Horror Movie Poster Analysis

Horror movie poster analysis from hollyscott29

CSI- Strip Strangler essay.

CSI: Strip Strangler.

How does the opening scene of CSI- Strip Strangler attract the interest of the audience?

Strip Strangler is about young, vulnerable women who get sexually assaulted and eventually murdered generally late at night in an apartment complex by a man who uses a technique of strangling people to kill them. The CSI team try to find out who the killer/stalker is. They do this because if they find him it will prevent more deaths or sexual assaults happening. Every episode in CSI starts with an opening scene to establish an enigma code. This makes the audience anticipate what is going to happen in the rest of the episode.

The opening shot of this episode is a high angle long shot of Las Vegas, implying that anyone below could be the victim and it plays on the audience’s expectations. The significance of the dark mise-en-scène, the flashes of lightning and the rumbles of thunder are that the darkness and the weather are implying that something bad is going to happen and the people who are in the darkness are vulnerable.

The second shot is a high angle crane shot of an apartment building at night. This angle is used to make it seem like whoever is in the building is weak and not secure; the thunder and lightning implies that something bad is going to happen and the door of the apartment complex being open shows that someone has entered the building and it isn’t secure.

The camera cranes down but tilts up so the audience are positioned to look up to the building this makes the audience afraid of what is going to happen inside the apartment building. If we look carefully at the top of the stairs there is an intruder going up to the apartments. The camera angle moves so it is looking up on the building showing that the intruder at the top of the stairs is powerful in relation to the audience.

Inside the building the mise-en-scène shows the corridors are very slim/narrow and filled with darkness implying someone is trapped. The tracking shot represents the murderers point of view as he is moving through the corridor, when the camera tracks into the room the audience see the woman as if she is trapped this is because of the way the camera is positioned so she is in between the door and the frame and suggests she is in a confined space.

The woman sits up suddenly on the sound of a creaking floorboard; it seems as if she is looking at the audience as if we share the point of view of the murderer. When the lightning flash illuminates the room, the colour red is prevalent because red has connotations of violence and death. To show her sense of panic there is a cut to a medium close up of the woman and this shot represents her as a typical young attractive woman dressed vulnerably in her nightwear.

The woman no longer looks directly at the audience; there is a cut to her point of view and the audience can read what she sees because from her point of view everything looks okay and because she can’t see anything it makes it seem alright as if nothing is going to happen but from the audience’s point of view we think that the open closet is an obvious place for a murderer to hide and red is the major colour in the closet which shows impending violence/danger.

The sound throughout the sequence starts off with discordant music that then fades away when the victim sits up in fear; this is a non-diegetic crescendo. When she looked around the room to see if anyone was there she saw nothing the sound then changed to a low- deep sound suggesting that there was actually someone in the room with her but she just hadn’t seen anything in the room.

Because the woman sees nothing that seems threatening, she settles down on her side to sleep. The music is quite discordant and has a low deep sound suggesting someone is in the room, she thinks there isn’t anyone there but the music suggests otherwise. The medium close-up of her on her side almost fills the frame and it excludes most of the room, this is done because it blocks out everything else in the room showing that if the murderer is there we can’t see what he is doing/ going to do.

On the sound of the creaking floorboard, there’s another cut as she quickly lifts up from the pillow; we see her point of view again. At first we see the darkness in the room but when the lightning strikes and it lights up the room we see the silhouette of the murderer; he wears a dark hoodie with the hood up and the hoodie implies trouble, what we can’t see is who the actual murderer is because when the light flashes we only see the shadow of him standing there and not his features, so the audience is kept in suspense until later in the episode.

There is a cut to a high close shot of the woman screaming in fear. What we notice about the speed of the editing towards the end of this sequence is that the pace speeds up giving a sense of urgency, excitement and tension. What we don’t see in the next cut is the murderer’s face but what we do see is him in medium shot tensing/ flexing a cable suggesting that the murderer is going to strangle the woman.

The next cut shows in close up that he pulled the iron off of the ironing board, showing force and that he is going to go straight ahead and kill her. She puts herself in a lower position showing weakness and fear putting her in a more vulnerable position showing herself as the victim. There is a final cut to a high close shot of the woman as she screams; the camera tracks in because it is representing the killer’s point of view as he is getting closer towards her, she backs away and goes further down into her pillow showing that she is afraid and weak when she does this it makes her look more vulnerable.

The build-up of a non-diegetic crescendo over the last few shots emphasises her scream more. The woman is represented throughout the sequence as a stereotypical young, attractive female victim who is dressed vulnerably and is weak.

The director uses a number of techniques to attract the audience by using tropes from the horror genre for example placing a young vulnerable woman alone in her room at night. The director also uses camera techniques like a high angle shot to make the victim look more vulnerable. When using sound, crescendos create suspense and to emphasise the woman’s scream. The sequence is set up to encourage and to anticipate things happening. Setting up an enigma code to play on the mind of the audience, the reason we don’t see as much of the murder is because it would give away who the killer was leaving the audience knowing who the killer is through the episode.

There is a fade to black before the murder happens because it keeps the audience in suspense and showing the murder would be to gruesome to show in the episode.

Sound

Diegetic: Within the scene.

Non-Diegetic: Added afterwards in post production.

Crescendo: Build up of sound/music.

Diminuendo: Gradual 'die away' of music.

Sforzando: Sudden sharp sound.

Jaws-

In the scene where all the kids go swimming in the sea there is some diegetic music, when all the kids are in the sea and the boy is on his floater you get the sharks point of view this is where the non-diegetic music comes in when its a shot of the boy on the floater from under the water gradually it builds into a crescendo because it gets louder as the shark gets closer to the boy, when you get the shot of the from above the water where the shark gets the boy the music stays to the non-diegetic but as all the kids get out and the deflated floater washes up the sound comes to a complete stop.

 

 

 

The Godfather-

 

 

 

the music throughout the godfather is diegetic when he shoots them it turns to non-diegetic.

 

 

 

Main edits

Main edits-

1. Cut.
2. Dissolve- Time passing.
3. Fade to black/white and fade up-pace can be changed for this one.
4. Jump cut- example, In a movie there would be a figure standing at the door (long shot) and the shot jumps to a close up.
5. Graphic match- The image of one object fades/dissolves/cuts to another that is similar.

Physco.
The most cuts are when she's getting stabbed this is done so it doesn't show the knife going in the body and to hide nudity.

When she is in the shower and looks like she is thrilled to be in the shower as not only is washing herself but is metaphorically washing away her sins.

Basic camera shots

Extreme close-up (ECU)
A very close shot that emphasises a reaction.

 

 

Close-up (CU)

Face and head, shows details of a character.

 



 

 

Medium close-up (MCU)

Head and shoulders.

 

 

Mid-shot (MS)

Just above or below the waistline.

 





 



Mid-long shot (MLS)

Usually just above the knees.



 

 

Long shot (LS)

Full length of figure - Head to toe.

 



 

Extreme long shot (ELS) or Wide shot (WS)

A scenic shot that shows location, setting etc.

 



 



Mise-en-scene- Opening scene of Jaws

 

• The first shot is the sharks point of view as it swims.
• We hear non-diegetic low, stringed music - associated with the shark.
• Camera tracks past kids around the campfire.
• Fire is source of light.
• Girl and boy on edge of the group - Outsiders.
• Medium close up of the girl, bars (fencing) behind her representing that she is trapped.
• High angle shot of the beach meaning they are vulnerable/weak.
• The boy and girl leave the fire (the heat/warmth, the light, the people) into the darkness all around them.
• Whilst they were running into darkness they were surrounded by bars.
• As they ran further the music slowly fades away only leaving the sound of their voices and the waves of the sea.
• When she goes into the water it's a long shot which is very calm in the moonlight and it seems peaceful.
• Sunset symbolises the sun is going down, the end of the day and the end of her life.
• There was a cut from a long shot to a close shot which brings the audience to her level.
• The music comes back, a long shot of the girl swimming from the sharks point.
• Sound stops because she dies.
• It goes back to being peaceful as if nothing had even happened.

The Woman In Black

Mise-en-scene

Everything within the frame- setting, lighting, costume, framing and composition, colours, expressions, make up

Creation of the mise-en-scene can influence the way the audience reads the scene/it's interpretation of character or situation

Semiology- the study of signs/symbols - helps create depth to the scene.

 

 

The causeway makes them seem like they are going to become isolated as the tide comes in

and will make them trapped.

 They pass a grave marker, meaning that it symbolises death.

 Suggesting he is going there to die





The camera angle is looking up towards the house to make it look more

powerful and threatening and the garden looks over-grown which could suggest no-one had 

been there for a long time 

 This camera angle in this shot is high up when Kipps enters the house to

make him look smaller and weak. This shot also shows the house is really

dull in colour and quite lifeless.

This shot is when The Woman in Black appears behind him and he turns as he

gets a suspicion of someone being behind him and when he looks there is

 no-one is there