Wednesday 6 April 2011

'When a stranger calls' Opening Sequence



We firstly see the porduction company 'Screen Gems' which is in association with Sony. Whilst this is introduced on the screen behind a black background, the digetic sound in the background is an eery phone ringing. This makes us straight away link back to title, anf we start to think whos ringing? and whos answering?
The voices then appear, on one end of the phone line sounds a normal vunrable teenage girl, and on the other a creepy sounding man.
The shot is then of a house, where we can see a window with a light on, we expect this to be where the girl has answered the phone, and the tilted low angle shot looking up could be where the man is standing on the other end of the line.
We establish straight away by the voices that these two may infact be the main characters, and the film is based on them.
From this enigma we can tell this is a horror film, without seeing any characters just by the background sounds.

We then move setting to a funfair, and whilst we are using the shot type 'tracking' of two children, the first name of 'Brian Geraghty' is shown in the bottom left hand corner of the screen.
Following with some eery, jump shots showing a man where we cant see his face, to a girl on a merry go round. In the background we then see the house again, and the phone rings once again. This causes a very dramatic atmosphere, and makes the audience want to find out why this man keeps calling, and where he is? This is where the second name 'Katie Cassidy' is shown again in white font in the bottom left hand corner.

Whilst on the phone we hear some non digetic sounds of the funfair, but also some heavy breathing. This creates tension, and would make the viewers be on edge.
The background noise is mainly of the screams from the funfair, but behind it there is a slow eery music playing, when the lightng is very dull, and u cant see any peoples faces.

Whilst at night time down a dark street we are introduced by some more names, and this eery music has gotten louder. This is making the atmosphere more thrilling.
We are then focused on one house, which would make the audience think this is the house where the main action will take place. There is then a lighted pole, which reads 'JESUS' which could be a represntation of death.
From then on the camera seems hand held, as if we are the enemy and we are looking at our victim, we can also tell this as we can hear the heavy breathing which brings suspense. We are then shown many fast zooms and flash backs of the funfair and children, which is quite creepy.

This is when there is a third phone call. But this time we only hear the girls voice, we are then shown the house again, and then quickly the shopt is swept back to the funfair, this is very jumpy, and has the audience on edge.
In bold white letters 'When a stranger Calls' is then placed in the centre of the shot, and the digetic sound sounds like knifes being dragged across something, which could be a connotation linked to the film.

No comments:

Post a Comment