film opening example evaluations homework

used two film opening clips. one from artofthetitle.com, the other from youtube. they are the changeling, and urban legend.

Urban Legend
Camera shots, angles, and setup

• names of actors and film are shown in midrange shot
• do panning shot to car driving and almost being hit
• long shot on abandoned gas station
• closeup of person behind girl in car with axe= see outline of person and axe which creates fear

closeup of broken window of car causes anxiety because we can't see what happens to girl.

Editing

• observe girl actions through eyes of someone offscreen or to her side
• continuity editing used to make change of location from car driving through countryside to university seem natural
• fade out and size change used on actors name

Mise en Scene

• people dressed casually
• gas attendant dressed in grungy clothing and seems threatening
• setting= abandoned gas station= typical horror setting
• university= typical american horror setting

Sound

• starts off with stereotypical quiet horror movie music which seems part of the rain
• becomes radio in murder victims car
• stammer of gas station attendant makes warning girl impossible and makes inocuous gas station seem creepy
• girls scream is loudest noise in opening ten minutes
• music gets louder when murder is being done

Representation

• gender
• age
• disability

Narrative

• restricted= only sees from one group of peoples ideas

The Changeling

Camera shots, angles, composition

• opens with closeup on names of cast
• establishing shot of snow and background mountains used to tell where you are as well as character dialogue
• mid- range shot used of family pushing car along road
• closeup of father making phonecall
• midshot of carcrash and mother and daughter diving out of the way
• moving shot of man walking from work in city
• closeup of gates to apartment/house
• establishing long shot used when man arrives at mansion in woods

Editing

• continuity editing used to make changes between locations seem smooth
• fade out used on names of actors and movie names

Mise en Scene

• people dressed formally= gives impression of maturity
• props= antiques in manor house
• setting= goes from rural to urban and back to rural again

Sound

• starts with voices talking/arguing quietly and gets louder
• loudest sounds are car crash and fathers piano playing

characters use american accents