previous students' work: VICTORIA

In this blog 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

I have already analysed the film openings entitled ANGELDUST and VIOLET; I am now going to go on to do two more, VICTORIA and THE LIST. Doing these blogs will really compound my understanding of the ways in which films use mise-en-scene, camera-work, sound and editing effectively and how they help the audience to identify the genre of that film. It also will show me how thriller films make their openings grabbing and thrilling.
VICTORIA

The film starts off with a ballet dancer, but the camera does not only film her - it also films her shadow on the ballet studio floor. I thought this was a unique and interesting way of filming a character and in only the first few seconds of the film already I wanted to watch more.

The editing of the clip was similarly interesting; it overlapped different images, such as shown in the below screenshot of the character's body and feet. I thought this was a nice touch to the clip because it gave it a very abstract feel, suggesting very subtly that it was a thriller and would go wrong somewhere down the line.

 The sound of the clip started off as a quiet ballet backing track which seemed sweet and innocent, however, after the title of VICTORIA it slowly faded and got slower and changed into a more creepy sound. The point of having it after the title was simple but effective - it suggested that the character of Victoria herself was strange and disturbing. This was demonstrated through the mise-en-scene of the clip, in which Victoria covers a scar/wound, suggesting that she has something to hide.

 VICTORIA was a really inspirational sequence to watch and it included so many elements/conventions of film openings which I have previously analysed (such as discrete titles and the intertextual references to BLACK SWAN). However, although I found it interesting and inspiring, I think the ending ruined it completely. They added the sound of a woman laughing evily... which really destroyed the tension that they built up and made it so cliche. I am glad that I have assessed this because I see it as a warning - avoid cliche, cheesy endings!