Friday, 16 October 2015

Film Opening Analysis 2: Saw 1


Director: James Wan
Genre: Mystery, Horror
Budget:  $1,200,000
"Would you kill to live? When a madman tries to teach how much life is worth, two men find themselves in a room with no idea how they got there or why they're there." - IMDb

Titles
The titles in the opening sequence are in a blue font. This has futuristic and lonely connotations. The font, on a black background sets the genre of horror.
There isn't really any sound at this point which creates an eerie feeling to the opening of the film.
However, just as the words begin to change slightly, so does the sound. The words begin to move around, almost in a water-like fashion, and we begin to hear the sound of non-diegetic water dripping in a sinister way.

 Semiotics
When the water begins as non-diegetic sound, it causes the viewer to question what is happening. We are then presented with a medium close-up of a man drowning. This is quite a disturbing scene and again, links back to the genre of horror and mystery. We can then realise that the man is in a bath tub when he suddenly sits up. The camera follows him as he climbs out of the bath and falls onto the floor, he then stands up in a tracking shot. The camera work in this part of the opening sequence makes the audience feel very disorientated, as like the character we dont know what’s going on.

Narrative Exposition
The main theory that can be applied to this opening sequence is Barthe's theory. There are many questions that can be posed about this.
For example, Why is the person in the bath? who are they? etc.


 

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