Analysing Psycho

We watched a clip from the horror film Psycho made in the 1960s. The woman was in the shower when she was murdered by a dark, unknown figure using a knife. 

The white, clean bathroom she is in connotates  her innocence and purity. And the fact that she is the shower and her facial expressions portray she is relaxed yet completely unprotected and exposed to any danger that may be lurking which is indicated by the tense eerie music.

The audience is given an idea that the woman is in danger when a dark shadow appears to enter the room. The dark shadow in contrast with the white purity of the bathroom indicates that they are a danger to her and the music becomes more powerful and builds in volume.




The shower curtain is ripped to the side and this dark figure is standing there with a knife - connotating death, danger and evil - and starts to stab the woman repeatedly with the now famous music playing. Again, the dark faceless figure against the pure whiteness of the bathroom indicates that this character is an evil and dangerous person.

This is a very significant part in the clip we watched, her hand reaching out, it connotates her last desperate attempt for help, grasping at what little life she had left. She grabs onto the shower curtain which tears and it falls to the ground with her. 

The close up of her eye as she lies on the floor of the bathroom shows that she is in fact dead, there is no light/life left in her and the odd angle of the camera uneases the audience as it is intended to do.

This is also a significant part of the scene we watched. The blood of the woman washes down the drain, it connotates her life she drained and washed away into something insignificant, her life no longer exists.

Analysing Horror Genre

The Hills Have Eyes

This trailer had all the conventions to fit the horror genre, it had the typical deserted, dead looking landscape of which a family - typical characters who the audience connect with - was travelling through. It has tense and eerie music throughout and disconcerting sound effects immediately setting the audience on edge.

The audience are given an idea about the narrative and background information of the film in a horror like way - for example the flashing images of the mutated babies and old newspaper headlines - then are brought to the present shown by the colours brightening. 

The fast paced scene changes create tension and suspense and the short scenes freezing into an image give the feeling of the characters being watched which uneases and disturbed the audience. 

The dark and gloomy lighting and colours create a fearful atmosphere and the disturbing quick still images, tinted a green colour, doesn't sit right with the audience because it is unnatural.

The way the title of the film, a red colour - conotating blood, danger and death - appears onto the screen in a way that relates to the title (its appearing before they're eyes, somebody is seeing it, they are looking it's coming into focus and view which relates to the hills having eyes). As does the tag line "The lucky ones die first" which scares the audience as it is intended to do.

Evaluation Preliminary Task

We were asked to create an opening sequence which involved one character moving across a room and sitting down and talking to another character. We had to include a match on action shot, and shot reverse shot while maintaining the 180 degree rule.

I had the role of playing an actor in the sequence, I helped direct the scenes I wasn't in and helped to edit the sequence.

This is a still image of the match on action shot we included in our piece. I helped to direct this part of our sequence, we used a long to medium shot of him walking down the stairs and out of the door.

 This is a still image of the shot reverse shot we included in our sequence, at this part of our piece I had the role of an actor. We also used a medium shot of us actors talking to one another.

 

This is a still image example of our shot reverse shot while maintaining the 180 degree rule. Again I had the role of an actor and we used an over the shoulder shot to capture this part of our sequence.

We were very happy with our final result as we managed to include all the necessary shots in our sequence, abiding by the 180 degree rule and used the correct conventions to fit the genre of our opening sequence.

I think to improve it we could have made the jumps from one scene to another a lot more fluid and slower paced because the quick scene changes would fit more of a horror or thriller genre rather than our own. Also, although the match on action shot matched up well I think we had the actor too close to the camera as he passed it to move to the door. But the shot types for our shot reverse shot were appropriate for the dialogue we used.

We worked well as a group, each of us giving ideas and having our own input. Us actors listened well to the direction given while adding our own ideas. We each had a turn editing as we had to get our sequence down from one minute to thirty-five seconds and all worked well as a team.

I feel a lot more confident using the camera and although there are a few things I need to learn I am fairly confident using Imovie to edit.

Horror Genre

28 Days Later

An American Werewolf in London

An American Werewolf in London and 28 Days Later are very different in the way that they portray the genre of horror. AAWIL begins with jazzy blues music playing “Blue Moon” and sets the scene of the countryside, which doesn’t really give any horrific or sinister effect; at first it doesn’t seem much like a horror film. Whereas in 28DL we are immediately set on edge by the use of a floating camera and scenes of violence, such as people being beaten. We quickly find out that the beginning scene of 28 DL is set in a lab which is much more horrific than the hills of the countryside.

In AAWIL we are soon introduces to two naive American tourists who are immediately told to stay off the moors and to stick to the road, this is where the audience would start to feel uneasy as we now know something bad will happen if they wander onto the moors which they are surrounded by. The characters in 28DL are completely different, at first we are given the impression they are some sorts of criminals as they are seen on a security camera and are wearing balaclavas. But we soon find out they are being rather heroic and are trying to rescue the chimps that are being confined in cages in the lab and are being subjected to experiments.

The story/plots of the two films are completely different. AAWIL is about one of the tourists who was bitten by a werewolf and has become one himself. 28DL is all about how the chimps had been infected with rage and when the apparently “heroic” people let one loose it bit one one of the women who then went on to infect the human race – “the beginning of the end”.

Two very different films, very different characters, settings and plots but both share the same genre of horror.

Shutter Island

The Key groups of people involved in the production of Shutter Island were:

Director / assistant director

Producer

Writer

Art director

Composer

Editor

Technical advisor

Location scouts

Sound Editor

These groups of people are key to the films production because without them there would be no film. They all have different roles to play which are vital to producing a film. Most of these groups of people are in charge of a particular department in which so many other people are involved.