes the sudden shift in tone more shocking to the audience when the antagonist shows up, and therefore more frightening.

Horror Conventions

Here is a mindmap I created which details all the conventions and typical plot features of your average horror film.

Film Brief

We settled on a action genre for our 2 minute opening scene. The beginning of the scene will introduce our unnamed protagonist and feature him getting off of a train. He'll be wearing a suit, tie and smart shoes so the audience knows he is a professional character. He'll be holding a briefcase that has quite a few close-up shots so the audience knows it is important in the scene. The protagonist will walk through the barriers of the train station which is when we have the first front-on shot of the character.

We'll then have a few establishing shots of a forest or wooded area and track the characters movements through the location. The character will be on the phone talking about "delivering the package soon," so the audience know he is comitting underhand activities or a crime. A mysterious figure will be shown watching the character through the trees, shown in soft focus at first so the audience cannot make out what he looks like, increasing tension. A close-up of the character will be shown as he hears the sound of a twig snapping behind him and turns to see what caused it. An extreme close-up of the man tightening his grip on the briefcase will be shown to reinforce to the audience that this briefcase is important.

After a few seconds of silence, the focus pull of the shot will switch from the background (where the character is) to the foreground to show a crossbow bolt fired into a nearby tree. The focus pull will revert back to the background and show the characters fearful expression before he begins to run away. As he runs, several shots of the mans attacker will be shown, but never in full focus to always obscured by trees to increase the idea of the attacker operating in the shadows, not wanting to be seen. An over the shoulder shot will show the attacker aiming and firing at the man and will quickly cut to a mid-shot of the man falling as he runs with an arrow sticking out of his leg.

The man will shout out in pain and will lie against a tree trunk. A point of view shot from the mans perspective will show the attacker approaching him and stealing the briefcase. Shots will interchange between the attacker forcing the briefcase open and the man looking at his leg with the arrow through it whilst it bleeds. When the attacker cannot open the briefcase, he points the crossbow at point blank range to the mans head and asks him what the code is. The man initially refuses and the attacker twists the arrow deeper into the mans wound as he screams he pain. When the attacker asks again, the man tells him the code, then we have an extreme close-up of the trigger being pulled and hear the sound of the man slumping to the floor. The attacker opens the briefcase and looks inside, a close-up of the man smiling at the briefcases contents is shown. The attacker steals the mans phone and redials the previous number. He says "the package has been delivered." As he walks away from the camera, the titles are shown.

Actor Interview #2

 

We chose this actor as he fits in with our target audience of teenagers and young people in general and also has an interest in media and films so should be a good helping hand production-wise. He also fits our antagonist character description well which will add realism to the characters and the scene overall.

Actor Interview #1

 

We chose to use this actor as he has previous acting experience through his drama work at school and also appeals to our teenage target audience as he is a teenager himself. He also fits the character we have written for him quite well so should hopefully make the film more realistic.

Initial Film Ideas

This is a mind map of our 2 initial film ideas. Neither are fully constructed and we haven't yet chosen a genre or idea to focus on as of yet. After further discussions we'll make our final choice.

Preliminary Task

 

This is our preliminary task. We had to film and edit a short scene that showed match on action and featured a short piece of dialogue whilst keeping to the 180 rule. While we're pleased with our editing of the door opening shots it is clear we have room for improvement. Specifically, what is most dissapointing with the clip is the lack of continuity, as the 2 characters eyelines do not not line up correctly. This takes away from the realism of the scene and makes it look amatuerish. We will keep this mistake in mind in future filming and editing and make sure that continuity is kept throughout the scene. We are still happy with our use of match on action with the door being opened and our understanding of the 180 rule, which hopefully will mean our audience is not confused and know where our characters are in relation eachother.

Research and Planning Targets

Well done Ronnie - a very nice start to your research and planning - but remember to post regularly and push yourself to be independant. For your analysis of opening two minutes make sure you comment on the following things to show a broad understanding and appreciation: Target Audience Narrative Characters Use of titles Pace of editing Mise en Scene Camera Composition Use of sound Genre conventions A really good start - you now need to begin to evidence detailed planning for your production, which needs to be detailed and thorough.

Match on Action

 

Match on action (or match cutting) is an editing technique that makes shots seem more fluid and realistic to the audience. A shot may end with a character reaching for a door handle and the next shot will begin with that character reaching for or grabbing that door handle. Another example would be a shot ending with a character jumping in midair and the next shot beginning with that character starting to fall back down to the ground. Without match cutting a scene can look wonky and disjointed with viewers missing certain moments and may find the scene more confusing. A few examples from an episode of Friends can be found above.

Shot Reverse Shot

 

Shot reverse shot is a filming technique where a shot of a character speaking is followed by a shot of another characters reaction and response to the 1st character. The following shot then shows the 1st character again and this continues throughout the scene. Quite often a scene using this technique will have to be shot twice if the film is being shot using only 1 camera. This is so the first time round they can record the 1st characters speech and reactions and the second time round record the 2nd characters speech and reactions. These clips can then be edited together in post-production into 1 fluid conversation. An example of shot reverse shot being used in a scene would be from The Hunger Games, found above.

180 Rule

 

The 180 rule is a rule filmmakers mostly abide by in order to avoid disorientating and confusing the audience. It states that the camera cannot cut to show the same person or object from the opposite side from which they were first shown, as this messes up the direction of action and can confuse the viewer. The imaginary line of action is between a character and whatever object or person they are interacting with. Crossing this line through a straight cut can be confusing for the viewer. However, the 180 rule can be broken without confusing the viewer if the camera pans from one side of the line of action to the other in the same shot, as viewers know where they are. This is explained in more depth in the above tutorial video.

Media Clips

 

This is our first piece of filming, demonstrating different shot types and how we can alter the atmosphere of a shot by the way dialogue is delivered. We're most happy with the location of the third shot which also demonstrated our use of lighting. We got a basic understanding of how the editing software works, also exploring different transitions and use of titles. We'd like to make our shots more stable in following shoots to make it look less amateurish and more professional. As a first shoot without a tripod though, we're still quite happy with our shots. I think the most effective part of this first film would be the varied shot types we use, from close-up in the first shot, mid-shot in the second shot and a long-shot in the final shot. To improve we need to make the shots more stable and realistic, also need to find a way to improve sound as sound quality could be improved.

This was an enjoyable task for us and we're already looking forward to filming and editing more tasks.

Hot Fuzz Opening Scene Analysis

 

Hot Fuzz is a 2007 action-comedy directed by Edgar Wright and starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. It centers around lead character Nicholas Angel, a by the books determined police officer who is transferred from London to Gloucestershire after making his colleagues look bad.

The film opens with a long shot of a corridor in a modern building. Automatic doors open to reveal a man walking straight down the corridor towards the camera confidently. The sound the doors make as they open is asynchronous as their sound is amplified. This highlights the lack of noise in the shot and makes the character stand out as his footsteps are the only other sound. The audience can connote this character is an integral part of the story as the length of the shot is very long and focuses entirely on this character. The length of the corridor itself and the time it takes for the character to come close enough to the camera so his face can be made out also highlights his importance as the length of the opening shot acts as a sort of build up until the reveal. It is clear the man is a police officer by his uniform and this lets the audience know that police work will be involved in this story. The character is identified as "police constable Nicholas Angel" by a voice-over and by his I.D, which he shows directly to the camera. This works to immerse the audience in the action of the film.

A series of fast-paced shots begin, with a close-up of the characters shoes as he walks down a busy office corridor and a medium shot of the character from a side-perspective that matches his pace. The pace of editing suggests that the protagonist is a energetic man of action. The transitions between each shot are a wipe masked by someone walking past very close to the camera lens. This gives the scene a feeling of high tension as the audience are being shown things from many different perspectives in a short space of time. The costume-work suggests to the audience that this man is very professional and tidy, as his uniform is immaculate. This idea is reinforced by the ongoing voice-over that accompanies this opening scene, which lists all the achievements of, and gives us a brief history of , the lead character. This shows the audience that Nicholas is good at his job.

As the voice-over gives us the backstory of the character we see these events described played out. When Nicholas' time in riot training are mentioned, the pace of the shots increases dramatically. The audience only has brief glimpses of the characters as well as the fire that takes prevalence of these shots as it connotes danger and action. The shots in this segment are deliberately shaky to show the chaos of the situation. This action is sharply juxtaposed with the following shots, which show Nicholas completing a written examination. The film chooses to make out these shots to be carrying on with the action-packed feeling of the preceding shots for comedic effect. The film achieves this by zooming in on the leads face as he completes his test to show him with a serious expression as if in a dangerous situation. Also an extreme close-up shot of the pen as he clicks the end of it is shown, which is jokingly made out to be of importance. This lets the audience know of the comedy aspect of the film as well as the action aspect which is shown in the shots featuring the fire and rioting.

We get some low angle shots of the character back in the present, striding through the police station. This makes the character seem more powerful and confident. Action match is used in the editing to highlight the characters routine and the mundane nature of his job. We get a medium shot of the lead talking to 2 old ladies standing either side of him, then the following shot is set-up exactly the same, except in a different location and with a Chinese couple rather than the 2 old ladies. The action and comedy aspect of the film is reinforced again when we see the lead in an advance driving course. This features lots of high-speed driving and drifting, which contrast heavily to the advanced cycling course seen in the following shot. The driving would show the action of the film and the cycling would represent the comedy. What links the 2 genres in these 2 shots is the main character looking directly at the camera with a serious expression, drawing comparisons between the different shots.

The Bourne Supremacy Opening Scene Analysis

 

The Bourne Supremacy is a 2004 action film directed by Paul Greengrass, a sequel to 2002's The Bourne Identity. It stars Matt Damon and follows the story of Jason Bourne, a CIA agent suffering from amnesia.

The first shot of the film is an over-the-shoulder shot of a man driving down a road at night with terrential rain outside. This stormy weather connotes there is a purpose to this trip. The shots are slowed down and blurred to give the impression that these events take in a time before the events of the film, as if it is a memory someone is struggling to remember fully. As audiences have seen the preceding installment they know the main character suffers from amnesia and that these are more than likely flashbacks from that character. A voice-over begins that says "this is not a drill soldier," intercut with more fast paced shots of the road, the windows of the car and a hotel room door number. This voiceover tells us the character remembering these events is someone who is following orders from an authorative figure. The short fast paced shots of different locations give the audience a small glimpse of what is happening but nothing that can explain these events.

As the short shots begin to speed up and build pace the low, ominous tones that have accompanied the opening up until then begin to take a higher and higher pitch, showing the escalating darkness and violence of the shots. We see a silhoutte of a man lurking in what looks like a hotel room. This tells the audience that the man we see lurking is the same one who is remembering these evnts as we had the point of view shot of the hotel room door. We can also piece together that this man is in this hotel room to carry out orders from the voiceover. The audience then hears non-digetic sound of a woman pleading and crying and getting louder and louder until a gunshot is heard and we cut instantly to a close-up of the main protagonist laying in bed.

This opening montage works to make the audience piece together the different non-chronological events into their own sort of narrative, which takes the form of a man being given orders from someone that he needs to carry out in a hotel room, that involves a woman pleading before getting shot. After the audience pieces together this information they then wait throughout the remainder of the film to have their suspicions of what happened either confirmed or denied. This builds intrigue and tension as the audience do not know the big picture of what happened. The shot of the main character lying in bed is focused and a longer shot than the rest, showing that this is back in the present of the film and what we just saw was a dream the main character was having. The main character, Jason, is never shown in full light for these shots, always in darkness like he was in the montage. This connotes spy work as the characters are sticking to the shadows as if they're hiding, which also suggests what they are doing is underhand or deceptive.

Jason gets out of bed  in the middle of the night and goes to the bathroom. Text appears at the bottom of the screen revealing the location as Goa, India. The text it self is all-capitals and very official looking, and each letter appears in succession as if being typed. This also works the idea of governmental presence in the film. The audience is then introudced to a female character through multiple medium shots. She watches Jason in the bathroom with a concerned look on her face to which he says "it's ok, I'm fine, it's just a headache" This suggests that the nightmare we just saw him having and him waking up in cold sweats is a recurring event as the female character would not be as concerned if this had never happened before. The audience knows this woman is a romantic interest to the lead, as she slept in the same bed as him and throughout the scene shows great care over Jason, noting that he is burning up and attempting to cool him down. This also works to make the audience sympathise for her character. The characters connection is also shown by the amount of two-shots with both characters in.

The opening of the film works to make the audience sympathise for the lead and his romantic interest and highlights the mystery surrounding the characters past which can then be explored further throughout the film.

Saw Opening Scene Analysis

Saw is a 2004 horror film directed by James Wan, who more recently directed the Insidious films and is set to direct the upcoming Fast and Furious 7. The film is not a conventional horror film, instead slotting into a sub-genre of horror called torture-porn. The film follows the case of the Jigsaw killer, who captures seemingly innocent people and puts them into traps that force them to cause great harm to themselves in order to escape death. The film stars Danny Glover as the main detective following the case and Cary Elwes who plays one of the Jigsaw victims.

The film opens with slow, mysterious titles that make the film see more sophisticated than other horrors that would start with quite prominent titles featuring dripping blood and screams. The first shot of the film is a close up of a man submerged underwater with his eyes closed, his face only illuminated in some areas by a small blue light that shows parts of his face. The man suddenly opens his eyes and sits up out of the water coughing and spluttering. There are a few close up shots of the plughole of the bath as the bath starts to drain, with the mysterious blue light also being flushed down the drain. This tells the audience that there is some importance to that prop and raises questions as to its significance. We then have a medium shot of the man getting out of the bath, and we see the scene is played out in almost complete darkness. The fact the location of the scene is kept a secret for the time being builds tension as the audience waits for the big reveal of the situation the character is in. 

The character realises as he tries to get up from the floor that his ankle is chained to a nearby pipe, and he is trapped. Upon this realisation the man starts to cry out "Help! Someone help me!" The writers use dialogue to make the audience sympathise with this character and root for him, as he is clearly disorientated and scared. The reason most fans of this genre pay to see these films are so they can see these awful situations and visualise themselves being part of the film. This also helps the audience to sympathise with the character as once you imagine being in that situation yourself you can see just how terrifying it would be. A loud clanging sound is heard and the audience knows the sound is digetic when the man reacts to it. His confused and scared state is reinforced when he says "is someone there? Hey!" An unknown second voice is heard that seems controlled and attempts to calm the man down. The 2nd man manages to find a light switch and flicks them on.

The sound of the lights turning on is asynchronous as it is greatly amplified to make the reveal of the location more of a shock. The sound the lights make as they turn on also sounds more like an electric shock, which also works to make the scene more scary. We have a high angle shot of the 1st character blinded by the sudden strong light which makes him seem small and vulnerable. This is comparable to the low angle shot of the room itself which makes the location seem more intimidating as well as showing the audience the characters view of the room from his fixed position. The room itself takes he form of an abandoned bathroom, with the floor and pipes rusting away and the tiles filled with dirt. The use of the location is an example of this film conforming to horror conventions as abandoned areas are a staple-point of most of these films. A possible reason for the use of abandoned areas in these types of films are that these locations have been left by civilization and any events that take place inside these types of places are sure to never reach the outside world. This heightens the sense of being trapped and far from safety and therefore also heightens the fear factor of the events. 

The audience are then shown a medium shot of the 2nd man who is older than the 1st, explaining his more controlled approach to the situation. The costumes also give the audience a clue as to the nature of these 2 characters, with the 1st, younger man wearing an open shirt with a t-shirt underneath suggesting a more laid back fashion style. The 2nd, older man on the other hand is wearing a buttoned up shirt, suggesting his is more mature and professional. The next shot begins by giving us a shot of the scene from the 2nd mans perspective, showing the 1st in a long shot. This same shot then pans down on the centre of the floor where a dead body is shown with a bullet wound to his head and a gun in his hand, with a lot of blood surrounding the body. This introduces the gore element to the audience and gives the cinema-goers a small taste of what to expect from the rest of the film. The shot is also accompanied by the non-digetic sounds of a scream, a gunshot and a tense high-pitched sound that amplifies the shock of the revelation. We then get a close up the mans hands, one of which is holding the gun, whilst the other clutches a tape recorder. This shows the audience that these props, like the blue light at the beginning, must hold some significance to the story.

The opening scene concludes with the younger man desperately pulling at his chains which shows his desperateness and maybe lack of comprehension at the finality of his situation. He is yet to accept the fact that he is trapped and instead convinces himself that pulling at the chains may offer some sort of escape from these nightmarish events. The opening scene of the film works well as it establishes the 2 main protagonists without the audience knowing a single thing about them, only the situation they are in. The scene also raises a lot of questions, such as who these people are? Who has done this to them? Where are they exactly? Why is that man dead? What was that blue light at the beginning that went down the drain? All of these questions definitely cause intrigue and make the audience want to continue watching to find the answers. However it could be argued that the amount of questions raised could make the audience feel a little alienated from the film, as they have been introduced to so many plot threads at once without knowing any information.