scream part 1 analyis

note: I have only analysed the opening 2 minutes so that it is an accurate reflection of our own individual piece( as we can't go past 2minutes in our own) but could not find  a shorter opening.

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This is one of the shots from the opening sequence where she is on the phone to 'screamface'.
As you can see by her relaxed posture and smiling expressions she is quite comfortable
with the situation reflecting her innocence and youth. It also shows she is quite naive as she doesn't realise he is
stalking her.



Scream begins interestingly by an introduction of loud non-diegetic sound where the films title appears on screen by compression then de-compression, accompanied by repetition of a phone ringing alongside screams, effectively conveying the narrative of the film straight from the beginning with no sense of ambiguity. The title then glows red another typical convention of a horror movie which is often associated with this colour as well as white and orange.I really like this effect of the colour change but introduce the title at the end of the film sequence to subvert expectations. Repetition of the phone ringing occurs again followed by a scream to which the title switches from white to fully red , before it enlarges filling the screen.

This then transcends into a centered shot of an old fashioned telephone ringing on the table, with a hand grasping the phone, though the face is obscured which suggests a sense of anonymity, that perhaps she is quite a shy person who doesn't share confidences with many people. However she answers  a conversationally in a polite manner. Here is a recap of their conversation
( I have only included certain words)




Her- hello?' ( in an inquiring manner)


 
Scream face replies Who is this?'(in a low scratchy voice)
Her- who you trying to reach?
'You've got the wrong number, take it easy'

She then turns around in which we see an over the shoulder shot as her back is turned and the phone rings almost, immediately after  and again has another conversation with him , quite unaware of the fact that this person may be dangerous, chattering away happily before it flows into the next scene of a hunched tree, twisted with a minority of leaves( i like the idea of using trees perhaps we can use it in our own but interact with it instead of just having a shot of it). The lighting here is night of course( typically horror) with crickets chirping in the background noise.( I like the idea of normalalistic background noise which can be warped to convey the horror genre) What transcends is quite a spooky establishing shot composition of her back graden where there is a swing swinging by itself which suggests that there is something lurking in the garden.

From this slow scene we quickly emerge in her kitchen where there is a closeup of her electric cooker before slowly directing the camera up the rest of her body, where she is cooking popcorn.The phone then rings again:
screamface-  why dont you want to talk to me?
what's that noise?
Her- oh just popcorn, going to watch a movie
Screamface-what movie?
Her- oh just some scary movies
Screamface- you like scary movies?
Her-uh huh
Screamface-what's your favourite scary movie?
To end with this phrase is quite obvious to us as an audience that something is going to happen but she is completely oblivious and thinks that he is just a normal person who happens to be curious as to what she is doing. This makes us fear for her safety .