Research - Miss Begum: Scream Analysis

Scream is one of the most influential and conventional thrillers. The way it has been put together to what happens during the opening scene and the film making it one of the most iconic thrillers within the genre. From the use of its mise on scene to use of cinematography, all of these micro elements has made scream one of the best openings to a film.

At the beginning of the opening scene after the title sequence we already hear non diegetic sound which is off scream. This initially makes the audience may be confusion because the movie just jumped straight into the action and this already shows how conventional scream is as a thriller since it starting to confuse the audience at the beginning and is not building up to it with like other genres. As the scene develops we see a girl who keeps repeatedly picking up the phone to an antagonist who kept calling her, the main purpose of the antagonist calling her is to interrogate her. The victim looked like a stereotypical victim since she’s wearing clothing that has light colours which connote that she is innocent and or the protagonist. Also she has blonde hair which in like most thrillers women in blonde hair and are looking innocent usually killed first and is conventional with most thrillers, because there have been a lot thrillers in the past where girls in blonde hair have been the most common victims and damsel in distress. As the scene continues another thing I noticed during this part of the opening section is that the main iconography is the phone, however occurs mostly during this part of the film when she kept repeatedly hanging up and having to answer the call again every time the antagonist called back and the coversation they are having to each other. The conversation between the victim and the antoganist  This is telling us that the phone conversation is pretty important for the scene and is also foreshadowing what’s going to happen next.

Continuing with the opening sequence the antagonist threatened the victim with her life. From an audience perspective we now see the body language and facial expressions once the character on the phone reveals that he’s watching her, We now see her panicking because the man now starting terrorizing her on the phone and to start making threats. Her body language tells us that she starting panic and she also shaking. Her facial expression is telling the audience that she doesn’t know what’s going on and she terrified. Also the sound also now picks up and more diegetic sounds such as background music is used to the audience that things that  As the scene carry’s the popcorn that she was cooking earlier has now started to burn and creating smoke giving the scene a low lighting effect. Less lighting now signifies the fact that she is isolated from the rest of world because she doesn’t know what is happening and she can’t speak to anyone on the outside world. Also that she doesn’t know what the antagonist is and that she doesn’t know what’s going to happen next because of the way he the antagonist is portrayed because his mood keeps changing.

Further on the opening scene we see fast pace editing until the point where the antagonist reveals that her boyfriend is in the patio tied up this is where also see a lot of close ups and reactions shots of the character as well while her boyfriend is being killed in front of her. Cinematography is the most important about this part of the scene is shows what is happening with the character as she’s being tortured by the antagonist. Also lot of medium shots were also taken during the frantic telephone conversation to stop the antagonist from killing her boyfriend. The audience reaction is would be shock since that the film had been building at to this moment very quickly. The emotions on the character face off shock and terrified making the audience feel petrified because the next part of the opening scene may mean that her boyfriend is about to die.

In the final part of the opening scene we see the antagonist wanting to play a “game”. In fact he’s still trying intimidate her by telling her not open the door and then still threating her that he will kill her boyfriend if she doesn’t play along. We see more cinematography with medium shots focusing on the damsel in distress and the would be victim and with jump cuts in-between them. However the damsel in distress loses the games after she answered wrongly therefore her boyfriend dies more jump cuts showing the reaction of her boyfriend being killed by an unknown assailant. The audience reactions would be scared and also disturbed by the events in the opening scene.

Scream uses a lot conventional micro elements that is seen in thrillers from the cinematography to the mise on scene it uses. A lot can be taken away from this film however the main point that I could use from a thriller is that try to be conventional but unique. Scream uses a lot features that you might see in other thrillers from the way in which the damsel in distress is portrayed to the events that takes place and where the setting is located. Being different about some of scream dose may my film opening unique however I should try to stick with the convections that thrillers uses.