Mise – En – Scène for ‘The People Under The Stairs’: (00:00 - 3:00)
I have analysed this film opening because of how it begins to introduce storyline to the audience and i will soon be analysing film openings to see how they use titles in the title sequence. After analysing this clip i have come to understand that storylines need to be introduced slowly to an audience so that they are not bombared with too much information from the begining.
The opening begins with the Universal instituion logo which establishes to the audience who has funded the film. It then continues to a black screen where white text appears to reveal the production company, Alive films. It then continues to another black background which reveals the words to reveal the director Wes Craven who has produced many iconic horror films.The opening credits are a simple black background and plain white letters on the screen to introduce the film producer and the director, the dark background connotes that the film is scary. The title then appears as a light coloured font which is illuminated by a flash light shining quickly and brightly through the letters as they appear on the screen. There is also a very low toned music playing in the background which connotes the film is going to be a horror and will be scary. The letters for the title are then highlighted with an orange glow which gives an eerie element and denotes that the film deals with something sinister.
The film starts with a close up of a candle and a tarot card, this already denotes to the reader that somebody’s fate is being decided and could connote a danger to that person. The tarot cards are on a red tablecloth which connotes blood and death. While the camera zooms in on different cards of swords and staves, there is a child reading the tarot cards, the child’s voice connotes an element of innocence and creates an eerie effect along with the dark table. There is a close up onto a card that says ‘Judgement’ which tells the audience what will come later. The camera then quickly closes in on the next card which says ‘Death’ this is made specific that there will be death and the card is also next to a flickering candle which denotes that death will be soon. The camera then closes in on the next card which reads ‘Mr Devil’ which connotes evil. The camera finally stops on a final card ‘The Fool’; this denotes that the character makes a foolish decision later on in the film. Again, next to this card is a flickering candle which could denote that this fool’s life is coming to an end. The child narrator then tells the audience that the character is 13 today and being 13 could connote misfortune as 13 is an unlucky number. The camera then zooms in on the word fool and onto a dog on the card, the dog could connote help for the fool but it could also connote danger. The person on the card is standing on a cliff ledge which denotes to the audience that there is danger in store for this character. The camera then zooms in on the man in the card and then fades to the same card being on a bookshelf.
The camera then zooms in on a boy in a dark room lit only by candlelight reading a book. The dark room is full of shadow due to the candle and this creates a scary environment and the audience can see a flickering candle which again can connote the near ending of this boy’s life. There is then a mid shot of the boy as he listens to his sister talk to his mum, we can see that the boy is wearing a white hoodie which is relevant clothing to the time it is set and the white highlights the significance of the boy’s innocence. The camera then tracks the boy as he leaves the room and we can see that the room he was in is small and cluttered. It is also very dark and the windows are covered by barely closed blinds so the audience can see it is dark outside. The use of the blinds shows the audience that this boy is from a poor family and we can see this from his grotty under furnished house.
Next there is an over the shoulder shot of the boy looking at his sister sitting on his mothers bed, the mother is lying in a white bed which could connote her innocence and there is no natural lighting in the room, only a lamp. This could connote that the woman is losing a battle with nature as we have already heard that she is sick. We then see his sister shut the door on him, shutting the light out and you can see only his dark room again and refers to him as ‘Fool’, this connotes that he is being shut out of the truth about his mother and is being left in the dark, not only in the literal sense of his room being dark but also not knowing the truth.
The camera then mid shots the boy to show the audience his reaction to his sister’s actions and we can see here that he is frustrated about not knowing the truth. The camera then tracks him as he walks over to a grey undecorated wall and slumps his back onto it and slides to sit to the floor. Again the audience can see his frustration and depression in being left out which could connote that he wants to do something about it.
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