Sunday 24 January 2010

Assessment 2 - Analysis of Final Destination - Beginning - 3:00

The micro-elements, mise-en-scene, sound, cinematography and editing, are very important in establishing a genre and making a film successful. The opening sequence is important in a film as it grabs the audience's attention, making them want to watch on.
My chosen clip was the opening credits from Final Destination. The mise-en-scene is very important in this clip. The lighting used is low key almost completely throughout. This adds atmosphere. Generically, horror films are dark. this obstructs what the viewer is seeing and makes the scenes unsettling and eerie. The lighting becomes more high key in places during the sequence. This is because these area are crucial to the narrative, which means the viewer needs to see them to understand the narrative properly. Lighting is used at the very beginning of the scene in the form of lightening. This, again is a generic convention of horror films. Lightening provokes fear in people.Fear of the dark and fear of thunder and lightening are irrational fears which are suffered by a lot of people. Horror film makers use these to add fear. The viewer also sees rain on a window. This is another weather typical for the genre. The whole sequence is made up of numerous images that hint at the narrative or are semiotics of horror.The first creepy thing seen is the 'voodoo-style' doll on the piece of string. After a few seconds of looking at the doll, we see the shadow of it moving against a pale wall. Horror films use shadows to create enigma and hide the identity of the monster or killer. In this case, it adds a scary effect in that it seems to be moving. As more objects are revealed, I began to wonder who this room belonged to and why they had so many strange objects. We see a strange and scary looking gorilla toy amongst the Nick-knacks. The fan in the room plays a big part of the mise-en-scene. It acts as a break between images. Also, we see images through the metal cage part of the fan which is distorted by the turning blades. The first thing we see through this are the words 'France 180'.This is important as it is a clue to the narrative. It is seen numerous times to establish it in the viewers mind. Although the main character is not seen with in this sequence, we are introduced to him. We see a picture of him when his passport falls to the bed.Along with his passport, we see a plane ticket from America to France.

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