The Purge Anarchy - Textual Analysis

Camera angles:
Firstly, there is a close up shot of the woman picking up the money and place it in her pocket. This can imply that she has just taken the money for herself in preparation for the night ahead. This could be money that she will spend on protection or possibly money to do the opposite which could be to partake in the purge. This leaves the audience wondering what will happen to Eva further on into the narrative.

Once the man has left, the workers all focus on the TV on the wall. This over the shoulder, low-angle shot is slanted which is a popular camera angle used in the horror genre to foreshadow the upcoming bad events that are likely to happen. The slanted camera angle can also link to the topic that the news reporter is talking about. This is because the man is talking about the purge and how the purge is a 12 hour period where all crime is legal. Therefore, this is not normal and the slanted angle represents that. The low-angle is included to create a sense of hierarchy as the news reporters come across as being emotionally stronger and less scared than the people watching.

A mid-shot is then used on the three workers who are watching this news report. This enables to audience to observe their worried facial expressions and body language. From this, the audience are able to gain sense of how worried the purge makes people and are waiting to see for themselves what will happen.


An over the shoulder shot is used when Eva looks into the kitchen worriedly at the women in the kitchen on the phone who seems to be the manager and tells them when they are allowed to go home. This shot is taken in order to emphasis the nerves and distress of the characters and their anticipation to get home as soon as possible.


Editing:
Firstly, the institution title sequence for 'Blumhouse Productions' appears which is a very successful institution that the audience are likely to recognise and assume that the film will be worth watching. There are also credits included which establish what type of horror sub-genre the film is going to be. The credits are in a font which is seen as being associated with the government. Factual information is presented which gives the audience a sense of realism and possibly make them a passive audience. The dark blue background connotes mystery and darkness which makes the audience aware that the horror will be suspenseful and dark.

At the beginning, there is an establishing shot of inside a cafe with one male customer sitting down at a table. This sets the scene and gives the audience a sense of realism and normality. There is then shot-reverse-shot editing between the man and the waitress in the cafe as the man pays for his meal. This focuses of both of the characters emotionless expressions which make it difficult for the audience to know what they are feeling and thinking.

Sound:
The non-digetic music during the title sequence very gradually builds up, but when 'The Purge' title appears, the music suddenly becomes louder.
The dialogue between the customer and the women accounts for the feeling of the unknown due to the man saying "Stay safe". This can make the audience wonder where he is just a protective, caring man or whether is actually going to partake in the legal crimes. Therefore, he knows what is likely to occur later on. The accents are American which notifies the audience on where in the world it it set.
The news reporter creates suspense due to the informative information he is stating. The tone of his voice is wise but also concern amongst the city. This informs the audience on what the purge is and what people must be aware of to stay safe.
Suspense and tension is created when the three workers and discussing the situation and the male worker says " I might kidnap Eva this year" as a joke. However, the tone he say it in is mysterious which makes the audience question whether he is actually joking or not. He also is not showing any signs of nerves or worries as he says "Calm down we've got plenty of time". Whereas the two females are desperate to leave. As he is so calm, this can leave the audience paranoid as to why he is so calm.

Mise-en-scene:
The opening of 'The Purge' starts off in a small cafe which is designed like an old-fashioned American diner. This diner can give the audience a sense of normality whereas if the opening would have been of a death, the audience are already in discomfort and instantly aware of what the film can be based around. This can also give the audience the idea that this is set in the past. The waitress is wearing a yellow dress with a white apron which connotes peace and innocence. This juxaposes the narrative of the film and the film is dark, mysterious and suspenseful.
In the background through the window, a large American flag is blowing around in the wind outside. This flag, confirms where the film is set and the respect the citizens have for their own country. This is a way the Americans in the film support the idea of the purge being beneficial for the country.
The money that the waitress takes and discretely places in her pocket can suggest that she is financially unstable and is desperately in need of more money.

Hush textual analysis

At the beginning of this scene, the lady, who is completely deaf, opens her sliding glass door, leans outside into the darkness of the night and shakes the dog food bowl to attract her dog to come. From the medium long shot of the woman, I can see that she is wearing a very pale pink vest top and dark grey jeans. Her outfit connotes her characteristics of being quite girly but not too girly and portrays her tenderness and vulnerability
. Her 'tom-boy' traits are supported by the woman as she has neat brown hair pulled back into a pony-tail.  At this point there is both digetic and non-digetic music. The digetic sound added was the sound of the dog food shaking, the sliding door and the sound of crickets. The sound of crickets allows the audience to realise that the house is in a wooded area and not in an urban, busy area. the crickets also suggest that she is in a quiet, isolated area so if anything bad was to happen, she is alone. The non-digetic music is synchronous as it is mysterious and adds suspense which suits the scene.

The dog still has not appeared from the woods and the lady's expression now implies that she is quite concerned and confused. This then leads the audience to think that something bad has happened tot he dog. There is a panning shot when she puts the food bowl on the floor. The panning shot captures the glass door. This can imply that something is outside and is able to watch her through the glass. This gives the audience discomfort and nerves. The further panning, medium long shot of the woman walking around her kitchen to the living room allow the audience to realise that the woman is on her own and that there are many windows. The style of her house displays her age and maturity as the house consists of plain designs, mature colours and sophisticated art work on the walls.

When the woman sits down on her armchair there is a close up of her face opening her laptop. From this shot, the audience are able to see the minimal and natural makeup she is wearing. This can also imply her lack of interest in makeup and that she may be a female who has male interests such as fighting. Therefore, the audience may have some hope that she can defend herself if something bad were to happen. A point of view shot is then used when she is looking at her laptop screen. This emphasises the fact that she is not scared about being alone and is relaxing.

Her relaxation then comes to and end and she is now confused and nervous. This is due to her getting a message sent to her laptop from her own phone which she had left somewhere in the house. She opens the message to find pictures of herself which had been taken outside through the windows which is displayed through a point of view shot again.. By this time, the non-digetic music has now become deeper as a tense moment has occurred. Now, the audience are aware that someone is watching her outside by has been in the house to get her phone. The digetic sound of crickets is still heard inside the house which notifies the audience that she or someone else has left the door open. Unfortunately, as she is deaf, she is even more unaware of this.



She slowly turns here head to where one of the pictures seem to be taken and intensely looks in that direction. An exterior shot from outside then appears from the open door to give the audience the feeing that the person is looking at her. The shot then switches to a close up shot of the open door with no one there.



The woman slowly stands up and make he way across the room in order to see if the mysterious person is outside. The shot keeps cutting between her and the panning shot of the door that slowly reveals more of the door way at a time. This is used to create a large amount of suspense which is also maximised by there being no non-digetic sounds and only the continuous sound of the wildlife outside. Finally, the medium long shot of woman shows that she not has full vision of what is outside as her breathing becomes very heavy and her facial expression is very scared. The shot then cuts to a masked man in a black and grey jacket with the hood over his head, holding up her phone in his hand. Shot reverse shot editing is used when the woman and mysterious man are looking at each other which maximises the tension of the moment.

Suddenly, her and the man run to the door which fortunately she shuts before the man gets into the house. At the same time of this happening, there is fast paced non-digetic music which is synchronous to both of them sprinting. There is then an exterior shot from behind the man as he seems to have an idea, turns and walks to the next window or glass door. This shot makes the woman seem as though is weak and small now as she is caged inside of the house. This is a countertype of women as women are seen as running away and seeking help from a male. Also from this shot, the audience are able to see that the man is carrying and bow and arrow on his back as a weapon, making the audience wonder what he is planning on doing with it. The non-digetic sound has now converted into action music which would be heard in an action/adventure film.


The woman continues to run from door to door locking them and this is show through tracking shots. When they both stop running and are looking at eachother through the glass door, the fast music stops and quiet, suspensful, ghostly music replaces it. The man dramatically turns and then slowly walks away to the side of the house. This is shown through the women's point of view shots whilst she watches him thought her kitchen window. This causes more suspense amongst the audience as they do not know what the man is going to do next and there is now a scary sense of the unknown.
There is then an establishing shot which captures both the women inside of the house and the man looking at each other. A montage of editing of tracking shots of both the man and women jump from shot to shot to capture every moment of what the man is getting ready to do. The man then attempts to find another unlocked door and the man and women are face to face once again.

Scream textual analysis

At the beginning, the logo for Miramax and Dimention films was shown which the audience can recognise. As they recognise the institution, it can excite the audience. The 'Scream' title then quicky appears in white, bond letters. The white connotes innosence, purity and life. Then the font splits and returns back together but is now shown in red which represents blood, angre and gore. This title sequence can foreshadow what will happen during the film such as innosent peoples lives ending as they will get brutally murdered. Also, the outline of the font used for the title is quite staggered as though it were cut. 

When the title appears, there is loud booming noise and a phone ringing in the background. There is also a woman's continuous scream which gradually gets louder. When the font turns red, the non-diegetic sound of the slashing of a knife is used and scream turns into an echo as we zoom in on the font. You are also able to hear a faint heartbeat which represents peoples lives and is also used when suspense is needed. 



After the title disappears, only the sound of the phone ringing is heard and the shot focuses and shows a close up shot of the phone immediately. This is so the audience focus on the phone because the phone calls are an important prop throughout the film. The camera then follows the woman's hand as she brings it up towards her face. The audience are now able to see the girls face and clothes. The girl has blond hair, blue eyes and natural makeup on. The blond hair can be a conforming stereotype where the audience immediately think she is ignorant and dumb. Her makeup is very natural, however, she has dark red lipstick. As the girl looks as though she does not have very heavy makeup on, this can connote the idea of innocence but the red lips can represent and foreshadow blood and gore. Continuing with the mies-en-scene makeup and costumes, the audience is also able to see that she is wears a cream coloured knitted jumper which can also convey innocence in the character. 

The mans voice of the other end if the phone is low and sounds very clear and mysterious. This means that the mystery in the mans voice informs the audience that he may be dangerous. The voice also asks many questions and does not give any information about himself to contain the mystery. However, a stereotypical aspect of girls in horror films show that they can be oblivious and show ignorance. After a while, she finally hangs up without suspecting that anything is wrong. Then, when she's walking away which is shown by a short tracking shot, the phone rings again. She turns around and the camera zooms in on her face. She now has a slight look of worry on her face but ignores the feeling. She answer the phone and the show changes to a slightly tilted angle. This can represent the thought that something isn't right about the call.




The camera angle also shows a large glass door and window in the background as the camera slowing zooms in on her, keeping the window in focus. When the girl then walks away after hanging up, she leaves the camera shot and the large glass doors are shown in the background.This can make the audience feel as though something is outside or watching her. We can also now see that it is dark outside which can be a common fear for people and foreshadow that something bad might happen outside.

The shot then cuts to outside and reveals a tree. The camera then slowing tilts down to show the entire house with a moving swing in the shot which can make the audience feel as though someone was there. The house is also shown be be isolated which is very common code of convention in horror films meaning no one is able to help her. Non-Diegetic sounds of crickets and the creaking of the swing is added to create suspense. The shot then suddenly cuts to a shot of fire where she is making popcorn which is also a code of convention in horror films to illustrate the characters being oblivious to the situation. 

The phone then rings again and she answers. The girl is then shown on the phone in a long tracking shot. Then tracking shot then captures her leaning against the kitchen counter next to a  large knife stand with several large knives. These knives are in the centre of the screen and the girl begins to fiddle with them whilst in the phone to ensure the audience notices them. 

An iconic moment then happens as the mysterious voice asks what her favourite scary movie is. She replies with the film 'Halloween' where a man with a white man stalks babysitters which are most likely young woman who are alone downstairs in the house. 

The camera then quickly cuts to the popcorn which can mirror the suspense building in the scene. The tracking shot continues as she walks down the hall to the living room where she locks only one glass door in the process. This can also support the idea of the stereotype of a 'dumb blond'. The tracking shot also captures the mise-en-scene of the setting which is a house with many large windows, illustrating that the house isn't a very safe place.

Another stereotype of a female is put to use as she begins to flirt. However, this isn't for long until she her emotion switches as she is now aware and it has now been confirmed tot he audience that she is being watched. When she notices, the camera zooms in oh her face which now looks scared. Whilst this is happening, the camera also captures another glass door in the background. Quiet, low non diegetic sound is also introduced to emphasise the suspense of the realisation. 


The sound of a dog barking is also heard from outside which gives the audience the thought that the dog is barking at something or someone outside. She then switches on the porch lights and looks outside. This is shown by an exterior shot which symbolises the idea that she is caged inside of the house. This is then followed by a point of view shot which can make the audience feel more involved and feel as though it is them in this situation.
Furthermore, during the point of view shot, the editing technique used was shot-reverse-shot. This exaggerates that there is danger outside and that she can be seen but the mysterious caller cannot. This then causes suspense and tension amongst the audience. There is then a close up of the girls hand locking the door.


Camera cuts to popcorn again and it looks like it is able to explode which, again, can represent the danger getting closer and suspense growing in the scene.




The phone rings once again and she answers with an emotion voice as though she is about to girl which is seen as being a girly trait. She also says "What do you want?" which is a very popular line in all horror films. 
A tracking shot is used once again, filming the front of her walking back into the kitchen as she wipes away a tear. Phone rings and her upset state quickly switches to anger and she shouts on the phone. However, her bravery is quickly knocked as the voice is now angry and demanding as he says if she hangs up again he will gut her like a fish. The girl is now terribly frightened which is exaggerated due to the camera movement zooming in on her expression.  

Now, the music has become louder due to the mood of the scene changing.Music then becomes extremely fast and loud as she runs down the hallway locking all of the doors which is shown in a tracking shot. Another point of view shot is used as she looks out of the small window of her front door. All of her bravery has disappeared and she is not seen as a classic damsel in distress waiting to be saved. This then make the audience feel sympathy towards her. 

She screams that her boyfriend (who she lied about) is big, strong and will come and save her which is another stereotypical thought of a female who is scared. This then gives the audience some hope that her boyfriend may be able to save her from this situation. However, the plot is twisted when the voice guesses his name and tells her to then switch on the patio lights where she sees something horrifying.

Updated narrative

In our film, we have used Todorov's theory of equilibrium. The young woman making tea in the kitchen then goes and sits down to watch the evening news.  When the girl walks past, we get a quick glimpse of a man looking through the window of the door. As the girl sits down, a mysterious figure is seen faintly through the window. The couple are still unaware that the are being watched. Whilst the couple watch the news, it is the top story that murder clowns are on the loose around the UK. They then decided to switch the TV off and go upstairs to bed. Unfortunately, the oblivious couple have forgotten to lock the front door which hasn't been shut properly. The couple walk upstairs into the darkness. Sounds of a window breaking are heard and and mysterious figure with a black tracksuit on with the hood over its head slowly enters the room where the couple are sleeping. 

Editing log

Log of when editing took place and whom by-

After re-film:
11/11/16.

Editing by Callum Ison.
Start 19:00
Finish 20:30

What took place?

The clips filmed on this day were added to WeVideo and then we merged them together without any sound yet. The clips were added together to gather a sense of continuity and establish what was happening in the film in a smooth way.
12/11/16

Editing by (main) Callum Ison, (Subs)Joe Deighton, Harriett Folan and Jade Moon
Start 14:25
Finish 15:20

What took place?
We edited the diegetic and non diegetic sound into the film in order the film more scary and also link the film to the horror genre further.
15/11/16

Editing by Group
Start 11:15
Finish 12:10
What took place?
Sound was re-edited in order to make the tension in the film build as the music begins quietly and gradually becomes louder. More news reporter voices added in order to make the action seem more frantic and make the audience begin to panic.

16/11/16

Smile re-filmed

Smile feedback

After showing our opening to our peers who are aged 16-17, we then received feedback on what they liked and disliked about our film. They then used their likes and dislikes to give us a level from 1 to 4 on what they thought of our film. 

From looking at the feedback, we received an average of a level 3. The key idea to make our film better was to alter the sound in order to make it more suspenseful. Therefore, me and my group will carry out more sound research and change our sound in order to build up to a level 4. Also, from our feedback, we realised that teenage interests in horror are mainly suspense and being on the edge of their seats throughout.

Insidious textual analysis

The opening starts with the appearance of a variety of institution names that were involved, shown in a vibrant red font which represents the typical conventions of horror. The red connotes blood, gore and danger which the audience can then make the assumption that the film is going to be gory and possibly a slasher. The font also has a smokey effect added which can represent that type of horror genre that the film is going to be. From this effect, it gives the audience a sense of something paranormal, ghostly and mysterious. The text is placed onto a black background which adds to the conventions of horror as black illustrates death and mystery. Due to the colours and effects given to the text, the audience are already uncomfortable and can feel the tension before the film has started.

The font then disappears and the background remains black. A white, flickering circle then floats up to the centre of the screen. Then the directors name 'James Wan' slowly appears in the centre of the circle to attract the attention of the audience due to James Wan being a well-known director of successful horrors such as, 'The Conjuring'. The name appeared in a simple, plain black font which differed from the other text. This circle then turns slowly 180 degrees right and name fades away during the process. Due to the circle turning upside down, this can foreshadow something unusual and what may happen in the film as something upside down can represent things doing wrong. This circle then turns out to be a light bulb on the ceiling.

From this light bulb, there is then a tilting panning shot from a high angle and a boy in the dark, sleeping in his bed alone is shown. This high angle shot makes the sleeping boy look small, weak and vunerable. It is another typical convention of horror as there is normally a character which is portrayed as being weak. As the audience can already sense something unusual, they automatically feel worried for the small child on his own. As their is a tracking shot around the room the mise-en-scene shows that the boy is young as the audience can see a teddy bear, lava lamp, a toy horse and brightly coloured bed sheets. The lava lamp acts as another light source in his room which portrays the innocence of the boy as he appears to be afraid of the dark as many young children are. The coloured bed sheets portray immaturity and youth as the colours are seen as being playful, happy colours. Adults tend to have more formal, dull and plain colours such as white, brown etc. to illustrate their maturity. This mise-en-scene also shows that the film is in the past as there are no sign of modern technology such a TV's or phones in the bedroom. Furthermore, this increases the feeling of isolation and loneliness.

The discomfort amongst the audience gradually increases along with the high-pitched, non-diegetic music. The sound suddenly becomes fast, very high-pitched and loud as the tracking shot then stops on a shadow of someone standing outside of the window. As the shot zooms in, on the shadow, it appears that the person walks away to the right. 

The tracking shot then follows it around the corner to then reveal a person who appears to be an old, pale and angry woman holding a lit candle. The appearance of the women's face and the fast sound of violins makes the audience feel very tense and worried as the scary women is in the house with the young child who is unaware. 

The face and the flickering candle slowly fades away into complete darkness. The the large title 'INSIDIOUS' appears in bold, red capital letters. The letters have sharp edges and look similar to devil horns. The title is flickering just like the candle that the mysterious woman was holding. This makes the audience feel even more uncomfortable and aware that the woman holding the candle is important throughout the narrative.

After the title disappears suddenly slow, haunted pictures of the house appear along with the red credits that have the same smokey effect as the credits at the very beginning of the opening. All of the pictures used in the sequence are black and white to support the gothic and paranormal themes. As all of the pictures are focused around the house, it gives the audience the assumption that the narrative is based around the house which appears to have a long, haunted history. Some of the pictures in the sequence have a shadow of a person standing but you can not see anyone standing there. Therefore, it supports the idea of the film having a paranormal theme.

Changes made in main brief

After gathering feedback from others, we were then able to make changes to our opening to make it better and more appealing to our target audience.

We decided to remove some extras which played the dead people. This is because one of the main points we gained from one of our peers was that it looked more like a trailer and trailers can give the plot away. Therefore, this was not our aim and we thought the dead bodies gave too much away.

We also thought that we should catch moments of the clown stalking the two people instead of skipping to the clown breaking in. By adding the stalking shots, we are able to add more suspense and tension to our film which would frighten the audience more. Also, by making this change, we are able to add more camera angles such as point-of-view shots.

Another change we decided to make was to add in the kettle where the girl is making tea. This is a typically horror film extra where it can convey the characters ignorance. This can also link to the stereotypical actions that a girl is known for. An example of this is in horror film, 'Scream' when the girl is making popcorn whilst being watched by the murderer.

We thought that we should make alterations to the lighting also. We used a variety of different lightings from it being bright in the kitchen to when they walk up stairs where it is dark. We thought that it would be a good idea to portray the suspense with the lighting. Therefore, at the beginning, the light is bright meaning that nothing bad is going to happen yet. However, as we move further into the opening, the light darkens more and more due to the danger becoming greater. Then, when they are followed up stairs, it is dark.

We also focused more on the baseball bat which the clown is holding throughout. This is because when we filmed the rough cut, you are not able to see the bat clearly in the camera shots we filmed. The only evidence we had for the bat was the sound as it was being dragged along the stones of the drive way.

Forecast for refilm of main brief

10th November 

Sunrise: 7:11 AM
Sunset: 4:17 PM

From checking the forecast on 10th November, we then new that the sun would begin to set at 4:17pm. Therefore, we decided to begin our refilming when it was completely dark for continuity to make our opening look professional.

Sun and some clouds with a shower in the area. 

7°c
Precipitation 41%

We thought that due to the clouds and the showers, the filming conditions would suit us best as it would get darker quickly and we can gain digetic sounds of the eerie winds when we film our exterior, point of view shots.

Positive and negative feedback on rough cut

Once we had edited and added the sound to make it scary, we then asked a few of our peers to watch our opening and see what they think is good and what we need to improve on and perhaps change. We were then able for film two people who gave us feedback. From this, we were able to gain an insight on 16-17 year old boys views on horror films and what they enjoy watching. For example, they like how we have used suspense and darkness but would like us to include some foreshadowing in order to keep the audience interested to find out what may occur later on in the film.

Main brief rough cut

Main brief editing

After our first successful filming session for our main brief, we came together to make a start on the editing and fitting all of the shots together. We watched the videos we filmed of each shot and chose which ones was of the best quality.

Sound research for own piece

Sound is very important in horrors as without it, suspense would not be very effective and scare the audience. Therefore, we must take into consideration the type of sound used and when to used them throughout our opening.
Due to our film being based on clowns, we decided that to end our film, we were going to incorporate this theme by adding clown music. However, we soon changed our minds as we found that it seemed to take away some of the suspense which made it less scary which was not our aim.
We also decided to add a digetic sound of footsteps as the girl is walking down the hallway. We included this in order to create more suspense.

Filming day

November 4th - Our first filming day

Once we arrived at our filming location, our main actor and extras began to get their theatrical make-up on whilst we set up the camera and prepared everything ready to start filming. We ran through our storyboard once again to remind us what shots we want to get. We began filming at approximately 4:30pm and by this time, it was dark outside meaning we had to take into consideration continuity throughout to give it a sense of realism. It rained whilst filming but luckily we had finished all of the shots we needed outside before the rain started. We finished filming at around 6:00pm.

News reporter audition

After holding these auditions, as a group, we came to the decision that candidate one would be ideal for the role of the news reporter.

Feedback video of storyboard and narrative

Film title for opening credits

Most horror film titles are bold yet simple. For example, the title for 'Mama' only consists of two main colours, black and grey. However, it is still effective and noticeable.

Due to the horror film logos being simple, we also made ours very simple and onlu used four different colours. We followed a very simple design which suited the narrative of our film very well as the main antagonist is a clown. The redness of the nose makes the logo stand out and the title is incorporated into the logo as being the smile of the clown face. We created this logo using Abode photoshop and the font can be associated with the circus and children.

Institution logo design

A large number of successful film institution logos have a background which is an evening sky with clouds which can be associated with a variety of genres. We like the idea of the sky background as it can suit the horror genre as the night time and darkness are conventions of a horror and peoples fears. From looking at the different logos, every title is bold and takes up most of the screen. Therefore, it can be easily recognisable.

For our own institution logo, we included a cloudy night sky background to be associated with the horror genre. We also included dripping bloody on the institution title which would ensure the audience that our film will be a horror. The colours we decided to use connote gore, danger and mystery. We created this logo on Abode photoshop and the moon and the bird had been edited before embedding it onto the background in order to make them darker and fit the darkness of the background.