Week 2

Analysing similar texts.

• Scream

The genre of Scream is horror. The film is about a mysterious masked killer, making his way through different people throughout the film.

The opening of the film is a the name of the film production, Dimension Films. The next screen is of the name of the film. As this shows, the sound in the background is that of a phone ringing, follwed by a scream getting louder. This sets the mood; the scream in the background just confirming the name of the film and letting thw audience know that they may scream watching, just as the victims in the movie as screaming.

The actual scene begins with a close up of a phone – showing that that is how the murderer communicated with his victims. It establishes that the murder happens at the victim’s home. The mise-en-scene of the whole opening sequence of this film is the victims house.

As for the sound in this opening sequence, the most common one is the sound of the telephone ringing, as the victim hangs up on the killer numerous times before she actually starts listening to him. The voice of the killer can be heard over the phone and it is easy to recognise that the voice is changed using a machine, so that the victim can't tell who she is speaking with. When the victim actually starts getting suspicious of the person calling her, a dog barking outside can be heard, indicating that someone might be out there. Also, around this time, soft psychotic music can be heard. From this point on, the music is almost constant throughout the opening sequence, getting higher pitched and louder when something is happening.

The editing in this film is quite simple as it is mostly a follow of straight cuts. No special effects are added and no other special editing was used.

The opening sequence of this film uses a number of close up shots and medium shots - these are the two most common ones in this film.

One or two establishing shots can be seen, too, but they're not used at the beginning of the film like it is normally used. They are shown in the middle of the opening sequence, as to show that the house is a big one, and that there don't seem to be people around that could help her if something were to happen to her. Also, this shot shows the tree from which the victim will later be hung.

• The Basement

• running scared

Analyse the following in your blog: genre, narrative, camera, sound, script, editing, mise-en-scene