"What Are You Doing Here?"

The Notebook - Opening 2 Minutes

Opening Minutes Analysis

Analyse opening two minutes by considering some of the following areas of focus: What do we find out about the characters? What do we find out about the story?  How are titles used?  How is music used to create mood? What camera shots or uses of camera stand out for you and why? Is the editing fast paced or slow paced and why? What can be said about location, props and costumes?  Make sure you use some key media terminology and show your enthusiasm for a range of genres in your writing.

The Fault In Our Stars - Opening 2 Minutes

The Longest Ride - Opening 2 Minutes

Target Audience Of Romance

Stereotypically, the target audience for a romantic film is women aged between 15 - 45. However, more romantic films now have to target their audience also towards couples as there is now a large amount of couples that go to watch romantic films together.

When we watch a romantic film, we stereotypically expect the romantic film to include a male and female who fall in love. Recently though, gay and lesbian movies have started to be produced as this type of couple is more socially accepted and for some people is seen to be the norm compared to before marriage was made legal when it was seen to be taboo.

Conventions Of Romance

We expect that during the film for their to be a rough patch in the couples relationship where the audience are lead to believe that their relationship will not succeed. However, at the end of the film, there is always a positive to what has happened and the negatives are forgotten.

The genre normally follows the idea of the two ain characters and the journey they take together to get to where they are in their relationship. This involves strong, true and pure romantic love which takes them to either go through dating or marriage.

The main plot focus of a romantic film is the search for love between the two characters and can involve a break through or struggle with finances, illnesses or family problems which threaten to break their relationship or stop it from occurring.

Romantic films often follow the idea of love at first sight, young love, obsessive love, sentimental love, spiritual love, forbidden love, sexual and passionate love.

 

Insidious - Opening 2 Minutes

The Devil Inside - Opening 2 Minutes

The Film begins with a non - diegetic phone call between a police officer and a lady. The conversation is placed onto the screen. However, we are not introduced to any characters by seeing their faces. This is affective because it allows the audience to create a picture in their head about what they believe the character on the phone will look like. The non - diegetic sound of her voice on the phone sound slurred and possessed. This therefore prepares the audience for a frightening character within the film and establishes the fact that it is a horror film.

The phone call then ends and we are shown what looks like an old fashioned way of recording video with a video tape recorded to show the time that this film is based. The first shot we see is a long shot inside a messy room with a police officer in it. We know he is a police officer due to the clothes he is wearing. Having the Police Officer in this home like this shows us that this is a crime scene and he is talking to the camera for video evidence for whatever they find.

A close up is then shown of a weapon, covered in blood on the floor. By showing this it allows the audience to prepare to see some violence which has been placed on some body using this weapon and the blood gives the effect that someone has been injured. The camera then moves to an arm covered in blood and follows it along the body to a body laying on the floor. A close up shot is used here so we can identify the fact that he is a human and is a male.

The camera then follows the male Police Officer down the stairs to where he then identifies a male and female. Both are wearing some form of religious clothing. This tells us as the audience that the film has something to do with religion or a religious person. Religious people are seen as innocent and kind so when we see that they have been killed, we suspect that whoever killed them had a lot of hate towards either them as a person or their religion.

Paranormal Activity 2 - Opening 2 Minutes

The scene begins with a long shot which is filmed in such way that it looks like a home video. This then also has a voice over of a young innocent sounding woman, which we stereotypically expect a horror film to have. We then see a close up of a new-born baby which we stereotypically expect to be the vulnerable one within this movie. The home that the film is set in, does not meet our general expectations of a horror film as this home is clean, tidy and modern. However, because the family is shown to be sweet, innocent and normal within these first opening minutes allows the audience to relate to their one lives and make the film appear more realistic and scary because people can relate to living the same lives that it appears these characters are. It also allows the audience to build up suspense because they know it is a horror film so will be waiting for something drastic to happen.

All of the actors are wearing clothing that we would expect someone around the time this film was released to wear. Which therefore allows the audience to relate again to the storyline.

Overall, this film does not meet the general expectations of a horror film as there is no evidence of an antagonist harming anyone, effecting anything or being present.

Target Audience Of Horror

When looking at a horror film, we stereotypically expect the film to be over a 15 age rating due to the fact that if it did not include the scary or gory aspect to it, it simply wouldn't fit into the genre of a horror film.

We would stereotypically expect horror films to be targeting males as we expect women to want to watch romantic films as they fantasize with the love story and the lifestyle that the film follows. However, men are more dominant so we therefore expect them to want to watch something that will frighten them as we expect men to dream more about the fear of the un known.

Horror films also include young vulnerable characters within their film, this allows the audience to relate to being that age which therefore links to them digging into their own fears that they had at that age and linking them to the film to make it more scary.

We would expect our target audience to be people aged 15 - 30 as some horror films that are released have a 15 age rating. However most are 18 due to the level of detail they place into making the audience as scared as possible. Having an 18 age rated film also allows for more dramatic and graphic scenery that is only classed as suitable if over the ages of 18.

Conventions Of Horror

Horror are a popular genre of film as they offer the audience thrills of adrenaline and paranormal activity that excites and frightens the audience. When we watch a horror film, there are certain clichés that as the audience, we expect to see.

The scene always begins with introducing either the plot to the film in what the antagonist does to scare the people within the film. Or they begin with showing the setting of either a village or background and give some background information about what the setting is like before the antagonist is introduced.

We can expect a young child, who will either be shown as the venerable one or can be seen as quite creepy. When there are children involved in a horror film, we normally hear children humming nursery rhymes or the sound of music boxes in the background playing over a quiet scene. This is done to make the audience feel intimidated and freaked out.
Horror films are normally based in a rural setting where there is a lot going on, or in an abandoned home that we stereotypically expect to be haunted.

Another convention of a horror is that the film either ends with the antagonist leaving the protagonist alone or the antagonist dying. Or we see the protagonist have to move away from that area / place to get away from the antagonist to protect themselves.

The Chosen - Opening 2 Minutes

The film begins with a small side light lit up and the non - diegetic sound of a baby crying in the background. A black figure then walks in front of the light which leaves the audience curious as to what and who the silhouette belongs to. Through the doorway, a light is then switched on, so we assume that this is the mother of the child going to it to calm it and make sure that it is ok.

The next shot is a close up of a cot dial that is hanging over the babies bed. We see some ones hand reach out and twist it on, which then starts to play the diegetic music. Although the sound is coming from a babies toy, we still expect to hear this sort of noise in a horror film as it can be seen as intimidating and nerving. The camera then pans down to a close up of the lady who turned on the toy and she is looking down at the baby. When someone looks down at something we expect them to have more power over them. She then looks up at the ceiling and says "God forgive me" the use of this diegetic sound shows us that she believes God has a higher status than her and she is following the way of life that she believes he wants her to take. However, because she is asking for forgiveness, we know she is going to, or has done something wrong to cause her to want God's forgiveness.

We then see a lady who is tied up on the floor and has blood on her head. Due to the fact that she is on the floor shows us that she has no power over the woman. A close up is then shown, showing the lady picking up the knife. This shot is affective and is better that using a medium shot to show her picking up the knife because it adds more emphasis on how big the knife is and has sharp it is which shows the audience that it is dangerous. Following on from the close up of the knife, there is another close up but this time we see a finger being cut by the knife. This shot adds affect to the scene because it looks more realistic and we can see how deep the wound is.

A two shot medium shot is used when the woman is wiping the blood from her cut finger over the hostage. This allows the audience to see the facial expressions of both actors and allows them to see what is going on. They are both wearing clothes that we would expect anyone to wear on a daily basis. By having the actors dressed in this way, the audience can relate to the actors and it makes the film more realistic and makes the audience judge between what is actually real and what isn't.

Poltergeist - Opening 2 Minutes

The film begins by focusing in extremely closely into what looks like pixels on a screen. We then see the cameras begin to pan out and the pixels begin to move around and create a shape. Once the camera has panned out enough we then see that the pixels made up a zombie and we are made to feel as if we are in the video game / Tv. This links to the fact that the film is a horror film and establishes this with the audience as we expect an antagonist such as a zombie to be within a horror film.

 

The camera then pans out to a boy who is playing the game on his Ipad and from the angle it is filmed at, we are made to feel as if we are sitting next to him in the car. The fact that the boy is playing the game links to the idea that modern day children are playing extremely violent games for their age, therefore causing them to become more violent and also have more nightmares due to what they witness within these sorts of games.

The camera then pans around the car to show a family. We expect to see a family within a horror film as they are show and seen to be vulnerable and innocent. However, we are then shown a birds eye view of a newly built looking, happy street, which we would not expect a horror film to be filmed in as a stereotype of a horror film is that they are filmed in dark and dingy places where we would expect the antagonist to live.

The Women In Black - Opening 2 Minutes Powerpoint Analysis

 

The Woman In Black - Opening 2 Minutes Power Point Presentation