The close up of the lamp turning on emphasises revealing: it is revealing the truth to the character. It also emphasises the fact that he is isolated from the rest of society, due to the fact that it has a shot of unnatural lighting, which is in contrast to the outisde shot, with natural lighting, showing that he is seperate.
The shot of the barred windows emphasises that he is seperated from society and that he is perhaps dangerous. The rain immediately sets the mood of the film: negative with heavy undertones. Rain is a typical horror genre convention, as it immediately lets the audience know the tone and setting of the film will be.
Another example of a way that our film uses the conventions of the horror genre is with the use of shadows. Shadows can emphasise numerous things: vulnerability, mystery, danger. In this case, it represents Laverick's mysterious personality. This puts the audience on edge, as shadows give the impression that somebody is behind you.
The name of our film is 'Branded'. This is key to the horror genre, as when we researched into names we noticed that the name had to be to the point of the film. Examples of this are films like 'Saw' and 'Scream'. Both of these names gives the audiences clues as to what the film will be about, but not too much.
The narrative of our film is a key convention of the horror genre. It involves violence, revenge and a killer. These three aspects are key to the success of the film. It is important to keep the motive of the killer fairly hidden until the end of the film, thus to keep audiences interested. It is important to drop a few hints in the film, however, so that audiences can begin to piece together some parts of the information and guess themselves the motives of his actions. We done this in the opening of the film, by panning across a few key words in newspapers.
The title of the film/Title font and style
The title of the film, 'Branded', appears at the end of the sequence, as the door slams shut. The loud bang of the door slamming allows the audience to know that the name of the film itself will be very important to the plot of the film. The title font and style are the same for the Production Company (as seen in the top right image), the title credits and of the film name. We felt that this use of consistency in font and colour let the opening sequence flow more easily together, and linked all of the shots together perfectly. The font itself is quite Gothic, seeming fairly sharp. This introduces the audience to the genre of our film. The use of the black and white colours are fairly bland and depressing, which helps set the tone of the film. We took inspiration from this from title sequences such as 'Final Destination' who used the same font and style in both the title credits and the name of the film itself.
Setting/location
The location of the film is extremely effective. It is quite worn-down and seems secluded from the rest of society. The shot of the barred windows really emphasises this point, as it shows that Laverick is seperated from everyone else; almost like a prisoner. This is representative of his mental state - he feels like he belongs in a seperate place than everyone else. Inside of the workshop in which Laverick hides, there are many tools and weapons layed out on the desk, showing the strong violent themes within our film, which would continue if we were to make it as a feature film. The colours and lighting in the workshop are subdued and dark, representing Laverick's character.
Costumes and props
The costume of Laverick is quite plain and simple. We purposely chose to dress Laverick in such a way so that the audience would be reminded that Laverick was once just an ordinary man, who had his whole life changed in an instant. The shot of his muddy trainers show that he has been out of his workshop recently, allowing the audience to ponder on why this would have been.
The props in our opening sequence are also used to great effect. The shot of the blood on the knife truely emphaises this. There is one key shot of the radio which is highly important. This is because you can see Laverick lift up a knife in the reflection of the radio, as the news report plays overhead. This particular shot shows us the connection that Laverick has with the rest of society - violence. He only seeks revenge.
Camerawork and edting
There are numerous editing techniques used to portray meaning. The shot of the production company name fading into the shot of the radio is one, as it connects the titles to the rest of the film, allowing them to seem like they belong with the actual footage. As the opening sequence progresses, the editing picks up pace, and becomes more and more unsettling for the viewer. This is particularly shown in the shots of Laverick crossing out people's faces in newspapers, and underlining key words which have relevance to him. In some shots, we purposely made the camerawork appear to be slightly shakey, thus to represent Laverick's mental welfare - unstable. However, in our first draft we overused this technique, so we corrected it in our final piece and only made the footage appear to be slightly shakey in certain scenes. The camera is also positioned in such a way so that the audience never get to see too much of Laverick's body - thus adding to the mystery of the character.
Story and how the opening sets it up
The story of 'Branded' is about a once successful millionaire. He lived in a luxurious mansion with his wife and two children, before it was horrifically burnt down in a terrible arson attack, in which his wife and two children perished. Laverick went missing for two years, and mysterious murders started happening around London, all of whom were connected to the fire in some way (the police men, the judges who released the arsonists, the arsonists themselves, the fire men etc.) Laverick becomes consumed with revenge, and kills all of his victims in a certain way (but slitting their throat and by branding their skin with an emblem of fire. Can the police stop the deranged killer before it's too late?
Our opening sequence has strong links with the story of our film. The scene begins with a news report being played on the radio, all of which are to do with the murders which Laverick has commited. There are also newspaper cuttings which depict everyone connected with the fire, and show Laverick crossing them out - suggesting their impending death. As the opening sequence end, the audience see Laverick exit his lair after marking an 'X' on a map, showing them that he is going to commit another murder. This leaves the opening in such a manner that it would be easy to pick up from if we were actually making the whole film.
Genre and how the opening suggests it
The genre of our film is horror/thriller. Numerous techniques are used in our film to portray this.
One convention of real horror films which we drew inspiration from was the idea of weaponary. Weapons, such as guns, knifes, swords, nails and more are always used as one of the main props to promote that the film belongs in the horror genre. Weapons are what is used to do damage to people, thus it induces fear into the audience. One particular shot which shows this is the one of the reflection of the knife in the radio. The camera is positioned in such a way so that the light from the lamp bounces off the knife. This shot, I feel, particularly emphasises this point as the short is quite brief, which makes the audience unsure to what they have seen. We used a panning shot of tools on a desk which are organised neatly, showing the violent aspect of our film. This shot also shows that Laverick only cares about his weapons, which is quite disturbing.
Another key shot in our film which portrays the horror genre is the one of Laverick wiping blood off a knife. This strongly hints at gore, and shows that this character will stop a no lengths to get his ultimate revenge. The blood on the knife strongly emphasises the horrofic side of our film, as it strongly hints to violence.
The use of lighting is a horror convention which we drew upon. We purposely dressed the set in such a manner so that in any shots that Laverick appears, shadows will be cast across the wall. This adds a sense of mystery and enigma to the whole scene.
How characters are introduced
Laverick is introduced with him opening a door. However, you only see his hand and a small proportion of his body. We continued to do this throughout our whole film, and only showed certain parts of his body. This gave the film a sense of mystery, making the audience wonder as to what Laverick really looks like. This also keeps his identitiy hidden, which makes the audience wonder who he really is...
No comments:
Post a Comment