Research - Scream analysis - Mr Smith

Scream analysis

In this essay I will be analysing a famous part in the film scream. I will mainly focus on four micro elements. I will also discuss about the audience response and how micro elements make the audience feel while watching this scene.I will also discuss how the editing is being  used for example what editing is being used to make the audience understand the story line, what makes the audience want to watch the film from only one scene. At the beginning of the scene there’s a young woman dressed in cream and white, her hair is blonde and she is attractive. This is stereotypical to an opening thriller as the audience would have faith in the female victim as she is expected to be blonde and innocent.

The scene opens with a non-diegetic sound when the title appears, the audience can hear a girl screaming and this suddenly changes into a phone call. This allows the audience to have an idea of  genre this movie is and this will engage their attentions to find out about what the movie is about and whats going to happen during the film. This scene is set in the female victim's home, through the establishing shot, this reveal the location of her house which was set in the middle of nowhere which this highlights that the atmosphere is dangerous and this makes the audience feel disturbed because they will expect someone to pop up out of nowhere. However, this leads the viewers to have an idea of the female victim will not be heard if she's in danger, despite the victim's feeling safe when she's at home. This gives the audience an idea that she's innocent and vulnerable. As the audience will see that she's home alone in a big isolated house, this makes them feel sympathy towards the female victim and expect something bad to occur.

Furthermore, as the female victim received a phone-call, the female victim appears with a very calm and relaxed  in a cream blouse and a pyjama trouser which portrays her pureness and vulnerability and physically weak, plus security within her own home. In addition to this, when the female is being attacked, the use of iconography which is blood contrasted with the white clothing which produce a much more dramatic effect than if her clothes were to be in darker colour. Therefore, this makes the audience feel content as she's enjoying the conversation and look very comfortable within her own home. During the phone-call at the start, her body language appears to look sloppy and her facial expressions appears to be flirty and smiling. This makes the audience to not anticipate anything to happen to her yet because she's casually enjoying what she's doing which she was planning to have a movie night for herself. Again with her casual body language which she looks very relaxed and comfortable, this helps the audience to easily identify her as the victim.

Moreover, as the antagonist enters the house, the use of low key lighting within the scene allows the killer to look invisible and mysterious which creates suspense and excitement towards the viewers as they can hardly see the killers movements. This helps to boost up the audience curiosity and makes them feel excited to find out who the antagonist is and what the antagonist is going to do this also makes the audience feel sorry for the female victim because she doesn't know whats coming to her. The lighting also allows the tension to be built up and change the mood in the scene when the characters are in a dark area and the film has been taken in the dark at 9-10 pm This helps to create vulnerability and creates fear additionally to the audience as they observe the scene.

Initially, the antagonist appears with a white mask and a black cloak which contrast to the female victim's clothes, this represent the sense of 'good vs evil'. This shows that the killer is trying to hide his identity and represent evilness & dark through the black colour and also the blood look invisible in black which makes him more mysterious and scary. This helps the audience to easily tag him as the antagonist and because of his hidden identity, this creates fear and excitement towards the viewers as they will be curious to find out about him. The antagonist is being presented as big, tall and holding a knife showing that he's going to kill the female victim. The use of iconography which is the knife makes him look more dangerous and powerful. This makes the audience to anticipate that he's going to commit murder.