BW - Trick or Treat. Deconstruction

Director: Charles Martin Smith

Budget:

Box Office Takings:

US – $2,912,687

Deconstruction:

It opens with a black screen with white serif font, non diegtic music is played, creating a ringing effect. And a voice over begins in a sinister tone, but with a story telling style.

The title 'Trick or Treat' appears on the screen, mixture of orange, yellow, blue, red and yellow which ultimatley creates a 3D gothic image. A ripple effect runs over the title before it fades out. This denotes something supernatural might take place in this film.

The voice over continues to get more agressive and louder as the music builds up.

The first visual shot is a low angle shot of a rockstar, and rock music begins. The image of the rockstar zooms out and pans down to pan around a teenage boys room. The font now seen is white to stand out against the dark room.

Props seen are such as, 'ROCK ON' books, Rockstar calenda, baseball cap and other such things. This informs the audience of a stereotypical teenage rock music loving boy. This emphasized to us how important the props are to a scene to signify the the main character involved and their personailty. This is a key aspect we had to consider in our coursework, as the room shown is a young girl, we had to involve teddies, games, fairytale books and a girly atmosphere, in contrast this film creates a dark stereotypical teenage boy image.

As the camera pans the room it ends on the bed where the music begins to fade out as we see a boy lying on the bed. If we had the equipment to get a smooth pan of the girls room, we would have considered using this technique however to attempt this we wouldn't create as smooth pan and the shot would be a waste of our given 2 minutes.

IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092112/

 Story Line: Hard rock idol Sammi Curr burns to death in a hotel fire. His biggest fan, Lakeridge High School student and resident metal head Eddie Weinbauer is devastated by the news and turns to local radio DJ "Nuke" for emotional support. After a heated discussion about the deceased rock star, Nuke presents Eddie with a rare demo record, the last ever recorded by Sammi and the only copy in existence. Overwhelmed by Nuke's generosity, Eddie accepts the gift without hesitation, unaware of it's dark role in things to come. After constant humiliation and a near drowning at the hands of school bully Tim Hainy and his sports jock friends, Eddie becomes enraged and vows revenge on all those who have wronged him, much to the dismay of love interest, Leslie and best friend, Roger.

Trailer:

When a Stranger Calls Deconstruction

Director: Fred Walton
Release date: 1979
Budget: $740,000
Opening weekend, USA: $21,411,158 


It begins with white titles in a lower case, serif font on a contrasting black background. There is a diegetic sound of outside noises  such as crickets and frogs. The titles have a visual effect of them hovering in air.
Sound of non-diegetic high pitched music plays. The movie title appears in the same font and the black background changes to an establishing shot scene of a street. It is a long shot with lots of trees. It is early evening, the blue tint connotes this. There is a sound of a dog's bark in the distance. The shot is not still, it looks like there was use of a steadi-cam. 
A small figure appears from far away, walking up the road towards the camera. The camera pans to follow the figure from a side view. It is dark and so only the silhouette is visible.
Figure walks up to a house. There are windows by the door exposing inside lighting. As the person walks up to the house, the music changes to become lower and more sinister and the titles turn green.

1. There is a long shot of inside the house. The house contains expensive looking black and white interiors. There is a woman coming down the stairs and a man walking through the hall towards the camera. There are many paintings on the wall and a large collection of walking sticks in a holder. This could signify an older member of the family lives with them, or that they have them for show to make them look classy.
2. They both walk towards the camera where the door is suggested. The door bell rings (diegetic sound). They are both dressed up and discussing a reservation, signifying that they are going out to dinner.
3. The man opens the door to show a young woman with blonde curly hair stood with books in her hand. The man and woman converse with her and they conversation connotes that she is a baby sitter and they are parents.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080130/

Part 1 of When a Stranger Calls:

 

Trailer:

Our film opening links closely with When a Stranger Calls as they both involve a babysitter. The opening of our film introduction involves a babysitter who is sat in the living room and becomes fearful as she hears noises coming from upstairs, this is similar to that of When a Stranger Calls. One main difference is that in our film, the babysitter does not receive unknown phone calls. The rest of our film opening takes a different plot outline to WASC as the film progresses to when the child grows up, therefore the main character will no longer be the babysitter.

BW - Babysitter Wanted

Director: Jonas Barnes

Released: 2008

Budget:                           

Box Office Takings:  

USA:

UK:

I was unable to find any information on  the Films budget or box office takings, however it is described as a low budget film.

Deconstruction:

The film begins with an extreme close up of a body, which slowly begins to reveal a body with surgeon lines carving around the body. As the film continues we see a female strapped to a table struggling, she appears bruised and only wearing her underwear. Whilst the audience are being shown this we see interposing shots of someone walking we assume towards her, we only see the mystery persons feet, this is more thrilling for the audience, the mystery of a  persons identity, allows them to guess through the film who the murder is.

Whilst we see the mystery person walking towards the girl we also see a range of weapons, knifes, gives a sense of  butchers equipment. They appear dirty and have blood on them which signifies what ever is going to happen to this girl has happened before to other people.

We also see other use of props such as a meat hook, which emphasizes this idea of a butcher, and connotes this female as a piece of meat. Which could dennote the idea of females being treated like meat, objects and could be an interesting insight into the most extreme case of women being treated badly. Most extreme.

The music is similar to a childs nursery rhyme, by making the music more slow and emphasizing the notes in the music it creates a sinister effect to how a child is going to be involved. The music and footsteps create tension as the audience begin to fear for this females life, the footsteps signify the coming of her death. The closer they get, the closer she is to her last breath. The use of a high angle shot to show the audience the females body for the first time, emphasizes her vulnerability.

The footsteps have arrived at the female, and she begins to struggle more. We see the mystery person pick up a hammer and place it on her forehead, the hammer draws back and the audience assume the mystery person has killed her, as they hear the noise. The concept of having violence but not showing the most brutal parts, infact scares the audience more. The mind will imagine something far worse than the filming industry would be able to potray.

From this film we liked the idea of the murder being a mystery and if our film was to be completlty created we would involve this concept. But in the opening two minutes we can still portray the murder as a mystery person. Also at the death of our babysitter, we would not show the murder but the aftermath, we feel as a-level students we would never be able to even attempt to re-inact a murderous scene, and the idea of the mind being left to wonder what the killer exactly did to her is far more gruesome.

Story Line:

In a small college town, a young girl working on a babysitting job in a rural farm is terrorized throughout the night.

IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0819755/

 

Trailer:

BW - Deconstruction of Halloween

- Directed by John Carpenter

- With a estimated budget of $ 320,000

- Made $47,000,000 (USA) ( No UK figures given)

The film begins with the credits. To fit in with the context of the films title the only visible object you see whilst the titles roll is a pumpkin which connotes a halloween theme to the film.

The pumpkin progressively increases in size as the credits roll, the light inside the pumpkin also creates an eary effect. The tense music played increases in tempo and volume as the credits continue, the music creats more suspense as it changes the audience heart beat with the rhythm.

The titles themself change in colour from a yellow to a red. These colours can be symbolic for evil and hell.

The credits end 1min 59 secs, the pumpkin has now zoomed in so that all is visible is the the eye and nose of the object, which also emphasizes the presence of the flickering candle overall creates an evil image through the use of the pumpkin. This is quite a low budget opening and appears so to the audience however the preferred reading has been created and the audience are aware of what film it is.

The film opens with exposition by the name of a town being shown, it denotes a small town. The titles are down in white against a black screen this is a prime example of binary opposites, white and black are seen as good and evil however in this case the small amount of white can signify the small amount of good in the film compared to the vast blackness surrounding it, signifying the evil in the film.

A background noise of a children rhyme connotes what we might see in the opening of the film, its then followed by anchorage to the film, setting the date, '1973 - Halloween'.

The film proceeds with a shot of a detached white house which signifies the class we're looking at and the neighbourhood the events are going to take place in, it also creates an illusion of isolation and vulnerability. This shot has a blue tint to it, which signifies a full moon connoting supernatural or cold hearted atmosphere. This first scene is shot in the point of view of a character, who it is isn't shown till the end of the scene.

We see the figure watch through the window of a young couple together. The couple then leave the room and go upstairs.

The music then begins, a single instrument, a piano. As we watch the mystery person walk through the house the young man returns downstairs replacing his top, this signifies that the couple have has sexual intercourse. And horror code and conventions normally revolve around the idea that a girl has sinned therefore she should be punished, this can be seen in this film as the referred sexual intercourse is her sin and therefore she will be punished.

The mystery person picks a mask from the floor which he then covers his face with, this creates a smaller view for the audience to watch through. This creates more suspense and tension as the shot is emphasized again as a point of view and the audience begin to fear that an event is about to occur.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077651/ 

Trailer:

Sorority House Massacre Deconstruction

Director: Carol Frank
Release date: October 1986
Budget and Gross: Unknown (however there are mentions of the film having a low-budget)


2 minute opening.

It opens with an establishing shot of a big, white house with many windows showing lights that are switched on inside. The shot is framed by branches of a big tree blowing in the wind. It looks like it is twilight time and the blue int used helps to portray this further.
There is non-diegetic music of chimes and low toned violins which are appropriate for anchoring the genre.
White titles appear in a serif font with capital letters. The sound of an organ is added to the music and the music gets progressively louder, higher pitched and more intense. 
The film title is in a different font, more gothic looking. The letters of 'Sorority House' look like symbols.
The music builds up to a climax and the rest of the film title 'Massacre' splats on screen as if it is written with blood. The title is surrounded by blood splatters which look as if they have been spurted on the camera lens and it blood drips down.

1. There is then an establishing shot of a big house. The camera zooms in slowly towards the house. There is a steadi-cam effect of someone walking towards the house and the camera  acts as their point of view, much like the opening of John Carpenter's 'Halloween'.
2. Mid shot of a woman in a hospital gown sitting against a white wall. She has short brown hair, pretty and young looking. She addresses another character by the name of 'Mrs Lawrence'.
3. An establishing shot showing the young woman is laid in bed in a brightly lit hospital room. A woman enters, sits on a chair and asks her to recall what had happened.
4. The young woman begins to tell the story and the story goes to a flash back.
5. Flash back: Low angle shot of lower body half walking outside along a pathway. Person is holding a large bag. It is dark outside and to emphasize this there is blue tint. The camera pans up to show it is a woman. The camera follows her walking into the house which was shown at the beginning.

Our opening relates to this as we also have an element of the past and the future as Rachel the little girl is then seen grown up at the end of the 2 minute opening. 


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091990/

Eden Lake Deconstruction

Deconstruction of the two minute opening.


Director: James Watkins 2008
Budget: not shown
Opening weekend;
USA: $5,824
UK: £192, 027

 The film begins with titles in red across a black background. The titles are in a sans serif font and there are flickers and shadows across them. The screen turns black. here is then a flash of an insert/picture. The flash is of a woman lying down in the woods; however, the flash is very fast so the content of the image is not viewed. The photo is also edited with high exposure levels which make the photo look very bright, thus making it even harder for the viewer to denote the image.

• There is high pitched non-diegetic music playing which create a tense atmosphere. Another flash image insert appears of rippling water.
• The screen goes black until another flash shot appears on screen. This image is also very bright. It is a close up of a woman screaming and covered in blood. The black screen then shows more titles .
• The next flash photo insert is of the woman hand cuffed with barbed wire, her facial expression shows she is crying out and she is covered in blood.
• The next flash does not show an image immediately but starts changing colour to red then a picture begins to show of some reeds, but it is not very clear due to the bright over exposure editing.
• The film then flashes-back to the screaming bloody woman.
• The next flashing image is a close up of a boys hand. There is non-diegetic sound of a fuzzy signal on an electronic device.
• It then flashes back to a red background with half an image of numbers which could signify a code. 

There are then flashing lights on a long shot of a lake. The screen turns back to black as the music builds to a crescendo or thunderous end.


1. Establishing shot, mid angle; contrasting environment of a nursery. There are lots of small pre-school aged children. Soft sunshine yellow lighting and bright, happy coloured displays and toys. The children and the teacher are singing peekaboo. 
2. A close up of the teacher shows she is young, pretty and dainty-looking, and she has blonde, short, curly hair. 
3. Long shot of class responding positively to the teacher and by the words of the teacher, the viewers denote that it is the end of the week. 
4. Close up of teacher gazing into classroom after the children have left. There is a nostalgic look to her expression.
5. Long shot/establishing shot of roads and school. Diegetic noise of children playing and non-diegetic soothing classical music. 
6. Close up of a young-middle aged man, wealthy looking waiting in a car, opens an engagement ring box and smiles.
7. Long shot, mid angle. The teacher skips out of school. Non-diegetic romantic music playing. She runs to the car as the man hides the ring- shot reverse shot. She gets in the car, kisses him and the car drives away. 
8. Long shot of the car driving away.


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1020530/

Our 2 minute opening relates to the 2 minute opening of Eden Lake as both include flashes of photographs. To achieve the desired bright/ slightly unclear effect we will edit them. We already took some photographs; however, they were not up to the standard we hoped for so we will re-take them again and attempt to make them look more like the flashes of pictures in Eden Lake.

Vodcast- research from various books.

Here we talk about aspects of film and film theory we have researched and how it may relate to our two minute opening.