Our film analysis

 We began by planning a shot by shot sequence on paper - in the form of a storyboard. We drafted by sketching frames and noting down shots, and making sure transitions through shots were smooth and seamless. The planning gave us an idea of how long the sequence would be - around 30 seconds to a minute. After we developed the draft we came to the conclusion that it would be a psychological kind of sequence, with aspects of a thriller - however not frightening enough to be rated over a 12A. This is because it features themes of suspense where the audience expects something scary to happen, however nothing scary actually happens. We decided to use the alleyway by Riversley Park to shoot the video because the area is isolated and offers a long perspective that could be useful in creative shots.
 Conventions of horror that we included were suspense; the lack of sound throughout par the heartbeat at the end. And a sort of jump-scare; the stalker appearing very fast at the end out of nowhere.
 If we were to do this task again I feel like we would film more shots to give a wider variation so that we'd have more material to work with while editing. Editing is another aspect we did not spend enough time on. Rather than picking some sound effects we just 'settled' with the heartbeat because we felt it was simplistic and easy to use. 

Fight Club - David Fincher (1999)

The Narrator cries into the bosom of one of the testicular cancer victims. I loved this scene because when he lifts his head up he sees the marks his tears left on the mans t-shirt which resemble ink blots - this associates with the concept of mental health and The Narrator almost becoming enlightened. At this point - angelic choir voices emerge from the background as he describes this feeling.

 The introduction of Marla Singer is very impressive in the sense that the monotonous drum riff that had been going on in the background is disturbed by an electronic rumble accompanied by the clicking of her heels approaching, with the black clothes and the cloud of cigarette smoke that surrounds her. Her whole image represents disease, and this is emphasised with her first words ‘This is Cancer, right?’. 

 I noticed that whenever the narrator is concentrating, like on the phone or reading, Tyler can be seen blurred out in the background doing something distracting like playing with nunchucks or riding a bike in the house. I feel like this represents Tyler’s niggling presence in the narrators mind like some kind of parasite. I thought it was really clever in the scene were The Narrator is beating himself up in hiss boss’ office, when he mentions ‘For some reason this reminded me of my first fight, with Tyler’ - because every fight with Tyler is in fact a fight with himself. 

  Fincher portrays the final scene absolutely perfectly. The hue is moody and dark, the music is just a drone buzz with a plain rhythm that suits the tone of the scene, Fincher portrays the intensity simply by stopping and starting the music at the right points. The narrator begins to take hold of his mind, Tyler - starts to waver. He pulls the cigarette out of his mouth and as he does so- the music stops, signifying an impact. There is brief silence - and the narrator pulls the gun to his own head - the music continues. This alone evokes a literal, hair raising moment (for myself anyway) where the scene becomes intense and you are so completely focused that you become aware that your face is that of someone who’s had a lobotomy.

 The concept of smoke is important here, we associate it with both Marla, and Tyler, and we notice that everyone is continuously throwing their cigarette butts on the floor. When The narrator shoots himself, we see there is no smoke, just blood. When the gun wound is shown on Tyler, however - We see only smoke emanating from his mouth and head, along with a ring of smoke from his mouth, as if he were actually smoking. I believe that him smoking all the way through is not only foreshadowing this, but the fact that The narrator represents flesh and blood, and Tyler represents smoke is another aspect of him being non-existent. 

 My favourite part of the film, of any film, actually - is the very final scene. The dark colouring adds to the simplicity of the scene. You can faintly hear the song starting in the background. ‘Where is my mind’ by the Pixies. It’s a rough, ‘grungey’ kind of song which fits well with the distorted nature of the soundtrack. Marla arrives yet The Narrator is utterly calm despite shooting himself in the neck. The music becomes loud, the buildings begin exploding in front of them, The narrator and Marla - identical. Holding hands. The narrator says ‘you met me at a very strange time in my life’ as the camera slowly zooms forwards, and sanity is restored at the exact same time the world is plunged into mayhem. The perfect scene.

…Continued: 

Synapses and Neurones. The introductory credits show the progression from within the brain, to out of the barrel of a gun. This shows this inside of the Narrators brain. the hub of the whole film. It is The Narrators insanity that creates the whole story. This two-section response explores the metaphors and themes in Fincher’s great adaptation from Palahnuik’s fantastic novel, while looking at all the sections I appreciated most.

 After becoming obsessed with support groups, he is able to sleep soundly, thus curing his insomnia, he describes it as ‘ losing all hope’ as he becomes more addicted. Since he starts these support groups, a recurring subliminal image begins to appear throughout the film, the image is Tyler Durden in different positions, he appears beside people and around the room for a single frame four times in the film before he actually becomes a character in the film. I really liked this because it represents Tyler’s character rendering inside The Narrators head before he finally appears. (He renders like this because the narrators insomnia was actually just him doing all Tyler’s night jobs, and the support groups were healing him and making Tyler go away, and so Tyler tried to come back stronger by manifesting properly.) Within the same instance, a Starbucks Coffee cup is also present in every scene of the film, this portrays the films message on product placement and the media in a literal sense which I think is very clever considering how often it goes unnoticed. 

 The fact that The Narrator has numerous names throughout is very clever considering he has dissociative identity disorder, and his name is never mentioned in the film. I feel like the events that happen due to ‘Tyler’ throughout the film are because of the influences The Narrator sees leading up to Tyler’s creation. An example would be in one of the beginning scenes where the narrator sees Tyler on a TV screen wearing a white suit, the same white suit the members of project mayhem wear later on in the film for an assignment.

 The Narrator mentions ‘Could you wake up as someone else?’, and as he does, the camera follows Tyler as he moves by as an extra, referencing him in a literal sense. When The Narrators home explodes, throughout the film nobody knows who did it. On the plane scene, almost every aspect of the conversation leads one to believe it was Tyler. The main subject of conversation is Tyler’s knowledge of how to create explosives, and as the scene closes, the narrator says ‘How I came to live with Tyler is…Airlines have this policy about vibrating luggage.’ This leads to the narrator being called in about his briefcase having ‘unsafe materials in’ right after he notices he and Tyler have the same briefcase. This suggests that the narrator knew about the explosives in his luggage subliminally and thus emphasises the thought that he and Tyler are the same person. I think it was extremely clever of Fincher to be able to include all these almost insignificant details as it depicts the progression of insanity and subconsciousness very well.

  Upon finding the remains of his house, his first words are ‘How embarrassing’ which reiterates the theme of societies influences on a person. I really liked the part where Tyler and The narrator are chatting at a bar, and Tyler mentions how materialistic The narrator is about his possessions. The screen cuts to the Narrators face and as if to signify an epiphany-like moment, much the same as at the beginning - The audio goes very quiet and distorted, The Narrators face drops, and a ball is struck loudly by some people playing pool in the background, depicting a significant moment. A scene which is interesting is where Tyler and The Narrator get on a bus, and as they do they look around and scowl at the average-looking people in there. After making a comment criticising models and gym-goers, an overweight man dressed shabbily pushes past them to get through the bus, and they barely bat an eyelid. I think this almost insignificant scene plays a big part in showing how the narrator has developed. Additionally, when the man passes the two, he doesn’t say anything while next to Durden, but as he passes The Narrator, he says ‘Excuse me’ as if he’s the only one there.

 One of my favourite scenes is after The narrator wakes up from a car crash. We can visibly see a bruise on his head from the accident, however - when he supposedly wakes up the next morning we see the bruise is gone. This is because the Narrator wasn’t actually asleep, he was travelling the country organising fight clubs. Later in the film, The Narrator contemplates how talented Tyler is at causing mayhem. ‘The ability to let what matters, truly slide’. This relates to previously when The Narrator meditates and his subconscious self tells him to slide. I believe this is another instance where he is becoming another person by almost communicating with his past subconscious. 

 The concept of the smiley face painted on the building as the first major act of vandalism i feel relates to the small smiley face sticker by the telephone in the centre of the house. It’s something everyone in Project mayhem sees every day, and i feel this is why they chose to use it. In the scene where they blackmail the commissioner, The Narrator sort of hovers around without really knowing what’s going on, I feel this represents him spectating himself as Tyler, which also links to the fact that there are no scenes from Tyler’s perspective exactly, which reiterates the fact that he is non-existent. The fact that The narrators job meant he had to travel all over the country constantly by plane in different hotels relates to the fact that he later does the exact same thing while looking for Tyler. The significance of the planes is shown when the Narrator realises who he is. The first time he’s told he is Tyler, he says ‘Please place seat backs into their fully upright position’, The second time - ‘We have just lost cabin pressure’. This portrays the relevance of Airline transport on his life. In the scene where The Narrator is trying to disarm the bomb, the camera moves in a similar way to when he talks about his apartment blowing up. It zooms through the wiring and mechanics with intense music in the background, i feel like this represents The Narrators knowledge of explosives in contrast to Tyler’s, which are essentially the same thing.

A Scanner Darkly:How did i get here scene.

The very first thing I noticed was the fact that the film had special effects to make the picture cartoon-like. My first thought was that it was made to look like a video game, yet the use of easily recognisable actor Keanu Reeves questioned whether the creators wanted it to represent an alternate reality that the audience could perceive as their own(but with a few changes). The score is the first thing you hear. A slow, continuous hum of a string orchestra that continues throughout the 2 minute scene. This captures the melancholy nature of the scene We first see a run down looking house with low key lighting, and a long shot to establish this. The character walks towards the mirror and a close up of his face looking at himself takes the camera for a few seconds. I feel this represents a contemplation period which begins the exposition of the voiceover. It begins with - ‘Where am I?’ By tracking the character with the camera shows the transition into the dream world - The low key light house pans and fades into the high key lighting of a tidy family home. the sinister music is accompanied by simple scales on a xylophone. The fact that the sinister music continues suggests that this is not only a figment of his imagination, but foreshadows that aspects of the grotty reality may seep through into this pure dreamworld. All shots are neutral mid shots indicating peace and calm - until the character hits his head and there is a close up of the blood on his hand.at the same time that the voiceover begins again - ‘The pain’. I feel that this indicates the association between reality and pain, as the voiceover only ever speaks in the reality section. The blood on his hand represents going back to reality. The character begins to list the things he hates within his dream-life: mise-en-scène is important here as he describes the yard as it pans across the stereotypical American ideal garden with a swing set and perfect grass. Pan and zoom (along with a sinister eerie choir noise) on the yard, house and lawnmower indicates That these otherwise inanimate objects pose some kind of threat or are seen as incredibly negative objects to the character specifically due to it bing in HIS dream world. It reverts back to reality with an abrupt - ‘It had to end’ While he says this, he stares at his hand quizzically, in the same way he looks at himself at the beginning. This evokes the though that the scene describes an inner character conflict between the personality in is head and the personality he is. Back lighting creates a silhouette as he walks towards the back yard and the music is getting louder and broader. This makes me think something terrible is about to happen due to the sinister phrases he says: ‘Dark world where i toil’ ‘ugly things and surprising things’ ‘i can count on nothing’. A single viola becomes louder and the scene ends with him looking at his previously ‘perfect’ garden which now has what appears to be 3 mentally unstable people hanging from a tree, holding their head, and wielding a gun. I feel that this represents what he mentioned he had to go through in order to not have to live like he used to, with his family that he ‘hated’.

*I've never seen this film other than this scene*

Introduction to the Horror genre

In order to evoke fear in a person merely by portrayals on a screen – a director must keep it close to home. What are the main aspects of everyday living that evoke feelings of anxiety in people in instances as simple as being home alone? 

Association with the victim. Isolation. The knowledge that there is absolutely no way out. This relates to the Saw films – in which victims are attached to sadistic traps and forced to escape under gruesome circumstances. In the theme of dramatic irony, the audience has already established that the people in the traps are either going to earn their freedom or die. This subject relates to the modern day portrayal of dilemmas. The audience are subjected to situations where they have no options but the unpleasant one constantly in everyday life - hence their empathy and association with the victims on screen, causing them to in turn experience their fear as their own (enhanced by the abundance of quality suspense directing). Other examples include ‘The Wickerman’ and ‘The Shining’.

Sound in film is paramount in creating suspense, whether it is a full blown orchestra or utter silence. An obvious example of the use of music is that of Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’ in which the helpless woman is stabbed to death, accompanied by loud, high pitched shrieks on violins. Mammals are instinctively cautious and alert around high pitched noises due to the primitive need to hear their child screaming for help – this emphasises the effect it has on the viewer. The use of these sharp sounds contrast with the piercing silence prior to the stabbing. Very simple frames are used throughout, and the simplistic nature prevents the viewer from forming any predictions about the scene, which emphasises the obscurity, and allows the scene to be utterly startling by giving away nothing, unlike other horrors. The shower scene for me was especially impressive because there were 78 separate pieces of film in 45 seconds. The rush and panic evoked from the close-up shots and the ‘split second knife’ shots were enough to cause seizures in a cinematic era as docile as the 60’s. After the string orchestra finished the ‘commentary’ of the murder scene, the tone immediately drops, and low, continuous cellos are heard – signifying a conclusion to the scene, and narrating the grim fate of the female victim. 

 Fear of the unknown has tortured humanity for years. The common fear of the dark is in fact based off of this – not knowing what’s around you. This effect is used in every single horror film. There’s the example in the literal sense: ‘The Fog’ whereby coastal inhabitants are tormented and slaughtered by an omnipresent being emerged in mist. Not being able to see or understand the villain leaves the audience disoriented and on edge which emphasises the fear factor hugely. Then there’s the plot side of the unknowing: ‘Paper House’. This film is thrilling in the sense that you do not know what’s going to happen next. An incredibly madcap yet stable plot surrounding the lucid dreams of a girl who creates an alternate universe follows a strange and unexplainable story with confusing coincidences and an overall melancholy vibe. 

 Reading between the lines, and noticing unspoken metaphors in a film connects to the audience. Noticing something hidden in a film that’s put there specifically to attract the attention of the more observant is nothing short of eerie. It’s almost like the film is whispering to you, showing you alone something many others cannot see. Metaphors are abundant in any fantasy-based horror film. A prime example is Pans Labyrinth. Set in 1944 Spain, a young girl (Ofelia) enduring her sadistic stepfather is introduced into a fantasy world where she is supposedly destined to be princess. This is the overall gist of the film, but large aspects are left unexplained for the audience to conclude. The fact that Pan refers to the young girl in the story is a common misconception. The truth is in fact much darker. Pan, or in Spanish – Fauno, refers to the faun-like creature that resides within the labyrinth. Pan is also a widely used and incredibly old term for the Devil; The twisted horns, the monstrous posture and the sinister luring he presents towards Ofelia. The whole film presents grotesque creatures that Ofelia perceives to be beautiful and fairytale-like, The faun is an angry ruthless being, and the whole colour contrast of the movie is bleak and has a greenish hue. Is this some kind of devil worshipping film? Is it something to do with mental health? The many conclusions drawn by the audience just add to the horror. People will project their fears onto anything when provoked.