Graveyard Scene Deconstruction (Drag Me to Hell) - Seyi

• The use of the graveyard means that all establishing shots will capture all of the graves within the picture, adding suspense and mystery to the location, the size of some of the graves diminishes the dominant (the open grave) as it makes it appear a lot smaller to the viewer so it takes away all of her power, by using the graveyard from a high angle establishing shot you make whatever the focus is not powerful in the daunting surroundings.

• Within a graveyard you have many daunting figures around such as gravestones etc, with the lighting you illuminate the name which may have some significance to the storyline which in this case it does.

•  By using the dug up grave you create many verticals within the picture, you are therefore now giving the dominant power within the situation. This is another method of utilising the graveyard in order to create an effect

• With the resources you could utilise a graveyards main asset, corpses, as corpses are plentiful in graveyards if you wished to use one you easily could due to the appropriate setting you are in

• By utilising corpses you need to incorporate the attributes of a corpse, this is showing rigamortis, this is making the scene as realistic as possible as the hand she is grabbing is showing all the symptoms, and also the use of maggots with the decomposing body which also shows how realistic they wish to make the scene.

  

Masks - Inspiration

Many Horror films feature the killer(s) with masks on.

Masks have many uses throughout horror films:

• Protects your identity.
• Create tension.
• Takes away your knowledge of who the attacker may be.
• Can give a power.
• Hide emotion.

There are a wide variety of films that feature the main protagonist with a mask on and we remember them for their individual masks that they use.

For example, Friday 13th, The Strangers, Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The Orphanage, Nightbreed, Scream, Halloween etc

The Strangers

• The primary use of masks in this film protects the killers identity's and to create tension.

• As you can see from the image above, they feature masks with the mouths drawn on, showing a fixed emotion, and only the eyes would be seen from the victims. 
• Two masks are traditional masks, one without the top of the head and big eyes taking up the face, the other with hair attached onto the mask in order to match the person wearing it. 
• The middle mask is a piece of fabric, with eyes cut out and a small smile drawn on, leaving no clue as to who the murderer is. 

The Orphanage 

• The Orphanage is a Spanish film that uses masks with children for the use of protecting an identity.
• From the trailer this is apparent as the boy kicks back the lady once she tries to lift off the mask. 

• The mask is quite childlike, using primary colours to draw on facial features. 

To conclude, the use of masks in horror films is a chilling way to show tension and terror. 

Camera Perspective from Villain

Slasher horror movies have many ways of showing the victim's feelings and emotions when killing a victim. 

This can be done by looking at all characters that are featured, or looking from the villains perspective.

In a previous post about the slasher film Halloween, I have mentioned the first scene which is viewed from the villains eyes by using the camera in this way, it creates tension and a mysterious feel about the scene. 

These villain perspectives feature usually during the start of the movie in order to create tension and set the scene throughout the rest of the movie, this is also seen with the film Halloween.

Other films such as The Last Horror Movie (2003) feature this technique, however this film  uses a camera to create a POV effect.

• The murders are then filmed as if the killer is watching the events unfold, creating an uncomfortable position for the viewer. 
• Killings are commentated and the killer interacts with speech to the victims.

• We are allowed to see and hear the thoughts and feelings of the killer.
• And the terror and sadness that is felt by the victims when they are going to be killed. 

This filming technique has been effective for many years, and this is apparent in the 1960 film Peeping Tom which also uses the camera as a way to gain an insight from the killers perspective. 

• We are first led into a false sense of security, and like the Halloween opening, the killer doesn't say anything for the first few minutes, aiding us to think that something isn't quite right. 
• Sound is used in a way that helps us to think that the person behind the camera isn't going to be a 'normal' character.
• The use of the traditional camera lines across the screen in this opening really emphasise the way that the villain is looking directly at a potential victim.
• Which is similar to all of the three films mentioned as other characters look directly into the camera, portraying the fact that they are looking into a seemingly innocent persons eyes. 

http://messmediatownley.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/halloween-i-1978-opening-credits.html

Inspiration- Death scene

• We can clearly see the water seeping towards him, foreshadowing the oncoming events. We see the beginning of his death start from his feet when he slips and when his life ends, we're shown first by his feet loosing movement/life. 
• The non-diegetic sound that accompanies the slip creates tension as its a conventional piece of music used in films to create tension, with a quite low tone, getting louder and then stopping, in this case when his foot slips. 

• Whilst we see Tod struggling to free himself from the plug from the medium shot, there's a jump cut to a point of view shot of the shower head showing us what Tod is currently seeing is his current state of panic. 
• The shot is slightly canted and it jolts when on the screen to show his sudden movements and panic. 

• This close-up shot of Tod shows the fear in his eyes and also blood shooting through his eyes has been edited in. 
• Soon after we see him looking at the animals in the cabinet that appear to have their eyes in his direction as though they're watching him which juxtaposes the father, who we see soon after the animals, asleep in another room as he's someone that could help but he's unaware of what's going on in the bathroom. 
• Diegetic sound of Tod suffocating is included here. 

• A clock is also shown ticking and the sound of the clock is also included making it clear that time is going on and as time goes on, the close Tod is getting to his death. 

• We see Tod's toes curling in his state of panic, as though he is putting in everything he possibly can, all of his strength even down to his toes, but then we see his feet lose movement completely a few seconds later and this is when we know that his life has come to an end. 
• The non-diegetic sound that accompanies this section speeds up and also gets louder as the end of his life comes, and when his life ends, the sound stops and we only hear one high note until the end of the scene. 

• Tod is almost always tightly framed, as if he cannot escape what is happening to him.
• Also the shots jump cut from one another quite quickly and we never see Tod for more than a few seconds which means that a scene like this could be shot in many different shots an edited together which makes it easier for the character to act more realistically and also when editing. 

Enter the Void

• The use of Point of View shot made extremely more realistic with the illusion of blinking editing in, makes it realistic to the audience as though they are literally seeing through the characters eyes not just from his point of view. Even when the character puts his hands over his face, the editing makes the audience see the hands come over his face.

• The shot isn't very clear, the room looks blurry and at some points as though it is spinning which helps the audience to understand how the character is feeling and again see exactly what the character is seeing

• Canted angles are used, they make the shot appear as though it's tilted which happens a lot throughout this shot. They help to indicate the movement of the characters head and maked the shot more realistic.

• With the room spinning and being able to hear his thoughts, we gain the understanding that nothing is right in the view of the character.

• Diegetic sound is unclear, their his thoughts, maybe suggesting the drugs have made his thoughts unclear as well as his vision.

• In this shot, it appears as though that the image is being repeated, like there's two of everything that the character is seeing. It helps the viewer to see exactly what the character is seeing and how he is seeing it. 

Deconstruction of film opening - Haunted Forest

I am once again going to use a horror movie set in a forest for my deconstruction

http://www.putlocker.com/file/O2S1GIL60MS8G0#

Camera Angles

Firstly Establishing shots are used to set the scene and emphasise where this is taking place, within a forest, also these establishing shots help conform to the connotations of a horror film by showing how isolated the destination is, only a waterfall, rocks and stream is shown and little sign of life is there except for the trees and the man.

Loose fitting is used in this shot however it is not used to signify that this man as some sort of choice or whatever as it doesn't match the situation, instead loose fitting is used in this situation to continue to emphasise how isolated the place is, by using loose framing you have made the shot wider so it is even more visible to see the lack of life around him

All camera shots are generally low angles to show who this character is, at the moment he seems to be an eager traveller exploring the great outdoors, however, as soon as we are aware of this creatures presence, the camera angles will soon change to high angle shots as he is now the least powerful entity in the situation.

This extreme close up shot makes the dominant the colour red, the colour values of the colour red due to the blood basically mean danger, this shot isn't exactly relevant as the injury is minor, but by showing this you make the viewers anticipate danger for this lone man in the forest.

This close up shot is the first sight we get of the creature that is stalking this man, it is a powerful shot as we now can see that this thing is coming from underground which makes it a lot more dangerous than we first anticipated.

Most directors use the eyes of a way of making you sympathise with someone or making you fear them, by doing this close up shot and showing the intense look in the eye of this creature you take away any way of the audience sympathising with it and you immediately make it just a dangerous creature.

Editing

• A lot of eye line matches were used within the opening scene to show what was happening mainly through the victims eyes but sometimes through the creatures eyes, this made us see how much danger the man was in when he was unaware of it and also when in order to make us feel the anxiety he felt when faced with the creature we saw the situation through his eyes so we could feel his fear
• Match of action is used when the protagonist of the scene is looking at his injury then putting the stick out of his leg

Sound

• Most of the sound e.g. the backing tracks are non diagetic, as it runs through the entire opening scene
• The diabetic sound is the sound of the nature around him e.g. the small waterfall, his footsteps of the various terrain
• The swift noise that occurs when the creature passes the screen emphasises its speed as well as whatever power it may have
• The intense non diagetic sound that appears when the hand emerges from the floor, is designed to make the audience jump

Mise-en-Scene

• Shot within a forest
• Man in late 30s used as protagonist in the opening scene
• Grey looking monster used as the killer

Inspiration (Forest Location) - Seyi

For my inspiration I decided to use the forest scene from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt 1 as in my final piece we wished to film within a forest, I wanted to see how forests can be utilised to create effect.

The use of tall trees can help represent power, by shooting in a forest, especially a well built forest where lots of tall trees are easily visible you therefore give the person in front of them some sort of power as the composition of the shot is mainly vertical and vertical lines in terms of composition represent power

By using the trees in the background you can make the framing of this shot more tight than if you used a tight framing shot without trees in the background, the trees reduce the amount of free space within the picture making the framing even tighter therefore enforcing the message that the shot is trying to come across, this is effective as you can easily use what you have been given e.g. trees and make it a powerful tool.

There is no need for eccentric lighting because all natural lighting can be controlled by the trees overhead, also the green leaves sets an interesting green colour in the shot, the colour green can signify nature and nature is being reinforced here due to the fact they are in a forest, however the shade of green is significant as it is a murky shade of green it indicates something is clearly wrong in the situation

The large amount of space within a forest means that a lot of action can be shot in one shot with the surroundings still being intact, within a dense forest a lot of space is still visible once you step inside it meaning that if you ever need to show a shot with two people and where action is within a shot you can easily portray all of these things easily within a forest.