previous students' work: ANGELDUST

In this blog (and the following ones too) I am going to analyse four different film openings that were made by previous college students. I am going to assess the MISE-EN-SCENE, CAMERA, SOUND and EDITING of the following films - 

ANGELDUST

VIOLET

VICTORIA

THE LIST

Doing this will help me understand the ways in which films use mise-en-scene, camera-work, sound and editing to signify what genre they are placed in, and how thriller films in particular make their openings grabbing and thrilling.

ANGELDUST

This film opening uses sound very interestingly; because it tells the story of an online stalker/murderer, the sound of a person typing can be heard frequently in the background. This theme also runs through clearly in the title sequence, where the letters appear one by one, mirroring the way words are spelt on computers.

The music used in the clip is another way in which sound is used, and it is slow and quiet, but evokes a sense of eeriness and fear. The editing of ANGELDUST is very complicated, and often goes from the main character's vlog to a fictional networking site - facespace - showing the murderer typing messages to her. The mise-en-scene of the clip is the one aspect that really accentuates the fact that the film is a thriller; the facespace template is white, suggesting either innocence or neutrality. However, in contrast, the template for artbox (the website which the murderer uses) is black which makes it look a lot more dark and creepy. The boxes in which the murderer types in is red, which connotes blood and danger.

Another aspect of the sequence which I am going to analyse is the camera-work. Throughout most of the clip, the audience can see close up shots of the girl's face, which makes us sympathize with her. This makes the whole sequence thrilling, because the audience are aware that she is in danger and yet they feel as if they are on her side.

I thought ANGELDUST was an incredibly unique piece of work which has really inspired me. The plot was really intriguing because, although the idea of an online stalker is not particularly complex, it is not overdone in films and is a topic which is not often explored. For this reason I have been inspired to come up with something new - to not remake a film that has been done several times, but to try and think of something individual and meaningful.