Face Off scene analysis

The scene opens with a left panning shot showing the exit to the location then blurring the background until the camera reaches an extreme close up on the characters eyes. The blur suggests that the background itself is in fact unimportant at this moment in time whilst the detail that can be seen in the characters eyes shows a determined but slightly uneasy look. Extreme close ups are used when the director wants their audience to see the finer and more discreet details. Coupled with this shot is a non-diegetic soundtrack that get louder and more threatening as the camera advances on the character; music such as this usually foreshadows a large event about to take place. The fact that this is the first character within this scene it can easily be inferred that he is a main character and deserves to be the focal point of the audiences attention. The character then shifts his eyes towards to left, thanks to the extreme close-up we as an audience can notice this without difficulty thus telling the audience they also need to be ready to look left.

A high angle long shot that proceeds to tilt in a downwards fashion to show the layout of the inside of the building accompanied with non-diegetic slightly dark music is shown to create tension within the film. The scene then quickly cuts to a second unknown character stealthily walking gun in hand on high alert; diegetic footsteps are heard coming from him with the non-diegetic sounds completely silent. The shot is coming from a high angle looking down, this possibly suggests this character is seen as small and powerless even though he holds a weapon. This second character is perspirating heavily and noticeably anxious whilst the first character on the other hand remains cool and collected, presumably, in hiding. We know this because there is a parallel cut back to him, this is a close up and depicts him looking left to where the gun man is searching; he blinks and turns his head away before another cut back to the gun man.

An extreme close up on a gun is seen as the character changes cartridges with an enhanced diegetic cracking sound and another extreme close up of the first characters eyes. By these shots the audience assumes that this gun belongs to the initial character. This character blinks slowly then the camera switches back to the second character quickly whilst he walks round corner; the camera tracks backwards then rapidly pans to reveal a third character. This said third character pivots, looks at the gunman and creates the impression that he's going to shoot but the first character promptly shoots him square in the chest. When this character is initially show he is shown from a high angle shot, implying that he is of unimportance and weak. The first character is showed in a mid shot, the first time anything more than his eyes are seen. Non-diegetic drum beat music is heard echoing through the factory building as this shoot out is occurring. It can be inferred that the drum beat, as it is fast paced, is there to mock a human heartbeat because of the severity of the situation the characters have been placed in.

Horror: Tricks of the trade

Horror movies have evolved over time to become more and more frightening as the quality of special effects and cameras have heightened. The genre started off quite simple and has now produced some of the most psychologically damaging plot lines to date, added with some clever camera angles and sounds, modern horror has never been so debatably frightening. Horror films are based on the fears of the public at the time it was made. There are many different types of horror so don't be quick to generalise; from psychotic murderers to the supernatural, anything you fear could be found in some sort of horror film. There is just something about being scared that an audience seems to crave. People sometimes even begin to idolise certain horror movie icons, for example, you could go into any shop near Halloween and you could find the iconic hockey mask in the Friday The 13th and the Ghostface mask from Wes Craven's cult classic, Scream.

Horror started off with classic films like Alfred Hitchcock's 'Pyscho' where although the plot and filming technique were slightly poor, the audience were still scared and entertained because they knew no different; everything was new and exciting to them. Films like 'Pyscho' were known for using the same sort of background music and diegetic sounds to create an eerie atmosphere. The rapid high pitched style music that was used kept the audience on edge and showed how the character was anxious and fearful. 

'The Blair Witch Project' is known as a 'found footage' film. So like 'Paranormal Activity', it is claimed to be shot by the protagonist of the story. These types of films include the audience more and opens up new opportunities for jump scares as it is a P.O.V. The odd thing about this movie though is that it is based on a true story, yet another thing to scare the audience, throughout the film you never seem to see anything supernatural. Yes there are some creepy noises and events but you never physically see the 'Blair Witch'. Depending on the viewer, they will either see it as a wast of time or something that will make them never want to go camping again. 

The popular horror franchise 'Saw' does not use pyschological horror such as 'The Blair Witch Project' to frighten it's viewers, instead producing straight up gore. There is nothing more toe-curling that seeing someone be slowly tortured in high definition close ups with disgusting non-diegetic sound effects. Only a certain few gorey horrors can pull off this sub-genre as if the special effects are not good enough then the illusion is ruined. The problem is that the majority of people now are so desensitised to gore now that writers are constantly having to come up with cleverer torture methods. 

There are certain films like 'Sinister' and 'Sinister 2' however that manage to show off a certain amount of gore whilst still keeping that supernatural element added to a deviously clever plot line. It is these kind of films that manage to terrify the audience as the use of tracking shots and mid-shots make the viewer have to watch the background for whatever goes bump in the night. The majority of movie ghosts and demons are CGI but the demon 'Baghul' from the 'Sinister' franchise is fully human, therefore creating more of an impact on the audience because of how real he appears. 

Although the horror genre has changed drastically over the years one thing is for certain... There will always be a way to inject fear into the public.