Film opening research - Scream (1996)

Scream (1996)

Scream was the first movie of an on going franchise of films, totalling at 4 as of 2011. ‘scream’ , the original, was released December 18^th, 1996 being directed by wes craven, produced by Cathy Konrad and Cary Woods. On its week of release, the film had a total box office of $6,354,586. Due to the films growing popularity, it was re-released on April 11^th 1997, and accrued a further $16.2 million.

The 5:16 opening scene begins with a black screen, with the abrupt appearance of the self-title ‘scream’. The colours are flashing red, white, and black, this gives the audience to connotation of the title representing police lights, this right off the top sets the mood for the fest of the film being a dark horror like film as police cars are usually connotative to crime scenes. Another one of the main points that can be drawn from the title will be the sound. As the title pulsates read, there’s the sound of a heartbeat which is growing progressively more regular, up to the point where there’s a loud bang; followed by a scream, and at this point the title becomes all red and still. The audience can use past imagery from similar films to imagine the scene, which is connotative of the genre. This also represent the sub genre in the fact it shows it’s a slasher horror in the way that the mise en scène represents that someone has just been killed.

Following the tense opening scene, we are presented a mid shot of a young woman, seemingly aged around 20, stood in the living room when her phone begins to ring. The lighting in the room is low key with dramatic lighting on various points, which helps to set an eerie tone for the rest of the movie. The sound of the room is diegetic and almost completely silent which helps with the dramatic feel when the phone begins to ring. Upon answering the phone, the conversation is somewhat strange where the person on the other line has a deep croaky voice in which he follows with the line “who is this?” Following this line, he continues asking other questions, and when the main character puts down the phone, the bellowing sound of the phone rings again. This helps the film to set a mysterious tone to the audience, as the audience at this point have no idea who is on the other line, but they know its dangerous in the way the sound is echoing and the main character become understandable worried.

Fitting in with the codes and conventions of the horror film genre, were presented with an extreme long shot from outside the house where the character is in. this connotates to the audience that the person who was on the phone is outside the house watching. This shot also shows the ain character in a more vulnerable state as it shows how easy it is for anyone who is outside to begin an attack.

By having the main character as a female, this creates more of a vulnerable ideology as the stereotype of a female in a horror film is that the commonly have a lack of self-defence and are usually the first to be killed. This makes the audience see the character as more vulnerable, connotating to the genre with the main character appearing helpless while the ‘killer’ stalks the character like a lion hunting a deer, before lunging in to the attack.

After a number of other phone calls from the mystery character, we’re presented with the line “I want to know who I’m looking at” which makes it clear to the audience the mystery character is in fact outside the house like we were able to foreshadow earlier from the extreme long shot from outside the house. As soon as this line is spoken, a non-diegetic sound begins to quietly play in the film, which progresses in volume through out the rest of the opening scene.

The majority of the second part of the opening consists of establishing the location through the use of tracking shots of the main character as she runs from room to room. While the audience is presented with a new frantic mood, the lighting becomes moor low key, while at the same time the non diegetic music becomes more fast pace. This all fits in with the codes and conventions of a slasher horror, and the ideology for the viewer would be that in a matter of minutes that main character comes to be killed.

While the tracking shots are establishing the location, it gives the viewers more of an insight to the background of the character. The character appears to be fairly rich in a large white house. This fits the stereotype people have for slasher horror, being a rich, young, white American who appears helpless with a lack of self defence.

 As the opening comes to an end, the audience can easily foreshadow what is going to happen in the duration of the film with the use of subliminal shots of weapons such as knives. These shots become mid shots as it adds more emphasis to the likely weapon that will be used in the duration of the film.