Friday 28 January 2011

Josh Godlington - Thriller intro analysis; Signs


play until 4:29, turn off annotations

Signs
The introduction of Signs creates suspense and mystery with mise en scene and its look on classic family life and long running scenes that go with the missing sense of direction that are also apparent when the girl and the crows are screaming.

Mystery is first created by the main male character waking up randomly and suddenly and this may have something to do with any future antagonist within the film as their is no apparent reason for him waking up. The first sign of an antagonist is when he is disrupted by his daughters scream and to help build this sense of an antagonist is near by is helped by the setting which is a tall cornfield. This helps build the mystery and suspense around the antagonist as it further hidden by the tall cornfield.

The cornfield, i feel plays a great signifigance in creating tension as when Mel Gibsons character is running through and it makes you wonder if he ever gets there as he just runs fast in a straight line.

The antagonist or atleast the idea of one is shown towards the end of the intro when the camera zooms out slowly to reveal what they are standing in and what the girl was scared of which is a crop circle. this Reveals that the antagonist of the film are aliens.

This is more rare for a thriller as they usually have a human antagonist but in the film, the aliens are put into a more human role in the way they attack or are seen. Overall the suspense and mystery is conveyed less by an antagonist but more by a sense of mystery that it creates within the characters aswell as the audience.

1 comment:

  1. There is some discussion of narrative and characterisation here, but insufficient on the technical codes used - eg camerawork, mise en scene (specified as technique), editing or sound. Terms must be used, and it must all be more detailed and longer than this. Bullet points only please. See Freya's group via my blog to see how it should be done.

    ReplyDelete