Scream Opening Sequence Break Down
In the opening scene to 'Scream' directed by Wes Craven in 1996 there are many elements that contribute to representation of what is happening on screen.
The opening of the film 'Scream' straight away makes it clear to us what genre and style of film this is going to be. This is achieved through the use of editing in the title sequence. We see the title of the film in a bold white font, surrounded by a red hue flashing like a pulse to the sound of a heart beat. The red hue can be typically associated with evil or blood in a horror movie and white most commonly is used to represent purity. The red glow around the white writing could suggest the idea of purity being washed out by evil.
The music in the film doesn't begin until after 2 minutes 17 seconds, Up to this point its all just sound effects. The reason the music doesn't start until this point is because the line "I wanna know who im looking at" is said. This is the point where the girl realizes that who she is talking to is'nt safe. The reason the director chooses to have the music come in at this point is to slowly start to build tension and subtly signal to the audience something bad is going to happen. During the build up of this scene, the tempo and volume increase and become harsher, leading up to the victim being murdered. During this time the popcorn bag is increasingly getting bigger, until the climax of this scene is reached.
Before we see the killer, or are given any straight forward ways of knowing they are outside the house we see the swing moving as if someone has just got off it. To back this up there is also a dog barking. This is most likely to be because the dog has seen someone. This puts the audience on edge and makes the atmosphere feels tense. It also puts the audience a step ahead of the actress, which is a common horror movie tactic.
The victim in this scene is the typical 'bimbo' blonde which you will usually find in this stye of horror movie. She talks to the stranger on the phone and lets him draw her in by staying on the phone for so long. When we first see her we can see she's an innocent girl by what she is wearing. Her clothes are white and light colours, which again typicaly represent purity and innocence.
