Research: scream analysis

In the opening scene of scream introduces the young girl believed to be in her teens and still going to high school as she later refers to her boyfriend who is on the ''football team''. The girl is first seen as friendly and in a happy mood towards the anonymous caller, but that is soon portrayed to be vulnerable and scared. The mystery character over the phone also comes across to be friendly and outgoing as he was having a casual conversation with the young girl until he stated person facts of the young girls life e.g. her name, at this point that is when the soundtrack changed into something more serious which suggest tension would then start to build,as soon at the the antagonist says "I want to know where i'm looking at" sound effects occur such as a dog barking, this builds tension as the audience feels as though someone is actually watching the young girl.The first 5 minutes keeps the audience on the edge of their seats which relates to the popcorn the girl put on the stove which starts to pop up signifying the build up of tension. 

opening scene plot
The opening scene of scream gives the audience a feel of the mood of the film and how the storyline may flow. First off the first thing the audience see is a phone ringing and then a young blonde girl named Casey comes to pick it up and responds to the phone call flirtatiously towards the mystery character which at first seems friendly as he continues to ask the girl questions. Straight away we see the first character where the audience may consider as the victim. As the scene continues the audience are bombarded with irrelevant dialogue suggesting that this girl may be older than she looks or has done something wrong causing her to be targeted by this mysterious caller. The situation starts to escalate slowly and tension starts to build amongst the audience as the mystery character's phone call turns aggressive and threatening and he threatens to take her boyfriends life is she doesn't get the question correct. Once seen the girl sees, then kills the boyfriends and threatens to kill her if she does not cooperate with the antagonist . We then see a mysterious man enter her home wearing a black cloak and a white ghost mask, as the girl tries to escape she is unfortunately caught, attacked and murdered by the masked person who then escapes after leaving her body hung on tree awaiting for her parents to find her.  
  

Location and scene setting
The opening scene is set in a modern house where a young girl, who lives in the country side and away from society as we see farmed crops and oak land forest, this is all shown in the establishing shot at the beginning of the scene. The scene actually starts in the girls house then later as we see it escalates to just outside her home as that is where she is attacked then murdered. The scene setting was conventional towards the thriller genre as it was a typical victim isolated in the middle of no where bound to be attacked by an antagonist. Additionally by having the first glimpse of the house the audience can infer straight what the genre of the film could be which also links to connonations and can make the audience feel comfortable at point to be jumping of their seats the next minute.

Narrative

The opening scene to this film evidently shows the genre of the film, which is a horror/thriller. we can tell by the atmosphere and the voice of the two characters involved in the scene especially the antagonists voice who makes the opening a lot more creepy.The phone call keeps the antagonists identity hidden but even after killing her boyfriend and we realise he's in the house  we still cannot see his face as he is a mystery masked murderer which may have the audience assuming he is going to go on a killing spree later on during the film, specifically target teenagers  However, from this the audience can also infer that this is more of a horror movie as it is all maybe too predictable which is why this follows Vladimir Props theory as this is a layout of a traditional Beginning, middle and end movie. 

       

How are micro-elements used conventionally in the opening of Scream?

Cinematography...

Zoom and reaction shot

When the mystery character says something about her boyfriend it changes her whole mood towards the Phone call and this is where the Zoom shot and reaction are both used in the scene to have emphasis on the change in mood to give the audience a better understanding. As soon as the mystery character say "i know who i'm looking at," instantly the camera zooms into her face to capture her reaction also this is where the soundtrack is then changed to create a more spine chilling and cold atmosphere and starts to build tension. This mainly done to capture Casey's facial expression to express her insecurity and shock.

Medium shot

Another perfectly executed camera shot was the medium shot was when Casey is seen yelling over the phone revealing to the antagonist and the audience that she starting to become frightened and showing that the anonymous caller is actually saying things which are affecting her. She begins to speed walk around the house to show sign that she paranoid.

Furthermore the mid shot also captures a character's body language for example if you look at the picture below you see that her body is tensed up, her arms are tucked into her belly to, this all shows how terrified she is and is conventional towards the genre once again. All of that in one shot just goes to show how easy the director was able to show that shes a vulnerable character. 

Dolly shot

Another conventional shot was the dolly shot when we see Casey making an attempt to escape the masked antagonist. This shot captures the whole garden showing the size of the it and continues to follow Casey's running movements also the lighting automatically goes from high key to low key. The camera angle then changes as we see her parents arriving at home.

 Sound (diegetic and non diegetic and on/off screen sound)

Most of the sound in the opening sequence was diegetic for example when we see a phone on the table and hear it ring at the same time so the audience expect to see what they hear. This is also on screen sound aswell because as we hear the phone ringing we also see it on screen.

The opposite of diegetic sound is non diegetic which is also used in the opening scene for example straight after the anonymous caller says "i would like to know who i'm looking at" and  are sound effects added in making them non-diegetic sounds to build tension and the background music starts to slow down and become more dark making it conventional to the thriller genre once again. 

Costume and iconography

Costume is a key element in film making it partially define the personality of a characters, their culture and what time zone they're in for example by looking at Casey she is wearing a loose baggy cardigan and bootcut jeans relating to the 90's fashion industry whereas today women would wear tighter clothing. As we move onto colour of costume she is wearing white, it is conventional to ensure the victim is wearing bright clothing because they're represented as a target so they should be eye catching plus if they get attacked if would be better to see blood on white rather black clothing. The costume also tells us about the culture and what country the film is set in for example Casey's boyfriend was wearing a jockey jacket which American footballers usually wear. By looking at these characters costume its easy to infer that they're still in school and still have a lot to learn for example with Casey, to not talk to strangers over the phone. 

Finally near the end of the scene where we see the antagonist, we him wearing a black cloak, the black cloak represent the fact that he's an antagonist so he has to be dark and mysterious. The unknown antagonist also wears a mask to cover his identity making the audience attracted to the movie as they'll want to find out who the antagonist is on the other hand with the two characters it makes it interest because the audience have and understanding of who the characters are.

Within in the house the furniture and the colour of it is very dull for example with the telephone its wired rather than a modern day wireless telephone also referring back to when the movie was set which was probably the 90's. Another key prop is the popcorn on the stove once again if it was set in modern day times it would be microwave popcorn however you can tell this is old fashioned once again.