Task 2: Research into existing products

Halloween


Analysing the open scene of ‘Halloween 1978’ in 1978 in a suburban town called Haddonfield, in America. It makes it scarier because it’s close to home. It’s of a psychotic murderer who went round murdering people, and his doctor chases him through the street. Many people say it is one of the first major horror films. It had a budget of $320,000 and had a grossed profit of $47,000,000, in our day and age it would have made around, $150,000,000. The film contains a little graphic violence and gore therefore it has been rated an 18.

The film begins with; fades in and out of red on the opening titles with a black background, the titles also fade in and fade out. The red and yellow signify, fire, danger, pumpkin, blood, violence, aggression and horror. This hint’s to that it is a horror movie, starts with name of the producer. They also have a logo for their company, the logo is very static and it is all centred, so you can see them, the size changes, this may suggest rank orders. They also use black, which also indicates it could be a horror; the black colour makes it seem eerie and fear. When the pumpkin comes onto the shot, the music increases and gets tenser. The pumpkin is to the left of the shot, makes it stand out because of the flickering light on the black background. It then starts to zoom into the pumpkin to shows wall of the detail on it and the flickering light. It makes it seem scary.


 Then had a black screen with ‘Haddonfield, Illinois’, it show the place and when it’s set in 1963. Children then start to sing a song about Halloween, then cuts to the white house with an owl in the background; this signifies that it’s scary and night. The lighting is all natural at night. The costumes that they are wearing are, the girl is wearing high socks, short skirt, and a white top makes her seem innocent but she’s not.  The boy is wearing jeans and a stripy top and blue jeans. But then Michael is wearing a clown costume with a mask, this has two meanings because clowns come across as happy and always smiling with bright colours, but on the other side they seem scary because of the different colour skin and the distorted faces that they have. But his mom and dad are wearing very smart clothes, this indicates that they have been out and that Michaels sister was meant to be babysitting. It is set in a real location, in a white house at night so it makes it seem scarier and eerie!


The props that they have been used in this scene, is Michael has a knife which makes it more jumpy and scary because from this prop you know that it’s a horror and that something is going to happen, and someone is more than likely going to get killed. Also at the beginning the pumpkin is used at a prop to show that it is from Halloween. With the candle glowing inside to show the different colours, for instance the red and oranges, which signify blood and horror. At the begging of the clip it zooms in on the pumpkin to show the detail and so it’s not just static. The next camera angles that have been used is its all Michaels, point of view all the way through, using a hand held camera. There is also a high shot angle looking down the stairs. At the end of the scene they use a reverse crane shot which sweeps back to show the parents and the house.


The editing that has been used is that there is only two cuts in the opening sequence and that’s because it’s all of Michaels point of view. The sound that has been used at the beginning of the scene is the theme music, for instance the opening sound builds up and gets faster and faster as the titles go on, this is non-diegetic sound. As the titles go and you can see the house, an owl noise is then made which is a sign that is a horror, which is a diegetic sound. When Michael looks up at the house a high pitched noise, which is a screechy noise, this is to make and add tension to the scene and to make the audience scared and jump, this is non-diegetic sound. Then the stabbing and screaming makes it more scary and jumpy.