Critical analysis of two directors
Paranormal activity, directed by Oren Peli
Within the first three minutes of the film narrative and genre can be established through the use of Sound, Mise en scene, camera movement and editing. The Opening of the film starts off with a black background and information given in a documentary style font which is often always used to show cases/Police Files in investigations. The information given at the start of the film says, ‘The producers would like to thank the families of Micah S. & Katie F. and the Rancho Penasquitos Police Department for providing this footage.’
As soon as the black screen cuts out, straight away we appear to be looking straight at a TV and given the shaky camera movement it seems like we are watching a home-made movie. There is diegetic sound of the TV showing that we are in a normal set environment within the house. The male actor, Micah, then starts to move with the camera to give the effect of a documentary style film, very similar to that of the ‘Blair Witch Project’.
Whilst Micah begins to walk around we are given a small tour of the first floor of his house. There is use of mise en scene signifies him being normal and natural. Therefore I had also decided for my opening scene my group will make sure the characters are acting normal. Also whilst the protagonist character is walking around the house with the camera, the audience is able to hear the sound of his footsteps. This again highlights the normality of this scene which we will imply to our opening scene.
Eventually Micah goes towards mirror and reveals himself this removes the sense of mystery and takes the suspense away this was carried out through a medium close up shot. I felt that the clothes he was wearing were very casual and normal which again showed importance to him being a casual normal guy. After revealing himself the camera moves on to his kitchen and stairs, this creates a natural environment. This is very effective as the everyday casual people can relate to him.
With all the commotion and moving around you can hear the diegetic sound of the of the camera when he is moving it around which also reminds us that it is a home- made movie and will not have special effects. Overall I feel that the opening of paranormal activity is very effective and portray danger and suspense. This is the same kind of effect we want to show in our opening scene. However, we will make sure that it’s natural and looks normal as I feel throughout the opening scene there has been emphasis to the normality of this scene. I feel the more natural and normal our opening scene the more effective it’ll be, just like paranormal activity.
Jaws Directed By Steven Spielberg:
Jaws opening scene annotations:
‘Jaws’ begin with an intense opening as a woman swims out and the focus is on her. As she swims the camera angle is from under the water looking up at her. The intensity is increased because of the shot used, therefore as a group we will focus on using intense shots to explore the emotions we want the audience to feel.
Steven Spielberg:
His films usually consist of several reoccurring themes, therefore we shall be focusing on using some sort of flashback shot to show we have considered using techniques from our research into Steven Spielberg. Most of his work deals with characters coming into contact with extraordinary things and finding themselves stuck in a sort of warp; becoming one of Spielberg’s directorial trademark. As we have chosen to research his work on Jaws, we feel as though it relates to the route we chose to take within our own work. We have come to the conclusion that we will focus on a family night out/walk in the park as Steven Spielberg’s work also focuses primarily on parent-child relations.
Group Work:
Starts of with everyone gathering at the park entrance – becoming familiar with who is there. Then everyone begins to walk a park trail into the distance – everyone laughing and having fun. Then two of the girls start having an argument and one of them walks of without making contact with any of the others and no one interferes – therefore no one stops her and makes her stay – at this point the sun is beginning to set and its becoming dark. Everyone else continues to enjoy themselves; drinking and playing games (eg, spin the bottle/true or dare…etc) they then begin to set base and get comfortable with their surroundings as they do so some of them hear a scream in the distance but don’t take any notice as they think they are just hearing things. But then a few minutes later some more of them hear it again and react to it – thinking it may have been they’re friend. The focus is now taken back by the flashback and the main focus is now on the girl. The flashback ends with various possibilities of what could have happened to her. Finally the camera is taken back to everyone panicking and running in different directions as they start to wonder where they’re friend could be; some are captured on film with their phones trying to get in contact with either the girl or a friend in general. The camera now starts to blur and lose focus on the main event; this emphasizes the way in which the actual characters may feel. As it does so, the camera begins to zoom into the distant darkness – Screen goes BLANK! …Then the camera begins to flickers between the darkness and a body lying on the ground; the body of their friend they had left at the start of their adventure. …Screen continuously flickers between the two, then goes BLANK again and finishes on the body and ends with a shot taken from the deceased ones view - up onto the faces surround her body and looking down on her.
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