Analysing the Opening Scene of I Know What You Did Last Summer

The Opening Scene of I Know What You Did Last Summer that I analysed starts from 0.55 - 4.00.

SOUND

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  Guitar Introduction – which links to the main charcters as they are teenagers. Music with guitars and singing is the type of music teenagers would listen to on the radio or on their iPod.

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  Man Singing - has a deep voice and the words that he is saying is not recognisable which could suggest that the man is dying as when a person dies you can’t understand what they say. Plus man sounds sinister and could be warning the audience of what is about to happen.

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  Guitar Music fades into a Deep Pulse Beat that could connote the sound of a beating heart.

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  Loud High pitched note played in a beat in rhythm with the Deep Drum Beats adds to the tension as to what will happen next.

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  Waves and Wind is heard during the background music and also during the silences between the music pauses, which gives the sense of atmosphere and environment to the audience as its set near the sea but could also hint that the action that will happen is to do with the natural causes.

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  The Deep Drum beats stop and the diegetic sound of the spinning of the necklace is heard. The background music starts again but in a lower tone and gradually the innocent piano is added and then the slow heartbeat and then the violin and then the guitar, until the sound of the music is really loud; almost like a whole orchestra. Can suggest the slow but then dramatic end of the characters.

MISE EN SCENE

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  Natural Landscape - The setting is on the cliff side of a mountain, which seems deserted with the fierce waves of the sea clashing on the rock-side of the cliff. Because it’s deserted it shows that the character pictured is maybe lonely, needs someone and could do something or have done something but no one will know as he is alone. Far from civilisation or scoiety or community.

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  Fierce Waves – clashing against rocks. The violence of it all could possibly link to the violence or the horror that is about to happen, which is the severe car accident and the “murder” of Ben Willis who is thrown to sea.

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  A Long, Narrow, Winding, Empty Road – not neccessarily followed but is shown as to how isolated it is and how close it is to the sea. It introduces the action that is about to happen in this setting.

CAMERA WORK AND SHOTS

• Establishing Shot – Ariel shot from above and has the effect that someone is being followed as a predators point of view.

• Beginning of Tracking Shot – exaggerates the violence of the sea as the majority of the scene is over the sea, which can connote the violence and the wrong of the decision that the teenagers will make in the car accident.
• End of Tracking Shot - carrys on to see the winding road. To show how close the road is to the sea as they don’t need to cut to a shot of the road and just carry on the tracking shot.
• Slow Zoom – into the small man, David Egan, who is sat on the cliff side. At the beginning of the zoom as David is almost invisible and camouflaged to the natural surroundings which can suggest that his life is not worthy as you can hardly see him. It also compares his size to his surroundings.
• Close up of the Necklace – mainly because it has important significance to the narrative as during the film the same necklace is seen with Benjamin Willis signifying that he is the Fisherman Killer.
• Side on Medium Shot – It puts the audience in the point of view of the murderer that is about to push him off the cliff. In the point of view of someone who is spying on David.
• Landscape Shot – of the rocks and sea below to see the big drop from the cliffside where David is sat to the bottom of the cliff where he will eventually end up.
• Landscape Shot – of the grassy surroundings David is sat in. Point of view of David looking around for someone. Shows that he is alone and anything could happen.

EDITING

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  Slow Paced Editing – beginning of the opening scene. Hardly any editing scene as it is just one long establishing tracking shot of the natural landscape. Creates the atmosphere of being calm and tranquil as all is well and no murder has happened...yet.
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  Simple Cut – is used when it cuts to David’s hand holding the necklace, David’s face expression, the deep fall from the cliff to the rocky sea, the grassy surroundings as David looks around and the empty road.
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  Fast Paced Editing – The cuts explained above are part of the fast paced editing sequence. This builds up the tension and the horror of the murder that will take place whilst celebrations will be happening. It gives the audience an adrenaline rush as they don’t know what will happen, yet still expect something to happen.

The Man that is Wes Craven and His Works

Wes Craven, formally known as Wesley Earl Craven, was born on August 2nd 1939 in Cleveland, Ohio. Craven is an American Film Director who has produced many popular horror genre films such as The Hills Have Eyes, A Nightmare on Elm Street featuring the famous Freddie Krueger and all the Scream films. Although Craven is mostly known for being a film director he has also been part of the post production side of a film by being a producer and is also a writer and an actor.

One of Craven’s popular horror films is the original A Nightmare on Elm Street. A Nightmare on Elm Street was produced in 1984 and it was the first part of a series of films following after it. The film’s cast included John Saxon, Heather Langenkamp, Amanda Wyss, Jsu Garcia and Robert Englund. Also among the cast was the famous Johnny Depp and A Nightmare on Elm Street was his first ever film debut. The main setting of A Nightmare on Elm Street starts in the fictional Midwestern town of Springwood in Ohio. The main plot of the film focuses on several teenagers who are being terrorised in their nightmares by the ghost of a serial child murderer; Fred Krueger. The cost of making the film itself is said to be an estimate of $1.8 million. However the film earned all this back and more in its first week of premiere’s with the sum of $25.5 million. A television series and a remake of the film in 2009 was made inspired by the film A Nightmare On Elm Street.

During Wes Craven’s career as a well known Horror Film Director, he has won nine awards and received three nominations for them. He has had nominations for Shocker and Scream. And he has won awards with his films The Hills Have Eyes, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The People Under the Stairs, New Nightmare and Scream.

As well as Craven using his film directing skills he also uses his producer skills. He has been part of producing a remake of his own original films of The Hills Have Eyes in 2006, The Hills Have Eyes 2 in 2007 and The Last House on the Left in 2009.

Craven has also been guest star actors on many films and television series. Some of his cameo’s include his own film Scream in 1996 and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back in 2001. The most recent appearances include in The Tripper in 2007 and Dairy of the Dead in 2008.

In Craven’s early years of working, this multi-talented man also produced and directed television series as well as films. He produced television series like They Shoot Diva’s, Don’t They? in 2002. And he has directed television series like Nightmare Cafe in 1992.

Character's Make Up - Amanda Simmons' Possessed Eyes

This is the Eye Make Up that I applied on my actress to play the character of the possessed twin, Amanda Simmons.

I used a simple selection of black and green eye liner. I just drew around the actresses eyes to make her look possessed and abnormal to any other person. As I will be having a close up of  Amanda Simmons' eyes in my Opening Horror Clip, I felt that it was important to exagerate Amandas eyes by applying excessive black and green eye liner to make it more terrifying for the audience as they least expect it.

Character Profile - Amanda Simmons (Twin Number 2)

Name: Amanda Simmons
Age: 17
Occupation: College Student
A Little Insight: The youngest twin out of the two. Illustrated as the less pretty, unpopular, less intelligent and inferior twin.
Main Role: Possessed Twin. Amanda is jealous of Imogen, gets possessed by eveil spirits and seeks revenge on her twin to get rid of her any way possible.

Costume: On the other hand, Amanda has a very opposite costume, which just consists of all black. Black jeans, black t-shirt, black hoodie and black converse. The black colour can connotates the darkness and evil within Amanda as she is possessed.

Mise en Scene: The setting that I put Amanda in is in the corner of her bedroom. Putting her in the corner of the room makes her look like the outsider at the "naughty kid" in class. The lighting in this set is very important as the lighting is from a red light. The red light connotates the evil of the room; it gives off a sinister atmosphere to the audience of what may happen to Amanda.

Character Profile - Imogen Simmons (Twin Number 1)

Name: Imogen Simmons

Age: 17

Occupation: College Student

A Little Insight: The oldest twin out of the two. Illustrated as the prettier, intelligent, popular and superior twin.

Main Role: Innocent Twin. Finds out about her possessed, sinister twin. And becomes a victim to Amanda's evil actions.

Costume: Imogen's Costume consists of a colourful blue top with a rainbow on it which connotates that she is a lively character and in a sense "normal"; an average teenager. She is also wearing a pair of jeans with a zipped jumper which is what an average girl would wear in her teens. This costume gives off the sense that Imogen is an ordinary girl just getting by with her everyday, routined life.

Mise en Scene: The Environment that I put Imogen in is a light and calm environment. I have put her in the heart of all the surrounding papers around her, which can suggest that she keeps her academic work close to heart. It also suggests her personality to the audience as an intelligent character.

Analysing "The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari"

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, also known as Das Cabinet Des Dr. Caligari, was one of the first signs of film making in the 1920's. This film, directed by Robert Weine, began the very first traditional horror conventions that are used all the time. Many horror films that are produced in the modern world today use many if not all of the horror conventions that were first experimented in 1920's hit, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

The first recognisable horror convention used in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is the NARRATIVE of the film. The main narrative is of a psychologist, Dr. Caligari, who has found out how to hypnotise a somnambulist (sleepwalker), Cesare, to carry our evil deeds for him. This narrative can be classed under the sub-genre of Psychological Horror because of the themes that run through the fifty minute film of mind control, mental illness, and evil crimes. Psychological Horror is a sub-genre that is very popular today in horror films such as Paranormal Activity and The Shining. Psychological Horror plays with the audience's minds and let's their minds play a big part of how the narrative will digest and cary on in their minds.

 

Also linking with the narrative, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was the first film to experiment with an ANTI-CLIMAX TWIST at the end. An anti-climax twist is bascially a twist in the narrative; something happens in the narrative that was unexpected. The Anti-Climax Twist in The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari was that ....

 

The CAMERA WORK within The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari was very important as it was also the first film to make use of the unusual Dutch Angle Shot. The Dutch Angle Shot is where the camera has been tilted at an angle so that the horizon of the shot is no longer horizontal to the bottom of the screen but slanted to the bottom of the screen. This shot is used to create an atmosphere of the unusual and imbalanced feeling of a scene.

 

The MISE EN SCENE was also very important in The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari as German Expressionism was used throughout the film. German Expressionism is the exageration of the props and set of the scene which reflects on the particular scene's atmosphere and feeling.

Horror Film Related to My Horror Plot - The Unborn

The Unborn (2009) is one of the most recent films that have the main story plot that includes a set of twins, similar to my horror plot. However, in this storyline one of the twins (the boy) dies in the womb as the other one (the girl) survives. The twin who dies in the womb comes back to the world as a ghost with one intention and one intention only; to haunt his surviving twin sister in revenge and jealousy of her life. This storyline is similar to mine not only because my horror narrative includes main characters of twins too, but also because of the story behind the action. The unborn twin is jealous of the other twin and seeks revenge on her and the twins in my storyline, one is jealous of the others popularity, therefore gets possessed and seeks revenge on her. This film has a general star rating of 3.5 – 4 stars out of five, which isn’t too bad of a star rating. Therefore using this film as an inspiration would be good for my horror film, Identical.

Horror Film Related to My Horror Plot - Twins of Evil

Twins of Evil (also known as The Daughters of Dracula 1971) is the last part of a Karnstein trilogy and is the old and gruesome original of the modern Twilight series. It again has the main characters as identical twins this time and is set in the 19th century where witchcraft and black magic would have you burnt at the stake. This horror film is about a pair of orphaned, girl pair of twins who live with their uncle, who happens to be in charge of the group in society who finds these witches and burns them. Coincidentally, one of the twins turns to Satan and Count Dracula and becomes a vampire. The twin who is now a vampire seduces her victims to be able to bite them and turn them also into vampires like herself and her master, Count Dracula. This film has a similar narrative to my horror movie as one of the twins gets possessed (overcome by being bitten and becoming a vampire). However, instead of the possessed twin in Twins of Evil seeking revenge from her sibling, her twin, like my storyline, she just wants to indulge anyone and everyone into her seductive vampire ways.