Term Break Homework Assignment
1. "Searching"
The plot of searching is when a 16 year old daughter goes missing and her father tries to find her using clues in her laptop.
The opening sequence for "Searching" displays a very good way of establishing who the characters are and what their relationship is to one another. The entire opening sequence is shown mainly through a computerized style. To show who the different characters are there are different profiles on the computer. The opening sequence changes from account to account as we learn more about the different characters. Margot who is the daughter learns how to play piano with her mum. We see this because the father is filming them practicing and puts it on the family computer. This same style is shown all the way through the opening sequence which includes Margot growing up, family activities, emails and the news of the mother having cancer. This shows the audience the first bit of conflict within the story. The film would want the audience to have some remorse for the family mainly because they have seen the family grow together. Now to have one of them with a sickness, it would really make the audience feel for what the characters are going through. The film shows that the mother has passed very well, by using a calendar. The calendar shows a date for when the mother is supposed to come home but is then deleted to show that the mother has passed. The opening sequence then comes to an end by showing the father editing a poster for the mothers funeral. This opening sequence is very engaging because it shows us as the audience the growing of a family. It shows many things a family should go through and also things a family shouldn't go through. This opening sequence would definitely catch the audiences attention to continue watching the rest of the film. The fact that we see the mother pass away also grabs the audiences attention because we want to find out what happens next.
The Thriller codes and Conventions shown in the opening scene to the movie are shown in a different by effective way. There is no set "camera shot" in the opening scene, rather a compilation of "home video" style of footage all packed together. This is very different than the usual montage opening scenes we see in other movies. The audio in this opening scene includes some light music in the background with some computer clicks and also the audio from what is being recorded on the home camera. The music changes from a light happy theme to a sad dark one, when the audience discovers that the mother has passed away. This gives the audience a good indicator that something bad has happened and immediately they give sympathy towards the characters. The mise en scene in this opening scene is very repetitive, but in a good way. The use of family photos of them growing is used often but it does show a lot about who the characters are and what they are like. For example we see a photo of the family together every time Margot starts a new year at school. The family is all together until the mother does not appear. This use of the photo every year also gives us a good indication of how old the characters are, and therefore can show us what they may be going through. The editing in this opening scene is almost like a slideshow which reveals who the family is and what they like to do. There isn't many quick cuts in this part of the movie mainly because we are still trying to figure out who all the characters are. All in all this opening scene doesn't show a lot of suspense or tension, like some other thriller movies. However it definitely sets up the style of the film and who the characters are. This way when the audience does see the thriller side of the movie they find it easier to understand and they have a better knowledge of what is going on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzUDyNo6Dlg
2. "Bird Box"
The opening sequence in the film bird box shows two ladies driving along a busy road. The people around them start to make lots of bad decisions with their driving (red light running) We can see here that things are starting to change and suddenly an explosion goes off. This forces the two ladies to run a red light to try and get away. The lady driving the car then seems to see something on the road and is asking to herself "what is that?" The other lady in the passenger seat doesn't see what the other lady is looking at. Suddenly the car starts to move violently, driving side to side and on the wrong side of the road. The car then comes to a halt by smashing into another car, flipping onto its roof and sliding to a stop. The lady that was driving the car crawls her way out with the passenger following right after. The pair look at each other for a moment before the lady that was driving walks into a truck speeding down the road and gets run over. This opening sequence is very suspenseful and right away we can see that this film is a thriller. The audience is engaged by how much action there is right from the start and also would want to know why people are making strange decisions (like running a red light, or worse, getting hit by a truck.
The majority of this opening scene is filmed in a car so the camera shots are limited. There are your basic close ups, match on match, 180 degree rule, and over the shoulder. The only shots that are different to those are ones showing what is happening outside. Nothing is really special about the camera work here, everything is very basic. The audio in this scene is normal dialogue between the characters and also the sounds of the car and the sounds of what is happening around them (cars passing, cars beeping etc) The editing definitely carries a lot of the thriller side of things. The visual effects team would have needed to create multiple explosions, blood effects, artificial crying, and car crashes. Things effects really sold the movie to be a thriller because of what we were seeing. The mise en scene in this opening scene shows a small town with busy streets, there are crashed cars on either side of the road and small fires and explosions. These additions to the mise en scene really do help with making audience see that this film is a thriller.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0-5BWUtesE (little bit of language in this clip)
3. "Get Out"
The opening sequence to "Get Out" shows a man walking down a road on the phone to what sounds like his girlfriend/wife/partner. He ends the call and continues down the sidewalk. He starts to talk to himself about where he needs to go (what street he needs to walk down) As he is doing this a car passes him. He doesn't take notice. However the car then turns around and stops right next to him. Now he notices it. He starts to walk again and then the car slowly follows. This is when the man realizes that he is being followed. So he does a 180 degree turn walks back the way he came stating "not today" The camera follows him as he walks off the sidewalk and onto the street. Here we see that the car door is now open and the man looks towards the car. Then suddenly he is grabbed from behind and is being held in a choke. A few seconds pass and the man appears to go limp (he has passed out) The attacker then drags him towards his car and put the passed out man in the boot of the car. This opening sequence engages the audience by having no cuts and it being a continuous shot. The audience gets to see exactly what is happening and can almost predict what is about to happen. The fact that the attacker drives off with someone in his boot pushes the audience to try and watch what happens next and therefore finish the film. The setting is based at night time as well and this engages the audience because they have to look closer to see what is there and this therefore engages them more.
The camera work in this opening scene is one continuous shot that shows what is happening. The shot changes from wide shots to close ups to mid shots etc. The camera work shows everything that is taking place and what is about to happen to our character. The audio is very limited in this scene, there is very little dialogue. The main character is the only one who talks and mutters under his breath. The only other bits of audio is the car noises and wildlife. The editing is basically non existent in this opening scene because it is a continuous shot however there could be some color correction to make the night scene look even more dark. The mise en scene on this scene takes place in a suburban area and there are houses all around. The main character walks along the path and this is where the story unfolds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsrufxLGClk
Final Edit Link:
Hi Addison
ReplyDeleteOverall Score: 14/20
Comments:
- Firstly - WELL DONE (!!!) you have read the question and ANSWERED THE QUESTION'S 2 PARTS!!! Great work! It was clear that you didn't just skim read the assignment and go off on a tangent about what the movie is about. You deliberately showed you knew how each clip was engaging the audience and referred to thriller techniques. A much more pointed and purposeful piece of research!
- what an interesting first example, I really enjoyed it!
- Some solid observations but I feel you could have talked a bit about the fact that this opening sequence is maybe challenging generic thriller conventions. You could have looked at the fact that the editing/ mise-en-scene/ camera-work and potentially sound too, isn't set up like a traditional thriller. Rather than building suspense it seems more like a drama. This would have been an interesting contrast to explore a bit more and taking your research to the next level rather than just noticing what few conventions you noticed. What about things like lighting? Setting? Characterisation? Props ? Iconography? What other conventions were there and did they challenge or conform to traditional thriller scenes?
Second clip
- Firstly, this clip had some really interesting layers to analyse but the language is really inappropriate. I know it;s hard, but for the sake of school assignments/ research, can you keep your research to school appropriate clips? Thanks
- This clip wasn't as well analysed as your initial film choice. There was so much to comment on beside mis-en-scene. What about the use of silence (leaving out music which usually hints to the audience about how we should be feeling), the sound also interestingly gets muffled after a very silent and slow-motion car crash. This totally challenges thriller conventions where usually the intense scenes are matched/ layered with very intense music. It is almost confusing and adds to the shock factor. The characters seem to have no idea what is going on and neither do we as the viewer. What about the setting? It is not set in the dark, in an eery setting, not set in a storm etc, this challenges thriller conventions, does it not?
- what about the point of view we are given? Who are we sympathising with most? Who's view are we given? (emotional/ confused passenger)
- shock factor of lady getting run over by truck as opposed to suspense building slowly. Not an action film but thriller
- how else does this clip engage with audiences?
- I felt overall there were at least a couple more paragraphs of findings you could have spoken about for this clip.
Clip 3
- a good breakdown of the clip
- a few short but accurate points of how the clip engages the audience but could do with a few more insights. What about the character? Do we relate to him? What about where this is set gets us to relate to and become involved with the story?
- I feel you have gone back to listing surface observations in terms of conventions without taking it to the next level of saying what those observations MEAN and whether they conform to or challenge thriller conventions. A list is not deep enough research to show you understanding what meaning is created.
Overall a much better attempt at answering a research question, on topic. Well done. I would still like to see you push yourself with really digging deeper into what you're observing and working out what it means and talking about it in a wider context.