Research - Genre Analysis 2 - Insidious

Introduction to the film/brief background

The second Psychological Horror film opening I chose to analyse was Insidious (2010). Directed by James Wan, staring Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne, made by alliance films and stage 6 films.The film is based on a family looks to prevent evil spirits from trapping their comatose child in a realm called The Further.The film was budgeted $1,500,000 and received £1,441,292 for the opening weekend in the UK.
As for critical acclaim Roger Ebert gave the film 2 1/2 stars out of 4 saying, "It depends on characters, atmosphere, sneaky happenings and mounting dread. This one is not terrifically good, but moviegoers will get what they're expecting". The film also received several awards, such as The Empire Awards in 2006 and The Young Artist Award in 2012.

Key characters/Stock characters

After watching the first scene of Insidious, the first key character is immediately identifiable by a medium eye-line match shot .With one of the first shots/settings being in bedroom, with a child ling in bed peering up at the camera .By using direct mode of address, it engages the audience, as they feel some involvement into the film.Although this character cannot yet be classed as either a protagonist or antagonist for Insidious, it is clear, given it's the first shot, that this character is critical to the plot/narrative of the film .Also emphases the importance of this character.
However, as the audience, we can infer that this key character is perhaps the protagonist in the film. As immediately we can see that it's a male child, which is represented to appear young and vulnerable. Peering up from behind his covers, showing connotations of fear, linking back to idea of vulnerability. As stereo typically society see children as being fearful, using their imagination to fear the worst, such as supernatural occurrences.

The film is also using a key convention of the genre here, as conveniently supernatural Horror movies use children as their key characters, which usually involves the child being a victim/ companion, sharing some relation or emotion towards the supernatural being.Which not only helps create tension due to the child being in danger, but engages the audience.

The antagonist is also shown in the opening scene, as the non-diegetic increases as the character is relived.This key character also follows the key convents of a stereotypical horror, through both mis en scene and sound.The female figure appears as a stereotype of a witch, dark, eerie and of course supernatural.The opening contains several shots of the characters shadow passing from wall to wall, suggesting she is searching or investigating the setting and adding to the idea of the character being supernatural.With the final shot of the character confirming this, as she is almost transparent, showing the light from outside the bedroom through the keyhole.From this the audience can instantly understand the type of narrative this film would follow and the danger the protagonists will encounter.
No other stock characters are shown in this first opening scene, as the majority of the scene is a added climax of the appearance of the antagonist.

Narrative/Stock situation 

Through the use of different shots, the audience are able to establish the main setting/location of the film.With long shots and eye-line matches of the character's bedroom.We can only assume that this film will follow the stereotypical conventions of a supernatural genre film, with it being based in normal environment
, in this case a home.Given this, the film's narrative would appear to be fairly stereotyped, with the idea of a child being vulnerable , controlled and in danger, with little knowledge of the parents, leading to frightful and severe consequences, resulting in ether revenge or defeat by the protagonist or antagonist.

Genre Iconography

By using iconography in this scene helps the audience establish the genre of the film.The music is a huge part of this, with consistent non-diegetic music played throughout the clip, with increases in tone to add to the tense atmosphere.
Several conventional icons are used, such as shadows and dark lighting/filter, linking to Horror.Using the child's bedroom shows clear representation of vulnerability, showing to the audience that the supernatural being is present, as the character appears frightened and tense.
The mis en scene used is very dominantly ideological of what a young boy's bedroom should look like, which makes the film seem like its based in a innocent location.
The muti-coloured quilt/bedding of the character also makes the child seem of a young age,showing icons of immaturity and youth, aswell as using icons such as a teddy bear, stereo typically linked to a child.
They have used iconography such as a old grandfather clock, a photo frame of the main protagonist's family, and a crib to indicate that young children are involved in this film.Low- key lighting is used to, again, representation the genre of Horror.
All in all the mis en scene used is basic, yet sets up the films location well, showing key convention to the Horror genre.

Themes of genre

The main theme of the film, after watching the opening scene, is Good vereus Evil.This is present throughout the scene, with the idea of the family and home being good and the supernatural occurrence being evil.At the beginning of the scene I also recognized a theme of the unknown, with knowledge of a supernatural being , yet not yet reviled 

Score

As Insidious is a supernatural horror non-diegetic incidental is a vital part to build up a suspense  for an audience member.The creepy music, makes you feel uneasy and uncomfortable as the presence of the supernatural appeals, as the tone increases.

Typography

The transitions in the opening are very smooth and they connect with one shot well.The colour red is used a lot throughout the title sequence, connoting blood, danger and love,  which fades in and out quickly, engaging the audience.When the insidious title appears on the screen the 'I' is shaped like a devil which foreshadows the events of the film, and can let the audience know what the film's antagonist may be (The Devil).The title sequence flows well, ensuring the shot change after 15 seconds, meaning the audience can get a glimpse of the location and a few main characters, but not enough to give away all of the narrative.This is effective because it encourages and entices the audience to continue watching.

Insidious has an effective title sequence, due to the sound, mis en scene, cinematography and editing.

Research - Film opening 3 - The Lion King

Introduction to the film/Brief background

The third film I am analyzing is The Lion King (1994). Directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, staring Matthew Broderick and Jeremy Irons, made by Walt Disney Pictures.The film is about a young cub, who is tricked into thinking he killed his father, he flees into exile and abandons his identity as the future King.The film was budgeted at $45,000,000 and received $1,586,753 in the UK on the opening weekend. As for critical acclaim, Lion King received several awards, such as three Oscars in 1995 and a Golden Globe.

Opening Narrative

The scene shows a selection of different animals surrounding a reservoir gathering together to join as celebration of the lions birth.
The scene shows several characters, showing Mis En scene of a animated film , with a target audience of young children.

Representation 

Incidental music is used to help engage the audience and to immediately establish the audience and genre of the film.Fitting well with the visual and effective to entice the target audience.
The main subject used are the lions, which are presented in a positive way, as perhaps more dominant as the others and  are some kind of authority figure for the other character.

Characters/Social groups and Mis en scene- numerous animated characters are shown heading towards one another.By using stereotypical animals in Africa this also helps the film relate to the audience and genre of the film.

Props- There are several props throughout the scene which both suggests the movie's genre and audience, with generalized settings and locations of Africa and how we would assume the animals would be portrayed, such as the lion as a high authority figures, 'King of the jungle'.

Costumes- As the characters are animals, costumes are not used, however the appearance of the animals are stereotypical, following the main conventions of a animal kingdom.

Accent- Again the accent is not established, due the opening being based on the setting, continuing several establishing shots.However the audience can infer that the accent of the characters are both calming and content.
Makeup- No makeup is used in this scene and i'm assuming that none is used throughout the movie, as it is animated and they are animals.
Sound- The sound in this scene helps to portray the characters emotions.The incidental music is used throughout and the tone increases at the end, which emphases the events and visuals in the scene, adding to the excitement and climax.

Location

The location is very stereotypical, with the majority of the scene having shots of the setting, showing the audience the location.The setting is based in a African reservoir, surrounded by trees, mountains and cliff tops.A stereotypical location for animals, all living in harmony/together.

Sound 

The sound used helps illustrate the emotions and thoughts of the subjects in the scene, with the whole scene having the same sound, yet the tone increases, making the audience more engaged in the content and links to the personalities of the character, due to the light, elegant music which is enforced on them.

Titles/Typography 

The titles are very basic, with institutional information shown, such as the producers and the actors in the animation.These appear in the scene quickly and have stereotypical typography of a title aimed for the younger generation/audience.

Camera shots/Movements

Several establishing shots are used throughout the scene , this gives the audience an insight into the setting and location of the film.Mid-shots are used , which illustrate and show the characters to the audience.
Fade in and out are used in the beginning and the end of the scene, which allows the audience to infer a change in scene, breaking the movie up.
Extreme -long shots are used, for example Simba being raised to the sky, which shows the importance of that character and highlights the main focus.This shot also has low-angle shot, showing again, Simba's importance over the other characters, with his body position being raised above the rest.Showing his higher level of authority, being positioned on the cliff top.

Mood/Atmosphere

The mood is very positive, uplifting and emotional, with the music setting the tone throughout.I personally believe that the use of music helps engage the audience into the visuals and helps create this atmosphere, of both a positive and inspiring feeling towards the characters and movie.

Planning - Lighting

here is some of the lighting that we may need to use. This equipment is professional lighting equipment which we can use backdrops if we want, however we don't think we will need them, because our location is really good. 

Research - Film opening 3 - The Woman in Black

Woman in black was originally made in 1989, however I will be analysing the 2012 version. When this new film was released on the opening weekend it made $20,874,072 in the USA. The budget was $17,000,000, meaning that there was monetary success in the way that there was $3,874,072 profit within just the first weekend. The overall gross was $54,322,273 resulting in a massive profit. However the critical acclaim was not very good for the film, with the film getting a slashing from critics that the effects weren’t realistic and Radcliffe’s acting was not up to scratch. The director was James Watkins and the film was set and filmed in Sussex, as well as other parts of the UK.

The opening of this film takes you straight into the story of the film. There are three girls all sat in a play room quite happily having a tea party with their dolls and toys. Then suddenly the girls drop everything and all walk towards the window, which is divided into three, one for each of them. Whilst they are walking to the window they tread on their crockery, which then smashes into pieces. This then shows that they are possessed, jumping out of the window to a scream from the mother saying “My baby.”

There are only the three girls in this opening scene. They are represented to be very affluent. This is shown in the connotation of them wearing ankle length clean pastel dresses. As well as the dresses, they’re wearing clean crisp white aprons. This gives the denotation that they’re innocent and only children.   

Research - Timeline

Planning - Titles of film

Horror in the Wind
Petrichor
Transcendental
Here are three different titles that we came up with as a group. We then used social media (Facebook) to get feedback from out target audience about which title the liked the best. They then chose Petrichor because it had a uniqueness to it in the way that the target audience was intrigued into what the film was about. Again already building tension with them. 

Production - Typography

Each member of our group came up with a different title, instead of using the name of the film, we decided to use our own names. Unfortunately Tayla's title wasn't able to screen shot so i don';t have any evidence of her title.  

This is Beth's title, she has used a simple indented script, with only a fade in and a fade out. We decided not to use this typography as it was too simple and didn't represent our genre as well as the other two titles. 

This is my title which was picked in the end.I decided to use Dust Sans. This was a font I found on the internet and I liked it a lot, because it represented the title really well and fitted with our genre. The movements I used was a simple fade in and out, however in the middle I used a highlighting movement that went through each letter lighting the back of it. The positioning of this title was important to me, because i wanted it to be at the bottom in the right hand side. This was because i wanted it to be subtle and not look like a trailer.  

Here is the final motion that we chose after discussing the different options as a group. 

Production - Rough cut

This is our rough cut of our Film opening. There unfortunately isn't

Production - Call Sheets

Production - Day 2 Filming - 26/02/2014

On this day of filming we mainly focused on extreme close ups of the headphones in my ear. Both Tayla and Beth shared filming of the close ups as i was in the film, on the other hand i did have some say as to how zoomed in the camera should have been and if to include the background or not.

Production - Day 1 filming - 20/02/2014

Our first day of filming went well. We were able to film a vast majority of all the outside shots. Beth was shooting for the whole day as I was acting. However I wasn't actually filming I had a big say as to what shots we were filming, how the camera moved, it it needed to pan of zoom. I also pushed for us to take as many shots as possible so that we can then pick the best shots.

Production - Day 3 filming - 27/02/2014

Today we plan for this to be the last day of filming, however that may change when we review our filming in a few days. Today we filmed the inside shots of the girl running into the house shouting "Mum" and seeing the possessed woman standing opposite her. We took a wide variety of shots for this part of the film as I was filming. I wanted to take as many shots as possible so that then we have a wide variety to choose from when it comes to making the making of the film.

Production - Day 4 filming - 20/3/2014

This was our last day we could have filmed. On this day we were re-filming about two thirds of the film. This was because the shots we had taken before weren't of a good enough quality. For example we had to re-shoot the scene where the girl runs into the house and sees the possessed woman. This was because the shots we took before were too dark and you couldn't see the woman's face. As well as the possessed woman, the shots we took before were too shaky and the continuity didn't run smoothly enough.

Here is me filming the possessed woman part with the lighting equipment we used. 

Production - Rough cut feedback

We chose to bring a couple of our target audience together to analyse our rough cut. Their comments were extremely helpful with giving us ideas of ways to improve our film. We valued and took on bored all of their comments.

Production - Changing Title

Due to our target audience feedback we decided to move our main title to the end of the opening, instead of in the middle. We did this quite easily by just moving the clip to the end of all the others and placing them all together.

Production - Adding sound

 Here are the sounds that we searched for online. There is no Copyright as we made sure that we used Copyright free sights and songs that were also Copyright free. Out of the three sounds we short listed we decided to use Gohstpocalypse - 2 The Call. We liked this music the best out of all the music we short listed, because it went really well with the film opening with the timing and the way it brought a different element of tension to the film opening.

Here is us showing how we embedded the music into our film opening in Finalcut Express.