My last extract that I will be analysing is the opening ten minutes from Panic Room. This is a thriller but somewhat lighter and less eerie than the previous two.
The film does not go straight into the action; it has at least a minute of credits which was a lot longer than the other two. These credits were presented on a screen that had the background of New York where the movie is set and also has the same writing throughout the whole of the credits. The names were cleverly perched on the tops of building to make it look as if they were actually there. The people that are included in the beginning of this film seem to be typical New York inhabitants. Extremely posh and well dressed, and the neighbourhood that they were in seemed to go exactly with their characters. The house that they later arrived at was also extremely large and even though empty gave an air of elegance. The house is also extremely echoey.
The extract starts off with an establishing shot that sets the scene and shows you that it’s set in America, and it also has the credits rolling whilst this shot is happening. The establishing shot is longer than a normal shot is, and any shot that I have seen in the two previous extracts. There is an establishing shot following two women, showing where they are going and what they are dong before reaching a rather large house. When they reach the house there is a low angled shot directed up at a man that has previously told the two women off for their time keeping. This shows that he has the power over the situation, and that he is the important part of this scene. There is then a zoom shot of the people walking into the house, which shows that this is an important part of the movie and that it should be remembered. The scene changes in this extract are mainly sharp cuts to the next scene leaving you wondering what will happen next.
The sounds in this extract are no where near as spooky or eerie as that of the previous two. The first piece of music was a frantic sounding strings piece that played throughout the credits. One of the women was also speaking before the credits had actually finished which makes you wonder who she is, and why she is speaking before appearing on the screen. The sound in this piece is mainly diagetic, but has some music in the background. There is a lot of banging and clanking from the elevator when they get inside the house which shows it is quite an old house which is generally one of the locations for thriller movies.
The lighting is mostly medium darkness inside and bright outside, as it is set in the daytime. The panic room itself though is extremely light and has a bar style light. The kind of light that flickers whenever you turn it on and gives the sense of danger, as flickering lights generally symbolize times when something bad will happen in thriller and horror movies. This film is a lot lighter than most thriller movies that I have seen as they tend to be a lot darker and eerier, mostly set at night. Whereas this is set in the daytime in broad daylight.
Thursday 7 April 2011
Textual Analysis 2 - Se7en (David Fincher, 1995)
My second extract I have chosen as the opening 7 minutes of Se7en, which is again a dark thriller that is set out to confuse you right from the start.
The extract is set in an apartment to begin with, and then later goes outside. The two inspectors are at a crime scene, but you do not know any details of said crime scene, which is one thing that instantly makes you want to watch more to find out what happened. The next scene is set outside with the two inspectors talking, with them getting slightly angry with each other. The lighting does not change at all throughout these two scenes. The credits themselves are extremely strange, but if you pay close attention to them, you can see that they sort of follow a story. It shows a man cutting off his finger prints so as not to be caught by detectives after committing a crime. It also shows various other things like a book, and said man blacking out, and cutting out certain words in a copy of a book.
The camera work is mainly medium shots and high angles throughout the whole of the second scene, indicating that the two inspectors are in a place of power over the rest of the people in that scene. The whole of the conversation is made up of medium high angle shots and basically does not change. The first part of the extract shows Morgan Freeman’s character getting ready for the day ahead of him, then switches to the next scene via a straight cut. The camerawork on this part is just basically a tracking shot following him and watching him do what he does everyday.
The lighting in this extract does not vary much at all, which only accelerates the overall eeriness. It is mainly dark with slight bits of light. The scenes that are in daytime are also made dark with the rain that is constant while they’re outside. The lighting is all very dark and dense almost as if there is sun shining through a pair of curtains which is letting the light gradually filter through.
There are a lot of sounds during the extracts length, including background noises such as distant voice, sirens, thunder and dogs barking. This makes the setting seem more realistic and like it is set in the city. As those are things you would generally hear in cities. There is also a lot of diegetic sound during the extract with dialogue between Brad Pitt’s character and Morgan Freeman’s character. During the titles there is a music track in the background that gets faster paced, louder and more bassey as the titles go on. At any point in the extract there is always some kind of sounds to create suspense, as you never know what to expect. There is also a point in the extract where the only sound is that of a metronome and as it is so quiet that there is the expectation that something bad will happen.
The extract is set in an apartment to begin with, and then later goes outside. The two inspectors are at a crime scene, but you do not know any details of said crime scene, which is one thing that instantly makes you want to watch more to find out what happened. The next scene is set outside with the two inspectors talking, with them getting slightly angry with each other. The lighting does not change at all throughout these two scenes. The credits themselves are extremely strange, but if you pay close attention to them, you can see that they sort of follow a story. It shows a man cutting off his finger prints so as not to be caught by detectives after committing a crime. It also shows various other things like a book, and said man blacking out, and cutting out certain words in a copy of a book.
The camera work is mainly medium shots and high angles throughout the whole of the second scene, indicating that the two inspectors are in a place of power over the rest of the people in that scene. The whole of the conversation is made up of medium high angle shots and basically does not change. The first part of the extract shows Morgan Freeman’s character getting ready for the day ahead of him, then switches to the next scene via a straight cut. The camerawork on this part is just basically a tracking shot following him and watching him do what he does everyday.
The lighting in this extract does not vary much at all, which only accelerates the overall eeriness. It is mainly dark with slight bits of light. The scenes that are in daytime are also made dark with the rain that is constant while they’re outside. The lighting is all very dark and dense almost as if there is sun shining through a pair of curtains which is letting the light gradually filter through.
There are a lot of sounds during the extracts length, including background noises such as distant voice, sirens, thunder and dogs barking. This makes the setting seem more realistic and like it is set in the city. As those are things you would generally hear in cities. There is also a lot of diegetic sound during the extract with dialogue between Brad Pitt’s character and Morgan Freeman’s character. During the titles there is a music track in the background that gets faster paced, louder and more bassey as the titles go on. At any point in the extract there is always some kind of sounds to create suspense, as you never know what to expect. There is also a point in the extract where the only sound is that of a metronome and as it is so quiet that there is the expectation that something bad will happen.
Textual analysis 1 – Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly, 2001)
As my first extract I have chosen to analyse the first eleven minutes of Donnie Darko. The film itself is a dark thriller movie that seems quite confusing at first glance.
At the start of the movie, the title is written in a fancy script, but with no colours or movements, just a plain white font with the background as a freeze from the previous scene of the movie. There is a gleam of light and the scene then fades to a bright white screen, then to the next. It has quite a sudden start as after the credits, it fades straight into an establishing shot to set the scene of where it takes place, showing a body on the road. This extract is set half inside a house, and half outside a house in America. Later in the extract, more writing comes up on the screen in the same font, white writing on a black screen, saying a date. It is simple, yet sudden as you do not know what the date means as it just seems to be a random date.
The camera work in the extract includes at least two establishing shots, one of the house during the second scene and one right at the beginning showing the boy lying on the ground so you can get the gist of what each of the places looks like, so you can later relate back to the picture you have of where it is set to gather more information. There is a tracking shot at the beginning following Donnie home on his bicycle, and also another tracking shot of him walking into his house, so you can follow the action and see almost from his point of view. Whilst the family are sitting around the table there are a lot of cuts between shots of each family member, which are medium shots from the chest upwards. When Donnie’s mother is talking to his father later in the extract, she is shown with a high angle shot, showing that she is the one talking and she is the one with the power over the conversation. There is also a close up of Donnie’s face in the mirror which then turns to a close up of his pills when he opens the cabinet, which disputes the point that his sister made at the dinner table of him not taking the pills. There are a lot of plain cuts to other scenes, which makes the scene seem more intense. At midnight, the clock chimes and the camera slowly zooms to an extreme close up of the clock face. There is also a high angle shot of Donnie when he is walking outside, following the strange voice. Right at the end of the extract, a strange rabbit appears, and the shot of Donnie slowly fades into the rabbit and then back to Donnie again, which is strangely eerie.
The film opens with the sounds of heavy thundering, then slow piano music is added in, it creates suspense with the fact it is an establishing shot and that the music is so slow. The music slowly fades and gets quieter as Donnie nears the house. Whilst at the dinner table there are no sounds, no music or noise, other than the family speaking amongst themselves. Later in the extract a strange eerie voice suddenly starts talking almost as a voice over, then you realize that Donnie can actually hear the voice and it is talking to him saying things such as “Wake Up” and “I’ve been watching you” which are strange things to hear a voice saying. The clock suddenly chimes at midnight, which creates suspense as midnight is generally the most eerie time in thriller and horror movies; it is generally when the main action takes place. The extract then ended with interference on a television, which instantly made me want to watch more of the movie.
The lighting in the extract does not vary much, as it is either extremely dark and eerie, or it is light in the middle of the daytime. Most of the main action in the extract takes place in the dark as it seems to be the most eerie time as you cannot see all of what is going on so your mind wanders to what it may be. It is mainly set at night in dimly lit rooms, where people are most vulnerable as at least one of their senses is lowered. There is also a flash of light after the title comes up, which then fades into the next scene.
At the start of the movie, the title is written in a fancy script, but with no colours or movements, just a plain white font with the background as a freeze from the previous scene of the movie. There is a gleam of light and the scene then fades to a bright white screen, then to the next. It has quite a sudden start as after the credits, it fades straight into an establishing shot to set the scene of where it takes place, showing a body on the road. This extract is set half inside a house, and half outside a house in America. Later in the extract, more writing comes up on the screen in the same font, white writing on a black screen, saying a date. It is simple, yet sudden as you do not know what the date means as it just seems to be a random date.
The camera work in the extract includes at least two establishing shots, one of the house during the second scene and one right at the beginning showing the boy lying on the ground so you can get the gist of what each of the places looks like, so you can later relate back to the picture you have of where it is set to gather more information. There is a tracking shot at the beginning following Donnie home on his bicycle, and also another tracking shot of him walking into his house, so you can follow the action and see almost from his point of view. Whilst the family are sitting around the table there are a lot of cuts between shots of each family member, which are medium shots from the chest upwards. When Donnie’s mother is talking to his father later in the extract, she is shown with a high angle shot, showing that she is the one talking and she is the one with the power over the conversation. There is also a close up of Donnie’s face in the mirror which then turns to a close up of his pills when he opens the cabinet, which disputes the point that his sister made at the dinner table of him not taking the pills. There are a lot of plain cuts to other scenes, which makes the scene seem more intense. At midnight, the clock chimes and the camera slowly zooms to an extreme close up of the clock face. There is also a high angle shot of Donnie when he is walking outside, following the strange voice. Right at the end of the extract, a strange rabbit appears, and the shot of Donnie slowly fades into the rabbit and then back to Donnie again, which is strangely eerie.
The film opens with the sounds of heavy thundering, then slow piano music is added in, it creates suspense with the fact it is an establishing shot and that the music is so slow. The music slowly fades and gets quieter as Donnie nears the house. Whilst at the dinner table there are no sounds, no music or noise, other than the family speaking amongst themselves. Later in the extract a strange eerie voice suddenly starts talking almost as a voice over, then you realize that Donnie can actually hear the voice and it is talking to him saying things such as “Wake Up” and “I’ve been watching you” which are strange things to hear a voice saying. The clock suddenly chimes at midnight, which creates suspense as midnight is generally the most eerie time in thriller and horror movies; it is generally when the main action takes place. The extract then ended with interference on a television, which instantly made me want to watch more of the movie.
The lighting in the extract does not vary much, as it is either extremely dark and eerie, or it is light in the middle of the daytime. Most of the main action in the extract takes place in the dark as it seems to be the most eerie time as you cannot see all of what is going on so your mind wanders to what it may be. It is mainly set at night in dimly lit rooms, where people are most vulnerable as at least one of their senses is lowered. There is also a flash of light after the title comes up, which then fades into the next scene.
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