The Bunker Deconstruction

Appropriateness for film opening

• Includes titles- production, director, costume, casting, cinematography, actors, sound, title
• Not too much happens, nice introduction to film
• Sets basis for the film

Approptiatness for target audience

• Certificate 15- No blood, sex, strong language etc
• Scenes of a disturbing nature

Appropriate for genre

• Supernaural horror- ghost, death, realistic everyday life, creepy music, unrecognisable speech (convention of possession), sharp gothic typography

Editing
There are straight cuts at the start to show different elements of the setting. The straight cut editing continues throughout the sequence between different camera angles and scenes.
In a particular, there are continuous straight cuts which allows the camera to mover closer and closer to her as she is going around the corner.

 Other editing techniques used are the whispering sound, which sounds as though it has been sped up and reversed. This makes it sound un-natural and disturbing, linking to the supernatural horror genre. Another editing technique used was the 'ghost girl', which had obviously been edited into the scenes as she was transparent, which is a common convention of a ghostly figure.

Camera Angles and Sound
At the beginning of the sequence is an establishing shot. The audience are able to understand that the scenes will take place within a sea-side setting amongst the surrounding hills. The diegetic sound of the waves crashing add to this establishing scene. There is also the diegetic sound of the wind in the background, which is heard throughout the sequence until the bunker scene at the very end.

There is a long shot of the ruins and also of the missing posters, plastered along a wall. The camera then zooms in on one of the posters to allow the audience to absorb the information from the posters, which clearly depicts a missing young teenage girl.

There is another long shot of more ruins within the surroundings, and also a long shot of another young teenage girl walking across the frame. There is a cut to a mid shot of the girl that is walking, which cuts back to a long shot. There is then a long shot of a stick in the middle of a patch of dry earth, in which the girl is obviously heading too, and the audience is able to recognise that this obviously will hold some significance. There is a constant non-diegetic rumbling sound, which helps to build tension, linking to the supernatural horror genre. This is layered with the sound of static, which makes it 'uncomfortable' to listen to.

There is a close up of the girl puting down flowers, and then a close up of the message attached. The message provides further information to the audience as to what may have happened and what events could occur as the film progresses. The statement 'it should of been me' is intriguing and builds suspense, which links to the supernatural horror genre.

There is a long shot as the girl walks out of the frame, and a long shot of the cliffs, in which the ghost can be seen in the distance. The audience are now aware of supernatural happenings within the film, which again links to the genre. When the ghost is seen the non-diegetic rumbling sound stops, and instead there is a non-diegetic un-recognisable whispering sound played, sounding un-natural and creepy, which links to the supernatural horror genre perfectly. This happens whenever the girl is seen throughout the whole sequence.

The long shot of trees is blurred into focus. A mid shot of the girl wiping her eyes allows the audience to experience her emotions, and allows them to notice that she is obviously very upset about something that has occurred.  There is a non-diegetic metal clanging sound, with the diegetic sound of the girls foot-steps layered over the top, to bring a sense of reality. Along with her footsteps is the diegetic sound of birds chirping, again this brings realism to the scene which the audience can relate to, this is a common convention of the supernatural horror genre.

There is a long shot of her walking down the road into the distance, which then cuts to a long shot of the ghost between the trees, allowing the audience to recognise the ghost is following and therefore haunting this girl, but the reason why is unknown.

The girl walks in to and out of the frame before there is a close up shot of her and the diegetic sound of her gasping as she notices the ghostly figure (whom is then shown in a long shot with the whispering.)

There is a close up shot of the leaves on floor as the girls feet runs through them, with the diegetic sound of her footsteps and the leaves crunching as she runs. There is a mid shot of the girl looking back which cuts into a long shot of her running down. She then runs around the corner which is then repeated and seen as a long shot, mid shot and close up. There is layered, quiet whispering until there is silence.

The diegetic sound of heavy breathing is heard from the girl in the bunker, before the dietetic sound of a piercing scream as she realises there is something in there with her. After the scream there is blowing sound and then silence as the film title appears. 

Titles
These included the names of the production company, director, costume designer, casting director, cinematographer, actors, sound editors and the film title.

Mise en scene and Lighting
The location used is a grassy area by the sea which featured tall cliffs and old ruins. There is also the use of a country lane and a bunker, which links to the title of the film 'The Bunker.'  Natural lighting is used, which is fairly dark as it is a dreary, cloudy day.

In terms of costume, the main actor's dress was a casual white girlie dress. The use of white would usually depict innocence, however the use of a red cardigan symbolises bad and evil, which is supported by the 'it should of been me message', suggesting that she has indeed done something wrong.

The ghost girl wears a pale yellow dress. The colour yellow is usually a symbol of happiness, however this is clearly not the case. She also wears white shoes, and is pale with dark make-up and her hair hanging over her face, concealing some of her features which allows the audience to use their imagination, which is common within the supernatural horror genre.

Initial Storyboard

 The following images are our initial storyboard which we based on a young girl walking home when she feels she is being watched so she decides to run. Throughout, she has flashbacks(with each flashback increasing in extremity) of an exorcism which she has witnessed .





     









As the victim will be under the impression that she is being followed, as well as using research from other opening scenes, we could film some of the shots behind tree branches, as the leaves in the frame will emphasize this impression of being watched/followed. This links in with the first flashback as it will be an over-the-shoulder shot of a priest watching as she walks away.

As from the survey, most of our target audience said that they found the location of a family home the most frightening,  we have tried to incorporate this into our opening as we have decided to end the opening with our victim reaching her home, which is also where the antagonist will be. As a lot of our audience also said that they found woody areas the most frightening, the majority of our opening will be based in woody as well as other isolated areas.

Also when there is a flashback of the victim being tied down to a chair/bed, a high angle shot will be taken of this to emphasize their vulnerability. As we want to leave our audience scared, due to the genre, we have decided to end our opening scene with the antagonist jumping in the camera with the camera zooming into their eye until the title appears.      

Furthermore the extreme close up shot of a religious cross symbol will be to emphasize the religious aspect of possession.

Strikethrough

Title Scene

0.03

The beginning of the title scene introduced the audience to the production company with a background of an aerial shot of the setting for the opening scene. The shot also adds a sense of isolation (which would be appropriate for the genre of horror) as it is of the sea.

0.06

This is followed by the name of the editor with a background of several black and white pictures, which presents a psychological horror sub genre as the several  images make the antagonist seem obsessed. 

0.11

The cinematographer appears next with the background a close up shot of one of these images which show the antagonists obsession intensifying.





The following screenshots show the shots after this which all have similar backgrounds (which emphasises this obbsession) whilst presenting the actors as well as the producer and casting director.

0.15

0.30

0.18

0.26

The title scene ends with the directors name and a contrast in lighting from high key lighting to low key lighting. Again, obsession is highlighted here as the audience continues to see images of the same girl.

Sound

Throughout the title scene, there is a slow, continuous but unspecific sound as it is the instruments have little distinction which creates an ominous setting. This is juxtaposed with the fast paced drums which appear when we see the girl running.

The build up of suspense is highlighted even more in some areas of the beat as the fast paced drum rhythm in more rapid at some points as well as by the diegetic sound of the victim breathing heavily. As she is running, the rhythm is also shown to be in sync with the antagonists tapping on the desk which could be to heighten tension as well as to symbolize their control.

Furthermore, throughout the opening, there is a reoccurring eerie non diegetic sound of a high pitched string/violin sound layered with piano chords, which fades in and out of the music. This is on top of a string sound which starts off at a low pitch before quickly increasing in pitch.

Camera Angles/Movements

As the girl is running,the unsteady camera during the POV shot, heightens the suspense and sympathy for the victim. As well as this, the long shot of the girl running at the beginning of the opening, is framed with several branches which helps to add an isolated atmosphere and presents the victim as vulnerable.

Panning shot

tracking shot

Furthermore, there is a panning and tracking shot of the victim running which also helps to present obsession as it is as though the victim is unable to get away and as though she is being followed.

The mid shots showing the camera behind a bush as she runs past also helps to highlight the obsessive antagonist. The mid shot also showing the camera out of focus behind a gate also does this as it appears to be peering. I liked the way in which these camera angles have been used to creatively put across possession, also, some of these camera angles could be incorporate in our own opening scene to emphasize the tension in our supernatural horror opening.

Still Scene Deconstruction- Quarantine

Shutdown deconstruction

Shutdown Film Opening Deconstruction



 

Titles



The opening image is a black screen with the production company written in white, gothic style font.  Editing has been used to make the words flicker frantically like lights going out.  This is appropriate for the thriller genre as it makes you wonder why the lights are going out and it is quite high paced.

The title of the film is displayed at the end of the clip and is written in the same font as the previous writing but bolder and in different colours.  The typography is slightly gothic and in shades of white to green which is not the most conventional in the thriller genre.  Editing also makes the title flicker which gives the impression that something is not quite right within the film.

Sound

During the opening screen with the production company name, non-diegetic sound of high pitched string instruments is played to put the audience on edge before the action starts.  The steadily building sound in pitch and volume builds the audience tension which is a huge convention of the thriller genre.

As a panning shot is used to take in the location and mise en scene, the high pitched noise continues but with a deeper bass note layered in to create a more ominous atmosphere. The same style of layered high-pitch and deep bass music is continued throughout the clip to keep the same creepy atmosphere.  This is quite common in thriller films as the tension is held for as long as possible. 

There is also diegetic sounds of a can being opened and the boy eating the contents. he sounds very frantic and almost angry when he does these tasks which makes the audience wonder why, thriller films commonly make the audience think about the plot. 

Camera shots and Angles

The clip begins with a close up shot of empty tin cans, then a panning shot shows you the amount of cans that are on the floor. The next shot is a mid-shot which frams the boy sitting with his legs up in a defencive position, in the corner of a dirty, dark room with skull and cross bones graffeti.  All this contributes to a feeling of loneliness, danger and unrest.  This is not a normal situation for a young man to be in and the graffet especially creates an ominous and creepy atmosphere.

Close-ups of the boy frantically eating the canned beans creates a feeling of unrest, he must be hungry which makes the audience wonder why he would be eating in this way in this location.  The editing makes the clips fade into one another, which is a contrast to the franticness of the rest of the sequence so it is very different to the thriller genre.

There is another mid-shot of the boy framed holding a teddy bear in his arms which contrasts to the harsh conditions and the sinister skull and cross bones behind him.  It is common in the thriller genre that there is a hinted at back story that you will have to work out.

 Lighting
Low-lighting is used throughout most of the sequence to create a mysterious atmosphere.  Backlighting is used in one clip to show the contrast between the darkness of the boy's situation to the bright light of the outside world.  These are both appropriate for genre as they are mysterious which is perfect for thrillers.  The only exception to the lighting is at the end of the clip when high-key lighting is introduced as it is filmed outside.  This creates a contrast to the dark interior and the blurred edges of the shot create an almost dreamlike look which is quite common in the thriller genre.





Production Company research

BlumHouse Productions produces high-quality, micro-budget films, Paranormal activity was made for only $15,000 then released by Paramount Pictures and grossed $200 million. Their other films include Insidious and Sinister.  As they are a low budget company we can take inspiration from their techniques.  Their three main films all have supernatural horror in common, but they are also filmed in similar locations, everyday normal places e.g. family home. 

 Paramount Pictures is a very large production company who create every type of film, usually on a big budget.  They have been partnered with BlumHouse productions many times, this is quite common that a smaller and a larger production company team up together.                                                                                                                                    

Warner Bros is a fully integrated, broad-based entertainment company and a global leader in the creation, production, distribution, licensing and marketing of all forms of entertainment and their related businesses.  Warner Bros are another of the very large companies who operate on big budgets, examples of their recent supernatural horrors are The Conjuring and The Orphan.

Dark Castle is a production company focused on the making of horror films, particularly supernatural.  The most famous of their films would be the Orphan.  As this company is mainly supernatural horror, this could be an option that we could use in our opening.

Lionsgate is another huge production company who make a variety of films from all different genres.  They were one of the production companies working on The Last Exorcism and as we are using elements of exorcisms in our film opening they might be an appropriate company to use.

                                                                                

Playing with typography

This short video is me using different typography effects using final cut pro.

To make this I used a plain black background and dragged pictures on top of it. I then chose which effects I wanted to use and then positioned them where I thought they would be appropriate. To make the drop shadow I went in to settings chose drop shadow and then a colour I thought would look good, I then decided how far down it would go.  The font I chose had a very olde English, religious feeling which we could possibly use in our actual opening as it seem appropriate. The images also have religious or demonic connotations and we could gain ideas from these images.

I think that this clip is very effective and the effects on the words would be very easy to do. You have to be careful and not use too many effects otherwise it looks like you can't decide what you want. 

Evil Dead deconstruction

Evil dead is a remake of the original 1981 film.

The book which sparks off the possession is stitched together which makes it look like someone has tried to destroy it and not succeeded. There is also warnings on the inside of the book which gives the impression that bad things have happened before. This effect could be easy to replicate as you could stain pages of a notebook to make it like this.

Lighting is very important as there are various shots which have limited lighting. This is because Mia the protagonist is shut away in the basement. There is also the use of torch light which has the common convention of being afraid of what you can’t see.

It is set in a lone cabin in the woods this means that everyone is disconnected from the outside world. This setting is also very creepy at night which add to the scariness of the film.

Some of the Camera angles used such as the mirror shots. These are very effective as you can still see the demon but it is from their point of view which makes the audience connect with the characters.The extreme close ups of Mia's face are very

There is a lot of non-diegetic sound used. There is soft orchestral music when the brother is contemplating killing Mia. This makes the audience sympathetic as he is looking at pictures of them growing up while sound is going on.

They use straight cut edits to think the audience think that this story is not fantasy and find it more realistic.

The special effects make up is very effective as it looks very real and the use of lighting can help with this as you do not have to the whole to tell that something is wrong with the girl.

 

This film also has the girl who is being possessed in an old style white nightgown. This could contrasts Mia's character as she is not innocent and at the beginning of the film she decides to not rely on drugs any more.