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How does the opening sequence of The X-Files: Squeeze attract the audience

X-Files: Squeeze is about a mutant called Victor Tooms who is killing people. He steals and eats the livers of the victims to hibernate. But at the crime scene leaves no sign of entry. Scully also becomes a victim.

In most cases the viewer expects and anticipates that the opening scene will be similar to every other episode and will feature a murder/attack. Convention of horror, sci-fi and thriller to get the audience expect and anticipate the tropes of the openings.

The purpose of the opening shot is to establish the setting, in this case a long high angle shot of Baltimore. The mise-en-scéne of this shot is the sunset which suggests that a death or an attack might happen. It then dissolves into another shot 2

The reason why he is filmed at a high angled shot is to show that he is weak, vulnerable and to single him out as the target and a victim of the episode. Viewers expect him to be the victim.

The edits used when the man is walking to his car, the area around him becomes de-saturated, goes into slow motion and he turns slightly yellow this is related to the liver being removed after he dies so in Hindsight this edit I clever. The effects of the edits make the killer seem more predatorily and this confirms that he is the victim.

The sound in this sequence is a pulsating crescendo drowning out the diegetic sound to focus on the killer and the victim. The crescendo builds up to the eyes in the sewer to show that he is possibly the killer.

When he enters the building we still feel that the man is the victim when he enters the building because the angle is still a high angle shot, suggesting that he is being watched. He is then framed in a mid-shot as he’s walking through the build to mask anything that is behind or around him this makes him seem like he’s being followed to keep the audience in suspense.

Then it cuts to a shot in an elevator shaft which suggests that this is his entry point. The red light in the shaft has connotations with blood, anger and murder the music that corresponds with the killer plays making this seem even more obvious but later on is proven that this isn’t the point of entry and is a ruse.

The mie-en-scéne in the office shows us that the victim is a family orientated person because the items on his desk like the family picture. His office is shrouded in darkness and he is in the light making him seem like the target/victim. Then he tries to call his wife and doesn’t get an answer and leaves a message saying he has had a bad day to sympathise with him.

Then he leaves the office to go make some coffee the point of this scene is to build tension by placing the camera behind the victim to hide anything that’s around him, it then cuts to a shot of a vent which is later revealed to be the entry point for the killer, breathing is heard from the vent then a hand comes the killer’s sound motif is playing suggesting that it’s the killer, you still can’t see the killer’s face. As he’s walking back to the office the camera is still positioned behind him, it’s a red herring because the killer is in the office. The door slams when he renters to office.

The mise-en-scéne is significant because you can’t see the first strike because it’s behind a closed door in the dark office making him seem alone and vulnerable. It’s also filmed this way so that you don’t see the killer’s face.

In the final section, after the murder has taken place the camera movement is significant because it reveals some clues about the killer’s motives; it pans through yellow glass where you see the victim look yellow which correlates to liver failure we are told later in the episode that he takes and stores livers from the victims. The camera pans to a picture of his child, then there is a quick cut t the vent being screwed back to the wall from the inside with the killer’s sound motif playing again with the heavy breathing. It then cuts to the title sequence.   

Wilhelm Scream

The Wilhelm scream is a film and television stock sound effect that has been used in more than 200 movies, beginning in 1951 for the film Distant Drums.[1] The scream is often used when someone is shot, falls from a great height, or is thrown from an explosion. Most likely voiced by actor and singer Sheb Wooley, the sound is named after Private Wilhelm, a character in The Charge at Feather River, a 1953 western in which the character gets shot with an arrow. This was its first use from the Warner Bros. stock sound library, although The Charge at Feather River is believed to have been the third movie to use the effect

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksKRYSixSVk

Sound

Media-sound from samcar99

Editing

This trailer has lots of editing techniques.



Editing helps construct the narrative. We are so use to editing we barely even notice it. Editing is often invisible. Editing can be used to condense long, boring activities into quick bursts of visual information. The simplest edit is the cut, the term comes from back when they still used film and would cut it up and put the film together. In the assassination scene in North by North-West between Rodger Thornhill enters the taxi to when he looks out the window in the United Nations are 26 cuts. They are most frequent during the conversation so you can see their reactions. The pace of the editing can be used to create excitement and tension for example in the shower scene in Psycho and when Marion dies the pace slows down as if her life is draining away.

 

Types of editing

Dissolve: One scene dissolves into another, overlapping for a moment.

Fade out/in: One scene fades to black completely, then another fades in.

Wipes: One scene wipes across the screen, revealing or replacing the next one.

Iris: The next scene replaces the last by appearing from the centre like the iris of an eye.

Jump cuts: Two scenes that features a common element right after one another, so something stays the same but the rest changes. This is used for disorienting or comedic effect.

 

        

 

            North by North West

 

 

 

Basic Camera Shots

Extreme Close up shot



Close up shot


Medium close up shot



Medium shot





Medium long shot



Long shot


Extreme long shot









Mise-en-scéne

 

Mise-en-Scéne

Mise-en-Scéne means everything in the shot E.g lighting, costumes, colour, facial expressions and composition.

Low lighting and darkness suggests isolation, the one light source doesn't cover them. Thy sit away from the group of people creating isolation. They move further away, isolating themselves. They run alongside a fence creating a cage. Before she jumped in the water all you hear is music, conversation and laughing. They leave all of the sounds behind. Audience now think something bad is going to happen. The sunset implies that she is running out of time. Calm water and lack of sound suggests that something is going to happen. The audience is brought in close to the action because the camera is at sea level. The sounds underwater are non-diegetic, low sound is bad and the music becomes the sharks theme.