Textual Analysis of an Opening: Blade (1998)

Sound

A lot of non-diegetic sounds are used, such as the club music and the eerie music in the background being played for the first 30 seconds. The vampire hisses and growling are also non-diegetic. Its purpose is to display the animalistic side and the zoomorphism of vampires as they are seen to have no morals and are ferocious/feisty. The sound effect of a punch was used to add to the reality of the opening, but to also depict the strength of a vampire. The club music comes to a dramatic halt as the American is at the feet of a mysterious character.

Camera angles/movement

Camera movement is unsteady and jagged in the opening where the two characters were in the car, mimicking the vehicle's motion. A tracking shot is used when following the workers in the meat locker, examining their pale faces with dark undertones. This cold colour palette adds to the lifeless image of a vampire. Mid shots and two shots of the main subjects are also used. The shot of the red headed woman is taken at a low angle, allowing her to overpower the male and provoke the feeling of fear. A tilt is used to track the male's gaze as he looks up to this woman, conforming to Laura Mulvey's theory. The close-up of blood on the male character's hand foreshadows the brutality of the film and the relationship with this iconography, establishing the media text as a horror. The fact that it is a close-up resembled its importance to the storyline. There is also a close-up of blood blasting out of the sprinklers in the nightclub, followed by a pan of the bloodbath to display the surrounding area and the enjoyment of the vampires through their body language (dancing) and facial expressions. Zooming and arc shots are used in the club scene to add to the hallucinogenic atmosphere. A male vampire punches the camera at a head on shot, including the audience into the storyline as they feel as if he has punched them. This shot asserts the dominance that vampires hold over mortals. A high angle shot is used while the American man was on the floor, to show that he is the inferior one in the situation.


Editing

Shot-reverse-shot is used when the two main subjects are in the car, and also in the club when the female dressed in black and white glare at each other, as if they're in some kind of battle between evil and innocence - which isn't the case as we then find out that they are both vampires. Lighting is made to appear blue and misty with a cool palette and dark undertones, representing the dead, cold factors of a vampire's life. However in the night club lighting is limited, provoking confusion for the audience and makes them depict their own image of what they think is occurring. As the storyline develops and more is revealed, the lighting becomes brighter. Jump cuts are used to display fast movements and mimic the vampire's swift ability. Shot durations are fast when the two subjects get into the club, to reinforce the clubbing atmosphere. These shots are also out of focus to depict the blur and excitement that the vampires are receiving. There are ongoing credits in a red coloured font to illustrate the main element of the film; blood. The colour red is also symbolic of death and danger, but also lust - typical of a vampire due to their promiscuity. There is a montage of shots, reinforcing the bloodbath scene and how much everyone in the club enjoys it. Abnormal slow motion shots are used to show that the vampires are not in control of their actions as they are zoned out - which is possibly why they didn't realise that a human had entered their night club in an instant. Match-on-action is used where the vampire punches the camera, cutting to the American male taking the impact and falling on the floor (continuity editing). Towards the end of the opening, the camera constantly cuts away from the mysterious character in black to create more tension as we are determined to find out who he is and what he looks like. He is positioned in the right third of the frame to reveal that he is, in fact, a negative character, not a hero - as their framing is usually centred. His negative ambience is also recognised by the vampires getting up in fear and backing away from him - he has dominance over them as he is shot from a low angle.

Mise en scene

The opening is set in a meat locker - an odd place to own a night club - which has connotations of death. The female protagonist appears to have red hair. This colour is symbolic of the danger that she will later give rise to. She also wears black lingerie, representing the lust darkness within her. Females in the opening are dressed as if they are shot from a man's gaze, again depicting them as promiscuous. The male is perceived as a stereotypical American, what with his blonde locks, blue hat and simple clothing. The blonde hair depicts his stupidity while his hat is the colour of oblivion, portraying him as not the brightest character in the film as he is easily manipulated. The meat locker setting embeds dead bodies in bags frequently, yet subtly in the background, hinting out to the male character and the audience what is soon to happen next. The conversation between the female and the club bouncer is not in English. They seem to converse in an eastern European dialect, making the idea that they are vampires more conspicuous as they are said to be from the Transylvanian region. The film was released in the 1990s as vampires were the main fear of that time, so this embedded dialect holds great significance in terms of foreshadowing. In the club, there is a female dressed in white, contrasting with the image of purity as she is, in fact, a vampire. This makes the audience question whether or not purity is a deception or a myth. There are flashing lights in the club, disorientating the audience and making them feel as if they are also present in the night club. The vampires perform promiscuous acts - through kissing and the giving of oral sex - a typical trait of this type of creature. Regarding performance, the vampires eye the American up and down as they are unfamiliar with him. He is not seen as a human, he is meat. As the pan of the bloodbath occurs, the camera is positioned behind the hook. This hook represents torture and inflicts pain, but also reminds the audience of the setting outside of the night club; the meat locker. There is a female in the night club dancing with a bag on her body. This creates an enigma as to why she is protecting her clothes, which is then answered when the bloodbath occurs. It seems as if she wears this insisting there is going to be a mess of some sort within the club. On the other hand, this also foreshadows the event that someone may end up in a body bag at the end of the night, giving reference to the body bags seen earlier in the opening. The mysterious character that appears towards the end of the opening doesn't seem to be covered in blood as he rises above everybody, implying that he has an important role in the story nothing has been revealed about him.

Codes and Conventions: The opening of a Horror film

The opening of is a very important few minutes of a film. For horror films, it is crucial that certain codes are used to appeal to the audience and intrigue them. These are symbolic, print, audio, and technical codes in particular.

Mise en scene (symbolic)

The setting is usually an isolated place, depending on the plot of the film. Performance wise, there should be characters with mysterious, closed-off qualities that the audience will only get to understand if they watch the rest of the film. Enigma codes are certain objects, actions, or dialogue in a shot that provoke questions (i.e. who? Why?). These are used to create tension and possible anxiety, forcing the audience to, again, keep watching to find out answers. Action codes are used to introduce and develop the storyline while introducing only a small amount of characters. As of the appearance of characters, their makeup is put on using slightly darker tones to portray the sense of the film. Involving colour, dull coloured clothes are worn. Characters shouldn’t be wearing bright items of colour, e.g. yellow/pink - as they have connotations of positive moods - unless shown for a contrast between significant characters.

Objects, e.g. knives, are crucial as they represent the genre. You wouldn’t have sunflowers and daisies to represent horror, you would show objects that present violence and anguish.


Editing (print)

The style of text displayed in the opening credits is normally of a gory/creepy style, consisting of plain block colours to clearly distinguish between the text and the images behind it, and also to represent the atmosphere of the film. For example, text in the colour of red can resemble the blood and gore within a film. White text on a black background can portray the battle between light and darkness/good and evil.

Sound (audio)

It’s very important that the correct non-diegetic sound is used. With music, you can’t have happy, uplifting tunes in a horror film. The music has to be dark and sinister, and also anticipating so that the audience can feel the same as the characters in the current events of the film.

Camera angles/movement (technical)

The technical codes include the lighting, camera angles, and the speed of shots. Shots may be fast in a short sequence to display anticipation and tension, however, longer shots may be used to show and develop the storyline but provide suspense.

Low angles can be used on characters to show a higher/more significant status and entity about them. High angles can be used to show how some are inferior to others, while long shots can display mise-en-scène, and close-ups can exhibit the fear or bravery within characters.

The progression of Horror - Subgenres and Hybrids

Subgenres were created in order for the film industry to act upon the fears of society. We see as time goes on that fears change. For instance, in the 1800s, the main fears of the time were mythical creatures like vampires and witches, hence the Gothic subgenre of horror was born. In recent times, the main fear has been death and the life that leads after this. The horror film industry became aware that each person had a different perception of life-after-death, and decided to act on these images and subvert them, producing the paranormal subgenre.

The Horror genre

Horror is a film genre that evokes negative emotional reactions from the audience by playing on their fears.



Inspired by literature, horror films have been present for over a century. Within horror, macabre and the supernatural are frequent themes, often dealing with the audience’s nightmares, fears, revulsion, and dread of the unknown.

Typical plots within the genre often involve the intrusion of an evil force or event into the everyday world. Common iconography involves ghosts, extraterrestrials, vampires, werewolves, demons, gore, torture, vicious/rabid animals, monsters, zombies, cannibals, psychopaths, and serial killers. Every genre has its own iconography. The iconography of horror consists of objects or entities that evoke pain and violence.

Mise-en-scene in horror films are usually based on the feeling of isolation, as seen in the following image. For example, an eerie family home in the middle of nowhere surrounded by a forest has connotations of insecurity, while the river represents suffocation and death as if whoever is trapped in the house is being smothered and dying to escape. These themes are predominantly used in the horror genre.

Main Brief Introduction

Today I am going to be beginning my main brief project. We have been asked to produce an opening to a horror film we have constructed. This process will include narrative planning, time management, organisation, and a large amount of research in order to be carried out correctly. Research will be applied to the films we have studied over the summer holidays.

Mini Brief Evaluation

Mini Brief

Editing

A classroom was used to portray the male protagonist's occupation, a teacher.

The first song was used as it has a strong bassline, resembling the male's heart beating as he is nervous about what is going to happen when his girlfriend comes home.

An arc shot was used here instead of cutting to immerse the audience into the story, as cutting gives off the impression that a piece of footage has been left out/ removed.

A bag was kept by the female protagonist to assist the idea of her coming home from work.

This is seen being tucked under her chair.

The female was made to gasp to express the tension and anxiety kept within the audience, and in order for the scene to end on a cliffhanger as the proposal is left unanswered.

Roles within the group

With a number of five people, we decided that one person can be the cameraman - while one person sets up the shots with the tripod, one person can be directing - by informing everyone on how the mise en scene should be organised and how to position the shots correctly, one can be editing and finding sound, and the last can be acting (with an additional actor that was outside of our media group).

Storyboard

This storyboard contains the certain shot types and camera angles that we used while filming, as well as dialogue. Close-ups were used to show the anxiety and excitement of the two characters, while mid-shots were used to view the character's costumes - establishing their roles as professional workers. A medium long shot was used to make the audience aware of the space around the subjects.

We made sure to film as many takes as possible, as there may have been high levels of background noise in some shots, and low levels of noise in the others. From taking these shots, we were able to merge different takes together for the best outcome of our mini-brief.

Character Analysis

This is Aaron Zurita. He is 24 years of age and has the occupation of a teacher. Mr Zurita was left an orphan after the tragic death of his mother when he was a toddler and the abandonment from his father. He decided to become a teacher to mould the younger generation and hopefully become a role model in his students' eyes - as he never received this as a child.
His interests are skiing, reading literature, going to the theatre, and retail shopping (as this was his mother's favourite thing to do, which helps him feel closer to her).

This is Francesca Simmons. She is 25 years of age and is occupied as a wedding planner. Similar to Zurita's childhood, Simmons was a troubled child, abandoned by her parents and forced into foster care. She moved from home to home, with countless abusive parents. Later in life, she reconnected with her long lost brothers and they have protected her ever since. She decided to be a wedding planner as she enjoys being surrounded by the symbols of love - something she was never given. She wanted to be able to prevent the wedding of terrible people/parents in one way or another!
her interests include skiing, watching films, and the performing arts.

Script

Male: (takes out wedding ring from pockets and looks at it, then quickly puts it away when he hears the door open)

Female: (opens and walks through the door) Hi honey, I’m home.

Male: (stands up) Hey, how was your day?

Female: (crosses room towards male) It was awful. I missed the train so I was late to work.

Male: (hugs female mid-sentence) Oh no. Why don’t you just sit down and relax? (Walks over to chair with female)

Male: Look, we’ve been together for a long time and I know I don’t say it enough but, I love you. And I don’t want you to forget that I love you because you’re just special to me, you know, and I don’t want to lose you.

Female: What are you trying to say?

Male: (takes out the wedding ring and gets down on one knee) Will you marry me?

Female: (hands on face) *gasp*!

Recce

We were going to film our mini-brief in our sixth form common room as we wanted our characters to be seen more as adults so the backdrop of buildings in London would make the audience believe that the characters work in the city.

However, we decided to this ordinary classroom as it is formal and its simplicity will not draw attention away from the main dialogue. Also, the pink blinds compliment the romance genre as the colour connotes universal love of oneself and others, inner peace, harmony, and affection. It is the sweet side of red, as red can have connotations of danger and violence.

Narrative planning

We brainstormed possible scenes we could produce, such as an interrogation, and an ordinary girl to girl catch up. As the interrogation was the most common and exciting thing to do, we tried to be more original and thought to stick with the girl to girl catch up. This got us thinking about whether or not we should have a male role as part of our brief and decided this was a great idea. We thought there could be a romance between the male and the female so we concluded to film a marriage proposal!

The idea was to have a male sitting down and looking at a ring, contemplating the proposal he was about to perform to his girlfriend. The girlfriend comes in from having a bad day, making the boyfriend quite nervous as her mood might affect her answer negatively. However, the boyfriend courageously gets down on one knee and proposes. The conversation ends on a cliffhanger as the question; 'Will you marry me?' is left unanswered.

Intro, Romance Genre

For our mini-brief, we are required to film a short scene, where a character opens a door, crosses the room and sits down on a chair opposite another character. These two characters will then exchange a couple lines of dialogue. The genre we thought we could link this to is Romance.

Romance is a genre that focuses on passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of two protagonists. Occasionally, the lovers face certain obstacles such as finances, illness, psychological restraints, or a family threatening to destroy their union of love. Often, differences in compatibility enter into the plots of romantic films.

In romantic films, voiceovers are often used to introduce the love theme, while the main characters are introduced. Iconography such as wedding bells, hearts, and flowers are used as they are all symbolic of love. ‘Boy meets girl’ is a very typical scenario in a romance film, aimed towards a female audience as it links to their emotions more effectively.

In condition with Todorov’s narrative structure, ‘boy meets girl’ (equilibrium), and there are hints given throughout the film suggesting that the two characters are a good ‘love match’ and that there will be a ‘happy ending’ (disruption of the equilibrium), however the characters then end up in their separate ways due to an argument or disagreement (recognition of the disruption – but not in its entirety), they finally reunite (resolution for the disruption), and they have a traditional ‘happily ever after’ (new equilibrium).

180 degree rule

The 180-degree rule is a guideline that states that two characters in a scene shall keep the same left/right relationship to each other throughout, coinciding with the shot-reverse-shot.

When the camera passes over this invisible axis that connects the two subjects, it ‘crosses/jumps the line’, building a reverse angle of the shot. By keeping the camera on one side of this axis for every shot in the scene, character A is always frame right of character B – who is then always frame left of character A. The rule allows the audience to visually connect with unseen movement happening around and behind the subjects.

Going against the 180-degree rule by shooting on all sides is known as ‘shooting in the round’.

Match-on-action

Match-on-action is a dual-shot (although, it can be a linkage of shots) put together through film and video editing, where the editor cuts from one shot another, to result in matching two pieces of the same action at the same moment - showing two different sides of that scene. By editing in this way, it is made for the audience to believe that motion or action continues uninterrupted. The footage could be shot hours, even days apart, however, this editing technique makes it appear differently. The second shot viewed matches the first shot’s action and ends it, hence match-on-action!

This technique is very useful in continuity editing, emphasising relationships between objects in a scene and the space surrounding them. The audience will interpret this space as a ‘continuous whole’, creating a visual bridge that distracts the audience from noticing the cut between two shot. To make the shots look seamless, every detail in the mise-en-scène must be in the same place during every take. Therefore, notes must be taken throughout shooting to avoid continuity errors between takes. The editor will then choose the best takes and cut them together.

Shot-reverse-shot

Shot-reverse-shot is a film technique where two characters are shown looking at one another in a sequence, typically used in conversation to establish the space that the characters are in. Because the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the audience assumes that they are making eye contact during this situation (an eye line match). This technique is another style of continuity editing, drawing attention away from the transitions between shots so that the audience distinguishes one continuous action that develops linearly, chronologically, and logically.

The shots are obtained from the three-camera set up. The shots needed for a basic shot-reverse-shot are; a two shot of characters (in wide or medium shot) and over-the-shoulder shots on character A and character B, providing constancy in conversation with characters filmed at eye-level. This immerses the audience in the dialogue and the story.

Welcome

Hello there! My name is Nimat Awoyemi and this is my AS Media Studies blog. On this, I will be displaying and documenting the progression of my Media work over the next coming months. My first brief is the production of an opening sequence to a horror film, lasting around two minutes with additional titles and credits. In preparation for this coursework, I will be focusing on the conventions of this genre, as well as the analysis of horror film and the use of professional editing software.