exsplain Camera work and Sound in "misery" by king in 1990

Independent research into the thriller genre.
TASK: EXPLAIN HOW CAMERA WORK, AND SOUND ARE USED TO ESTABLISH THE SITUATION AND THE CHARACTER/S IN THE OPENING 2 MINUTES OF “MISERY” by king, in 1990.
Camera work and sound are used in the first what should be 2 but I have done 3 minutes as in the video I have chosen, there is a climax crash I stop at as the mood changes so I extended by one minute. Camera work and sound are used in suttle but effective ways during the introduction, were it places the audience viewing in a false sense of security that is later on taken away by a sudden change of events.
The scene starts with the first few titles and a black backdrop, accompanied by silence maybe the most sinister, anticipating sound of all. This is then followed short sharp piercing, sounds of a typewriter then a slow fade in to a carefully placed cigarette and match in an extreme close up with the unfocused hands typing away in the background, so to start with not revealing much apart from a man that is maybe very organised and precise. Then we zoom out further on the figure in the background and this time a single Champaign glass so say that this is a one person lonely celebration. which is in focus this a more media shot and the a shot on the chilled Champaign bottle, so the first three shots are showing that there is some sort of build up or celebration coming up. Next we have a very different type of shot the the first ones in this a lot of movement and a point of view shot, so now in the first 15 seconds the sequence of shots has set the scene an almost finished book and a celebration for one awaiting. The next set of shots are all relatively similar showing the character, the sound to this point has all been on screen parallel, until the shots are joint by a simple piano playing slowly in the background, which is more non-diabetic and the character is unlikely to be able to hear that, we are also presented with a extreme close up of the books title and author, were we learn the characters name, and that he has his book as untitled.
The titles, they go against and stand out from the typical everyday background they look out of place, the colour is deep blood red in a very sharp font, the main title “misery” comes out and seems the be the most out of place against a very white and angelic background in the hills with jazzy happy music to go along with it. So despite out false security as us being tricked into that this could be a nice film we are reminded by the sharp sounds, and deep red colours of the titles.
The camera work through out so far has been unnoticeable and invisible which is the idea we don’t want to spoke the audience with fast noticeable cuts quite yet in the intro which is reinforcing the idea of calm and in control. So from now we are being thrown around from medium shots in the car and then tossed out to an extreme long shot of the car in the hills, so setting the scene, the camera work is almost leading us the viewer to anticipate a crash, with the ELS to show location and hill cliffs then of the close up of the snow covered wheel and the snow falling and the wipers being turned on. The sound stays in the background and in this case seems to be contrapuntal as a radio, tape or cd playing in the car as the character taps away and moves with the music. Were shown the character grasp his bag holding the book showing a personal attachment towards it, then following a sequence of shots showing us impending danger the sign set of centre, and heavier snow falling. And after setting up what’s about to happen and preparing the audience, we get the high revs of the engine the overpower the sound of the radio that shock the audience and start to panic after being put In such a commutable state of mind, so accompany the uncumftable sound we have the fast cutting shots, at the same angles we saw previously but now in a more threatening way. We then see the car go hurtling of the side of the hill and roll, were we get an interesting point of view shot like being in the car rolling, the in car music comes to a halt and then with a cold wind and no movement.
So in Conclusion, the camera work and sound in this thriller introduction I think is set out to lead the audience down a certain pathway and the camera work and sound put them under an illusion and make them think what the makers of the film, want to think and to be surprised when they want to. For example the very typical setting to start with in a very controlled situation were it was unlikely for anything thrilling to arise. The camera work is used to build the suspension with setting out what’s going to happen with very obvious positions such at the wheel and snow covering the windshield so make us believe that something dramatic is about to happen and the soundtrack is placed over to give us the comfort until the climax moment. So from the introduction what we’ve learnt is a few things about what seems to be our main character, we see that he is a tidy and neat person, we are shown his identity his face and name, and that he some sort of writer that he keeps close to him.

The end. By Ross Ewing.AB-C-1.Media. .
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Cgqu2W3Ore4

what is a thriller?

Thriller and Suspense Films are types of films known to promote intense excitement, suspense, a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, anxiety, and nerve-wracking tension.
Characters in thrillers include convicts, criminals, stalkers, assassins, down-on-their-luck losers, innocent victims (often on the run), prison inmates, menaced women, characters with dark pasts, psychotic individuals, terrorists, cops and escaped cons, fugitives, private eyes, drifters, duplicitous individuals, people involved in twisted relationships, world-weary men and women, psycho-fiends, ect.

Hollie xx

Textual analysis of camera work and mise on scene of a two minute sequence from silence of the lambs.

the video is available at the top of the blog!!! love Hollie x

In the sequence both camera work and mise on scene help to establish the situation and character in the opening two minutes. The opening raises many questions which intrigue the viewer and make them want to continue watching. It does this in a variety of ways, one of which is the camera work which limits the view of the scene building suspense and making the viewer unable to see who the character is or what they look like.

In the beginning of the sequence the screen is completely black, then what appears to be a torch light moves slowly across the screen revealing and extreme close up of a moth sketch. The torch light then fades making the screen black once more. Again the torch light appears on the screen in the same place as before as it moves, it now reveals another extreme close up, this time of a woman’s hand. This creates many questions for the viewer. They wonder who she is and if this is the main character or if she is in some kind of trouble in the dark and dingy scene. As the torch fade once more to black the titles appear on screen.

The titles in the sequence appear white on a black background; this makes them stand out to the viewer as it can be clearly read as “the silence of the lambs.” The titles themselves are very scratchy as if some one has scribbled them quickly onto a page and letters flicker in and out of light. This creates a deep feeling of unease in the viewer, who is already set up for a film that may be shocking or scary. The flickering also builds suspense as the viewer is not sure what it going to happen next. They slowly fade out back to black. This makes the viewer believe that the torch light will once again appear on screen.

The viewer is set up to believe that the torch light will reappear on the screen; however, the next shot is a long shot which pans over an old looking church. The low angle makes the church look huge, intimidating and eerie.

Dissolve effects are used a lot in the sequence. This gives the impression that all the shots are linked very closely because if the dissolve effect was not present then the objects filmed would look completely unrelated and break the viewer’s attention. This is shown well when there are lots of very quick cuts between odd looking shots for example: the first shot depicts a shot of murky water, it is dark and slowly rippling, then hair becomes visible beneath the surface. It appears to be human hair. It is long and flowing much like a woman’s hair. This suggests that women are in danger and that some thing terrible has happened to this girl. It then quickly dissolves to a close up of a male hand working an old looking sewing machine. This raises questions as to what he is sewing as all the previous shots have hinted at something sinister. The next dissolve brings the viewer to the male putting measuring tape over the material he is sewing. It looks pale and like leather, it is unclear what he is doing or making. A close up of a needle going through the material answers this question as the material appears to be skin but is it human? This is not shown; however there are many other hints that the skin is human.

The first concrete idea that the skin must be human comes to the viewer in the form of pictures and drawings. The camera work has deliberately used extreme close ups to obscure the full pictures and shots from the viewer as this creates more suspense. The shots mainly consist of pictures of women’s bodies with designs painted onto them like tattoos. The use of the close ups make the viewer unsure as to what is happening but the drawings on their bodies coupled with the sewing machines suggest to the viewer that this man is making some sort of master piece out of humans, in particular women.

This idea is reinforced when the camera shows extreme close ups of parts of women’s faces cut from magazines. However, the camera is jolting at this point so that the viewer cannot see, fully, what is happening. A mans hands begin to paste the pictures onto paper, he is obviously planning what he is going to do as the close up reveals him scribbling out women’s faces and drawing designs on their naked skin, blood splatters across the pictures. In particular he draws moths and butterflies; this suggests that these insects will be a key theme throughout the rest of the story. The bloody nature of his project suggest that he is defiantly using the women’s skins and the close ups frustrate the viewer as they cannot see who he is.

The shots then get very fast, only appearing on screen for a second or so. They are very repetitive as they are the pictures that have been seen before. This reinforces the idea that he is mutilating women and the repetitive nature also builds tension as if it is going to reach a climax soon. Another reason for the repetitive shots could suggest that he has killed more than one woman.

Mise on scene also helps to establish the situation in the sequence as it creates mystery and suspense in the viewer.

Throughout the opening the colour palette is very limited. It uses all black with also a stained orange colour. This gives the whole scene a dark and dingy atmosphere that is dull and depressing to their viewer. This suggests that we are among the villain of the story and that despair will be a key theme throughout the entire film. The only true colour that is used in the sequence is a vivid red of the women’s blood this contrasts well with the rest of the sequence as it is so bright. This creates tension as the blood reinforces the idea that this man is skinning his victims to make something out of them.

The pace of the film also influences the viewer a lot as it starts off very slowly with very little to see. This makes the viewer want to continue watching as there are so many questions that arise, such as, where is this place, who is the man and what is he doing. The sequence begins to get faster and faster with the passing of time, images flash at such a pass the viewer really has to concentrate to see them all, it also is very exhausting to try to keep up with the pace of the film. This creates suspense as the viewer is unsettled and their pulse is racing due to the fast nature of the film.

The “killer’s” face is never visible this creates mystery as to who his identity is. The camera never ventures away from his hands. This creates a real emphasis on what he is doing. Almost as if he is constructing a masterpiece. This is unsettling to the viewer as they can see that he is mutilating people even though the way he is acting suggests that he is a creative genius, who is ‘cherry picking’ the best bits of his subjects to create a work of art.

In conclusion, the camera work and mise on scene of the sequence creates lots of suspense and tension in the viewer as well as raising many questions which may be answered later on. For example, the torch light effect shows nothing of the setting and only shows a snippet of a sketch of a moth. This keeps the viewer guessing as to what is going on and later on in the sequence, the fast passed nature and bloodied pictures suggest crime and murder are among the key themes to the thriller and they want to watch on to find out who the antagonist is as he is shrouded in mystery.

Criticisms of our preliminary piece

we asked the entirety of our media class to watch our piece a few times, with and without sound to get some feed back that we could use in our final piece.
most of the students noted that our lighting was not as good as it could have been. we used mostly natural light for our preliminary piece and so some of the shots appears a bit dark. this is something that we will defiantly amend in our final piece
the other main criticism was that we did not use many props in our piece. we did this because we wanted the clock in the graphic match to be the main focus. but evidently this did not come across as well as we'd hoped.
the good points in particular were our framing and angles, most people gave us 4s or 5s for these as well as continuity, setting, match on action and 180 degree rule. all of these got us good marks. the setting in particular was good as it was set in a college and all of the filming was done inside Central Sussex College, so it worked well as it was easily recognisable.

hollie xxx

music copyrights nd stuff

we attempted to make a soundtrack using garage band but found that everything we produced sounded tacky, we then used myspace to browse some local artists and pick a selection of songs we like to use we contacted a couple of the artists but only got one reply from 'Ollypollypuddingandpie' who gave us permission to use a 1 minute sample of his music he also said that if it did not fit he would be happy to make slight edits to the track to help us out.

i have attatched a scanned copy of the agreement we got Oliver James the artist to sign.

-Jack