Alien, Godzilla and Minority report can all be considered films that fit into the genre of Science Fiction.
Alien tells the audience it is a sci-fi film right from the word go. The black background with white lines (That eventually form the word alien) imply a space-like atmosphere. In the first few minutes, multiple computers and lights can be found - this fits in with Ryall's triangle - during the release (70's period) computers had started to become well known and technology was well in the public eye. The film also incorporates Auteur theory - directed by Ridley Scot the movie places a large role in that of a woman, something that is commonplace in Ridley Scott films.
Godzilla is another film we can consider science fiction; it is a remake of a popular film in the 50's under the same name. Unlike the darkness of Alien, the introduction of the movie Godzilla can actually be considered quite unconventional - the french national anthem can be heard playing in the background and the opening credits shows us an almost montage effect over time. Within this transition - the only science fiction effect that can be properly seen is the explosion of a nuclear bomb.
Minority report is the most recent of the 3 films and can be considered completely different though most of what we expect science fiction to be in the present day. Following Ryall's triangle it familiarises the audience with what we are most afraid of - that the world is becoming a big brother society.
At the start of the film, the audience is introduced to the recurring theme of water through the edit of the popular 20th century fox logo (Greyscaled and rippling). Again, different to Alien and Godzilla we notice that the main character is introduced straight away.
Minority report does indeed follow many many of the usual science fiction ideas such as new technology, inventive and updated computers and machines or abilities we are not normally used to and as such, fits into stage 2 of the Schatz cycle.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Analysis of Shrooms Opening
This analysis is based off this video (Please note, fairly disturbing):
The start of Shrooms is the only movie that has ever really scared me to the point of looking away - and is the perfect example of a horror/thriller hybrid.
The scene starts with a very conventional approach to the horror genre, we hear the sounds of panting from an unknown woman as she runs from something with fear through a forest, the panting suddenly stops with a change of shot onto a low angle of a high, scary looking building. The music also changes with the addition of abstract, sharp tones another convention used in horror and sometimes thriller. The following few shots are also fairly abstract, showing a greyscale off what seems to be a turned over bucket with something the same consistancy as blood flowing out and even more fearful, the shot of a hand of a dead body, covered in and surrounded by a pool of blade. Even more abstract sounds are used, almost like a quiet scream.
The shot again changes to the woman running and panting. The abstract music quietens now and the genre reapproaches it's thriller element. Whilst keeping it's horror element intact with a extrme blue tint.
We once again go back into greyscale and the familiar horror scene of a long corridor, though this short is only quick and is replaced by a close up of a mauled and bloody hand, shaking. The fact there is a wall next to the hand shows us this character is hiding. Again, we shoot back to the woman running in the woods...
The grayscale begins to get more abstract, we see and hear the creaking of a rope on wood, a noose? And the body of a human with a sack on it's head turns round to stare at the camera, with the music steadily growing louder.
We start to see shivering bodies, the sound of flies and a maggot infestation on flesh. And most ominously, a hooded figure with an axe slowly creeping towards the amera.
The scene closes on the hooded figure turning round, and holding a plank of wood with a nail on it - and a bloody eye staring at the ceiling.
All aspects of this introduction fit into both a horror and thriller genre. We have a rising, tense and abstract music that aided with grayscale and abstract images of long corridoors, maggots and bloody corpses create an immense feeling of terror and creates a question about what al this means.
The viewer is left without these questions answered for now, as the shot changes to the buckling of a seat in am aeroplane and a familiar character smiling.
The start of Shrooms is the only movie that has ever really scared me to the point of looking away - and is the perfect example of a horror/thriller hybrid.
The scene starts with a very conventional approach to the horror genre, we hear the sounds of panting from an unknown woman as she runs from something with fear through a forest, the panting suddenly stops with a change of shot onto a low angle of a high, scary looking building. The music also changes with the addition of abstract, sharp tones another convention used in horror and sometimes thriller. The following few shots are also fairly abstract, showing a greyscale off what seems to be a turned over bucket with something the same consistancy as blood flowing out and even more fearful, the shot of a hand of a dead body, covered in and surrounded by a pool of blade. Even more abstract sounds are used, almost like a quiet scream.
The shot again changes to the woman running and panting. The abstract music quietens now and the genre reapproaches it's thriller element. Whilst keeping it's horror element intact with a extrme blue tint.
We once again go back into greyscale and the familiar horror scene of a long corridor, though this short is only quick and is replaced by a close up of a mauled and bloody hand, shaking. The fact there is a wall next to the hand shows us this character is hiding. Again, we shoot back to the woman running in the woods...
The grayscale begins to get more abstract, we see and hear the creaking of a rope on wood, a noose? And the body of a human with a sack on it's head turns round to stare at the camera, with the music steadily growing louder.
We start to see shivering bodies, the sound of flies and a maggot infestation on flesh. And most ominously, a hooded figure with an axe slowly creeping towards the amera.
The scene closes on the hooded figure turning round, and holding a plank of wood with a nail on it - and a bloody eye staring at the ceiling.
All aspects of this introduction fit into both a horror and thriller genre. We have a rising, tense and abstract music that aided with grayscale and abstract images of long corridoors, maggots and bloody corpses create an immense feeling of terror and creates a question about what al this means.
The viewer is left without these questions answered for now, as the shot changes to the buckling of a seat in am aeroplane and a familiar character smiling.
Analysis of Saw V opening
The Saw movies are often a touchy subject among genre debaters when it comes to defining exactly where they should be placed - some feel that due to the hack and slash, gore nature, lack of dianetic sounds and forced helplessness makes the movie a horror - however, historically through Saw, specifically II,III and IV a thriller element s gained in the form of a single hero or character with a fatal flaw that is set out in either overcoming their fatal flaw or stopping the 'Jigsaw killer'.
Following on from the thriller genre is a large amount of inspired psychology elements prevelant in modern thriller movies. In most of the Saw movies the characters let slip their views about the situation or the movie offers viewers a flashback of a characters story.
Back to the task at hand, the opening of Saw V is typically conventional. the music used is non-dianetic, almost sounding like the scraping of metal, or the screaming pain of people. The first images the viewer sees is that of the companies that have directed and produced Saw - Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures. To follow on with the horror/thriller genre, both of these visual credits invoke a metal or industrial connotation. For example, the twisted pictures logo is first wrapped in rusted barbed wire, then tightened by a sharp spike to crush the text with the wire. This gives the viewer a first hint of the kind of gore they can expect to see in the film.
Our first actual shot of the film is an industrial long distance shot the zooms into an exteme close up of a rusted, grungy door. The sounds of rain, thunder and cars can be heard in the background. With more tense, abstract sounds used to create a sense of fear behind this door.
The viewer is then shown an establishing shot of the room within which the opening will take place, we can vaguely see a body laying down on a table - the next shot is a close up of this body from the side, starting at the feet, showing them in shackles and up to the head, the shot transitions into the last of a sequence of introductory credits with a fade out effect. Fading back in to reveal the face of the body, a man, who quickly jerks awake in fear. The shot starts out quite dark, and shows the man struggling in his shackles and neck restraint but quickly comes much lighter with the turn on of a light.
When the light is turned on, the shot changes again to show the restraints put in place for this man and how escape could be considered impossible. The next shot is our first step in applying auteur theory that was originally applied to Darren Lynn Bousman but is now directly applied to the Saw movies is a shot that pans out from the character slowly, then suddenly fast with an application of a sharp abstract sound to invoke fear.
The audience can hear the sound of a clock as a television set is shown. Time is a popular theme in Saw - most of the traps shown often include time and it's meaning - this is further explained in other Saw movies but is worth a mention here. What would be understood at this point, if the viewer had watched the other Saw movies is that the Jigsaw Killer is a cancer patient who has been given a date of which he will die - his use of time on his victims is almost ridiculing in a sick way.
The TV springs to life, with an overdubbed sound to create a more tense fear for the character - billy the puppet - shown on the screen.
We then have an odd sequence of shots, imagine as if you are looking at the trapped man through the TV, then back from behind the mans shoulder. As the puppet talks there are a large amount of these shot transitions. Sometimes these shots deviate such as when the puppet talks about time again, showing a clock on the wall. What should also be noted is the shot used when the puppet refers to the pendulum that will cut him in half, the character looks up towards it and as he does so, the shot changes to a first person view as if the viewer was the character staring up at the pendulum and axe, which is quickly lighted to invoke anticipation and fear.
As the pendulum first drops, we can hear the loud sound of the clock ticking, with the shot changing to the view of the trapped victims face - screaming in slow motion. The viewer is then s hown an overhead shot of the pendulum, looking down on the victim making him look (if possible) even more helpless and showing he jigsaw killer as an extremely dominant force.
From the circumstances of the trap, as we first start to hear the victims hands get crushed the sound is over exaggerated to create disgust, the same as when he is first cut and finally, when his intestines are shunted out - the shot of those intenstines being hit against the wall with a loud "slap" creates a sickening disgust for the audience and removes any real fear.
As the victim dies, the shot falls from behind his head down towards the floor, and as the pendulum slows the famous violin music begins - showing the title of Saw V.
There are 3 main uses of symbolism I could understand from the opening of Saw V:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfAjoJvxVPs
(Link, as embedding for this video has been disabled by Request)
Following on from the thriller genre is a large amount of inspired psychology elements prevelant in modern thriller movies. In most of the Saw movies the characters let slip their views about the situation or the movie offers viewers a flashback of a characters story.
Back to the task at hand, the opening of Saw V is typically conventional. the music used is non-dianetic, almost sounding like the scraping of metal, or the screaming pain of people. The first images the viewer sees is that of the companies that have directed and produced Saw - Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures. To follow on with the horror/thriller genre, both of these visual credits invoke a metal or industrial connotation. For example, the twisted pictures logo is first wrapped in rusted barbed wire, then tightened by a sharp spike to crush the text with the wire. This gives the viewer a first hint of the kind of gore they can expect to see in the film.
Our first actual shot of the film is an industrial long distance shot the zooms into an exteme close up of a rusted, grungy door. The sounds of rain, thunder and cars can be heard in the background. With more tense, abstract sounds used to create a sense of fear behind this door.
The viewer is then shown an establishing shot of the room within which the opening will take place, we can vaguely see a body laying down on a table - the next shot is a close up of this body from the side, starting at the feet, showing them in shackles and up to the head, the shot transitions into the last of a sequence of introductory credits with a fade out effect. Fading back in to reveal the face of the body, a man, who quickly jerks awake in fear. The shot starts out quite dark, and shows the man struggling in his shackles and neck restraint but quickly comes much lighter with the turn on of a light.
When the light is turned on, the shot changes again to show the restraints put in place for this man and how escape could be considered impossible. The next shot is our first step in applying auteur theory that was originally applied to Darren Lynn Bousman but is now directly applied to the Saw movies is a shot that pans out from the character slowly, then suddenly fast with an application of a sharp abstract sound to invoke fear.
The audience can hear the sound of a clock as a television set is shown. Time is a popular theme in Saw - most of the traps shown often include time and it's meaning - this is further explained in other Saw movies but is worth a mention here. What would be understood at this point, if the viewer had watched the other Saw movies is that the Jigsaw Killer is a cancer patient who has been given a date of which he will die - his use of time on his victims is almost ridiculing in a sick way.
The TV springs to life, with an overdubbed sound to create a more tense fear for the character - billy the puppet - shown on the screen.
We then have an odd sequence of shots, imagine as if you are looking at the trapped man through the TV, then back from behind the mans shoulder. As the puppet talks there are a large amount of these shot transitions. Sometimes these shots deviate such as when the puppet talks about time again, showing a clock on the wall. What should also be noted is the shot used when the puppet refers to the pendulum that will cut him in half, the character looks up towards it and as he does so, the shot changes to a first person view as if the viewer was the character staring up at the pendulum and axe, which is quickly lighted to invoke anticipation and fear.
As the pendulum first drops, we can hear the loud sound of the clock ticking, with the shot changing to the view of the trapped victims face - screaming in slow motion. The viewer is then s hown an overhead shot of the pendulum, looking down on the victim making him look (if possible) even more helpless and showing he jigsaw killer as an extremely dominant force.
From the circumstances of the trap, as we first start to hear the victims hands get crushed the sound is over exaggerated to create disgust, the same as when he is first cut and finally, when his intestines are shunted out - the shot of those intenstines being hit against the wall with a loud "slap" creates a sickening disgust for the audience and removes any real fear.
As the victim dies, the shot falls from behind his head down towards the floor, and as the pendulum slows the famous violin music begins - showing the title of Saw V.
There are 3 main uses of symbolism I could understand from the opening of Saw V:
- Time - The over exaggerated but slow sound of the clock ticking shows that although time seems slow, the viewer must save every second of his or her life because it will be up before they know it.
- Christian Religion Connotations - The victim is chained in the same way that Jesus was nailed to the cross. With his arms spread wide apart and feet together. Although obviously entirely different to the death of this religious leader, it shows the viewer that the victims death may have been unjustified or helpless. Especially when a shot shows the more obvious position of the victim and the Jigsaw killer after - it inspires a large amount of dislike and hatred of the killer.
- Views of capital punishment - Quite recently, the general view on capital punishment has left us with some astonishing revelations - that over 50% of what we considered cultured society believes in the death penalty. So when Billy the puppet mentions that the victim presented to the audience is a murderer - some may feel that he is recieving justice for his crime and thus, sympathise with the killer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfAjoJvxVPs
(Link, as embedding for this video has been disabled by Request)
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Media Review of thriller
Media Review Of Horror
The Ring has a conventional opening scene of a horror film it has an establishing shot in darkness of a large house the house has only one light on this sets the scene and clearly defines the film as a horror the slow almost ambient music is more of a background noise than forefront loud music this is to also to show the nature of the film as more of a suspenseful horror rather than a typical “slasher” horror thus more of a thought provoking plot.
It cuts from the house to 2 girls in a bedroom talking whilst watching a television, this then turns into a conversation about a video tape whilst the conversation is going on there is a build up of slow almost mournful violins in the background and when the conversation reaches its conclusion there is a crescendo then it fades suddenly as you realize the outcome of the conversation is a joke (girl feigning death convincingly in the other characters opinion leading to the crescendo music)
In the conversation there was a mention of a phone call which would tell the person who watched the tape when they were going to die, a phone call happens in this next shot but again there is deception this time from the other character who pretends it is the ominous phone call when in actual fact it is the mother of the other girl. This scene has close ups of the girl on the phones face because she is displaying “fear” to fool the other character and this is also to fool the viewers because we don’t yet know the shot cuts out of the close up into a medium shot so you can see the other characters facial expressions to show the fear building up in her this camera shot is effective for this scene because it shows the surroundings and the characters in it whilst showing there expressions.
The Ring has a conventional opening scene of a horror film it has an establishing shot in darkness of a large house the house has only one light on this sets the scene and clearly defines the film as a horror the slow almost ambient music is more of a background noise than forefront loud music this is to also to show the nature of the film as more of a suspenseful horror rather than a typical “slasher” horror thus more of a thought provoking plot.
It cuts from the house to 2 girls in a bedroom talking whilst watching a television, this then turns into a conversation about a video tape whilst the conversation is going on there is a build up of slow almost mournful violins in the background and when the conversation reaches its conclusion there is a crescendo then it fades suddenly as you realize the outcome of the conversation is a joke (girl feigning death convincingly in the other characters opinion leading to the crescendo music)
In the conversation there was a mention of a phone call which would tell the person who watched the tape when they were going to die, a phone call happens in this next shot but again there is deception this time from the other character who pretends it is the ominous phone call when in actual fact it is the mother of the other girl. This scene has close ups of the girl on the phones face because she is displaying “fear” to fool the other character and this is also to fool the viewers because we don’t yet know the shot cuts out of the close up into a medium shot so you can see the other characters facial expressions to show the fear building up in her this camera shot is effective for this scene because it shows the surroundings and the characters in it whilst showing there expressions.
media review of horror
Media Review Of Horror
The Ring has a conventional opening scene of a horror film it has an establishing shot in darkness of a large house the house has only one light on this sets the scene and clearly defines the film as a horror the slow almost ambient music is more of a background noise than forefront loud music this is to also to show the nature of the film as more of a suspenseful horror rather than a typical “slasher” horror thus more of a thought provoking plot.
It cuts from the house to 2 girls in a bedroom talking whilst watching a television, this then turns into a conversation about a video tape whilst the conversation is going on there is a build up of slow almost mournful violins in the background and when the conversation reaches its conclusion there is a crescendo then it fades suddenly as you realize the outcome of the conversation is a joke (girl feigning death convincingly in the other characters opinion leading to the crescendo music)
In the conversation there was a mention of a phone call which would tell the person who watched the tape when they were going to die, a phone call happens in this next shot but again there is deception this time from the other character who pretends it is the ominous phone call when in actual fact it is the mother of the other girl. This scene has close ups of the girl on the phones face because she is displaying “fear” to fool the other character and this is also to fool the viewers because we don’t yet know the shot cuts out of the close up into a medium shot so you can see the other characters facial expressions to show the fear building up in her this camera shot is effective for this scene because it shows the surroundings and the characters in it whilst showing there expressions.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
The opening scenes of Alien and Godzilla are vastly different in terms of themes and styles.
Aliens opening scene is a close up pannig shot of the mining ship were all the film takes part this opening scene is to introduce you to the setting of the film and to establish what genre the film is (sci fi) the wording of the film title in the opening sequence is very bright and small on a background of black this is to give high contrast and is to also hint at the film being sci fi, the text evolves in to the title of the film by this time you have seen the whole of the introductory sequence which puts the category of the film unequivocally in sci fi.
This contrasts with godzilla where the opening sequence is of the past where the US army where testing the Atom Bomb, the opening sequence also highlights the importance of lizards in the film as it shows them frequently and for prolonged periods of time. The lighting of the film is grainy and bland this shows that the films opening sequence is from the past but it also gives us a hint into the genre of film because of the weapons (atom bomb was a huge leap forward in the arms race) and this helps to show that the film is sci fi then you have the actual title of the film arrive which looks like it has been cut into the background of the screen rather than being printed on to it.
Alien and Godzilla have very different opening scenes but they both establish genre of sci fi although it is done differently the opening sequence of Alien is more conventional than Godzilla due to the space ship and background of outer space with all the very futuristic technology used (the technology was futuristic in the time the film was made) this couple with what seems to be suspended animation for the crew.
Godzilla is not conventional you could easily be mistaken by much of the opening sequence into believing you were watching a wildlife documentary with lizards being prominent for much of the sequence then you see the “futuristic” technology (opening sequence of atom bomb weapon made in 1944 by US Army)
These contrasting sci fi genres clash with minority report which is very conventional with the exception of space in the opening sequence you can tell this will be a futuristic Earth based science fiction film rather than a multi planet science fiction film.
Minority Reports opening sequence is giving you some blurry almost flash back like images of a murder when this is finished you go into a sharp contrast where the image is now clear and crisp the words department of pre crime appears this shows that the “flash back is rather not something that’s happened and being remembered more something that is going to happen.
These contrast with eachother and I believe that Alien is the most conventional of the three films and godzilla is the least conventional.
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