pans lab

The scene where she gives the faun the key
as the little girl walks down the stairs the music is quite faint and delicate but as her foot reaches the floor of this mysterious place the music intensifies and becomes more prominent and deeper which could suggest that she’s in danger  the low key lighting and the fact that its at night time also suggests danger and mystery mainly because these are stereotypical conventions use in horror films during the end of the scene as she starts to walk back up the stairs the music lightens and becomes more delicate and magical then inferring that she’s possibly walking away from danger back in to safety.
When the little girl is talking to the faun there is no music at all, all we can hear is diegetic sounds of the faun creaking when he moves and the fairy’s wings fluttering apart from when she hands the key to him we hear a non diegetic twinkle noise which is a typical convention in fantasy films as it gives the key a sense of importance.
The key is given a sense of importance as during the time it set (1944) Spain was under the control of general Franco who attempted to topple the Republican Government and control the people of Spain in a similar way to Hitler and Mussolini. the key shows this as keys are used to lock things and open things , and Franco had the power of the key he unlocked what he wanted people to see and he locked what he didn't want people to see. Straight after this scene it cuts to a man locking a lock, this takes us back to the idea of locking away what shouldn't be seen and the fact that we see a mans hands do this also shows the representation of men and women of that time, men being controlling and powerful and women being obedient and controlled, Ofelia breaks these stereotypes as she misbehaves and sneaks off in the middle of the night to the labyrinth, this is a prime example of being disobedient.
in this scene the surroundings are very dark due to the low key lighting , this technique makes Ofelia stand out as she is wearing a costume that is predominantly light colors which show that she is young and pure and that she is the key part of this story, it also seems as if a light is shining on her and at the time it is shown it is night so the light shining on her would be the moon and previously the faun says that her father is the moon so now we see that her father could be protecting her by shining down on her, the faun also has light shining on him as he steps out of the dark shadows to talk to Ofelia, this shows that he is safe and that he also links with the father who is also the moon.
the second scene I chose to analyze is the first time she steps in to the fantasy world through the chalk door , we immediately see a change between real life and fantasy due to the color pallet , when she is drawing the door the colours are very cold and blue and green tones which shows that real life is pretty undesirable and harsh , but as she opens the door and the camera shows an establishing shot of the hallway Ofelia had just discovered and we immediately see a change in color as the tones are warmer using colors such as reds yellows oranges and golds , this creates a more desirable feeling and even makes the audience feel safer and comforted than when seeing the cold real world. though the colours of the fantasy world are quite warm and humble a lot of red is used which is also a colour that signifies death and evil as its the colour of blood so already this has foreshadowed the encounter with the pale man later in the scene as he is evil and murders children , his eyes are also red like blood and his eyes represent what people could see and couldn't see in the time Franco was in control.
even though the fantasy world looks desirable the diegetic sound used creates this tense emotion as they use sounds that sound like breathing which is a common convention used in horror films to make the audience feel on edge , also when we see the paintings of the pale man killing children there is a diegetic sound of children screaming and crying which in a way brings the pictures to life and makes the audience fear for Ofelia as she is a child and the is alone with this pale man.
the first shot we see of the pale man is a depth of field shot , this shows that he is nothing to worry about  as he isn't in focus though when Ofelia takes some food from the table and the pale man starts to come alive when the camera goes back to Ofelia and shows again another depth of field shot of the pale man being out of focus even though now he is something to worry about this shows that she isn't scared and she hasn't even given it a thought that this creature could be dangerous because she doesn't realize he has awoken till she turns around .
I also picked up that in this first shot of the pale man we see the long table and just him sitting at the top of it, this is also seen when the captain is at the dinner table in the house so the pale man is also the captain in this fantasy life as the captain hates Ofelia who is a child and the pale man hates children as he kills them the pale man is also influenced by an art piece called 'Saturn devouring his son' this could foreshadow later in the film the captain has a son but unfortunately the mother dies.
also the camera pans from Ofelia to a pile of children's shoes this links to the context of the time it was filmed which was when the Holocaust was happening and that is a reference to how the children and adults were stripped from all their clothes and were thrown in to a pile as that is the level of control Hitler had so this shows the level of control the pale man has and the pale man is a reference to the captain who is a reference to Franco.

crimson peak clip analysis

 

 

 

Low key lighting at the start of this scene immediately makes us think that something bad is going to happen and that this film is a horror film because low key lighting is one of the key horror genre conventions.

The lighting coming from the candles gives off a red glow, red is signified with anger, blood and evil. This could signify that she is in danger and that something evil is following her or that she is possibly evil, but we know she is not evil as she is wearing white and white links with innocence, vulnerability and purity. The establishing shot of her in the corridor with her dog highlights this even more as everything is dark and she is there in white showing she is vulnerable, we also see that she is on her own and this indicates to us that something is going to happen to her because she is the prime target as she is on her own in a dark gothic looking corridor.

Later on in the scene when the monster comes out we see that is red , the colour red has been seen before, in a stain glass window and the girls candles gave off a red glow, these have foreshadowed the monster which we discovered after seeing these red elements. Also in the red glass window we saw a faint outline of what could possibly be a face, this could also have been foreshadowing the future of when the monster came as the face in the window could well have been the monster.

A the girl is running away from the monster the angle being shit is a Dutch angle , this angle shows that she is disorientated and in danger and things aren’t as they should be hence why the camera is at a tilted angle and the main character is off entered.

The diegetic exaggerated sounds make the audience feel how the girl is feeling which is possibly paranoid as she is on her own and its night and in the night your mind plays tricks on you so the exaggerated sound could trick us in to being paranoid and thinking that we are hearing things that aren’t actually there.

The non- diegetic tense music puts the audience on edge as tense music is also a prime convention in horror films so the audience knows that the music means something is going to happen, the sound also sound like tiny high pitched screams , this indicates that whatever is going to happen will definitely not be good.

The music softens when she is in the elevator this signifies that she is now safe and away from all harm, accept when she reaches the destination the elevator takes her there is what looks to be red paint or possibly blood on the back wall of where she is, this could mean that the monster is still there or something bad has happened down there, also the monster came from the ground so maybe the monster lives where she is so she is not safe.

The music picks up again when the girl finds the chest and traces the initials with her hand, the initials are in red so who ever this person is could link to the monster she just encountered as it was red, the music rising could signify danger and the first time the music rose was when she was getting chased by the monster so this could be linking to past events.

In conclusion the scene shows all the correct horror conventions you would expect to see in a horror film.

 

Legend (2015) personal response

Legend (2015)

I enjoyed this film as it was cast well and Tom Hardy who played both twins looked the part and certainly played them as perfectly as we know and remember , I also enjoy learning about gangsters, murderers and criminals in general as its interesting to find out their story and see why they did what they did and what happened to them.

Though this film in a way glorifies the Kray twins too much and says they are legends which is a word we associate with people who have done good things, which the keys did not do as they killed people and people feared them and their gang it is power in the east end , i find it incredibly interesting as it's sort of history even though it's hard to determine what's fact and what's fiction today.

I also enjoy this film as a lot of technical work has been put into it to make it seamless and believable that Tom Hardy was two different people at the same time which amazes me as its so clever and takes modern films to a different level due to the number of technical possibilities we have today also the setting and costumes are perfect for the time era which I also enjoy as its history in a way and the 60s is one of my favourite time periods  because of the fashion was smart and men wore suits all the time and ladies fashion was becoming very modern and different and the film legend captures the fashion perfectly from head to toe.

This film is about gangs and murder but it isn't dark all the way through which I like and I like the way that they use the love story between Reggie and Frances to break up the darkness of the gang and what the twins did during their rise of power in the east end they also break up the darkness with humour but not making it too funny as they want to keep a bit of realism.

As much as I love this film because of what its about and how that interests me, I also love it as it gives us solid evidence of tom hardy talent and his ability to do just about anything which is amazing because some people will of just watched this film purely because tom hardy is in it and nothing to do with the story but because of how well he plays both brothers people seeing the film just because he is in it will enjoy the film a lot more than they expect and they will be educated and get a feel of who the Kray brothers were and how serious they were because he executes playing both the brothers so well its incredible.

Legend was rated 61% on rotten tomatoes which i completely disagree with as it was such a fantastic film and so much work was put in to it by Tom Hardy and the other actors also the technical side as it is so flawless it actually looks like there is two of the same person in one room especially in the fighting scene.