Oculus in depth analysis
- 1. In Depth Analysis of One Teaser Trailer Director: Mike Flanagan Release Date: 11 of April, 2014
- 2. In this PowerPoint you will find that I have selected certain scenes of the teaser trailer called Oculus because I believe they are important scenes that provide some insight into the type of movie that Oculus could be. On the left hand side you would find a long-shot of an object being covered with what seems to be a piece of material. This connotes that the covered object is covered deliberately to produce a sense of mystery and create curiosity to what the object is towards the audience. The colour scheme created in the scene is quite dark, creating uneasiness and the light being focused on the object, connotes that the director done this deliberately to draw the attention of the audience towards the mysterious object. Also, the colour scheme portrays that the genre of the film is thriller/horror because of the dark colours and the setting of the scene seeming to be an attic, which is dusty and creates an uncomfortable atmosphere. Right after the above shot, straight away it goes on to showing that the producer who made Oculus has also made other successful films, that the audience would be familiar with. These films are called Paranormal Activity and Insidious. The font of the film titles are in capital letters, to make them stand out to the audience and are bigger then the other piece of writing; for example, ‘produce of’. The colour of the writing is white and the background is black, to make the writing stand out and clear. The titles of the film are placed there purposely to attract the audience that have seen the films before to watch the upcoming film (Oculus).
- 3. The image on the left shows a long shot of the white piece of materiel having dropped on the floor and the mystery object is revealed (a Mirror). The shot is created so that the audience focuses on the mirror, which connotes that the film is going to be about a mirror and considering that the scene is set in the attic, it could mean that the mirror is old and hasn’t been touched for a long time. Usually things placed in the attic are unwanted and have been there for a long time. The colour scheme has remained dark and continues to create an uneasy atmosphere; however, the bright light has also remained near the mirror to draw the attention toward the mirror. The props used in the scene, seem to be old; for example, the crate on the bottom-left hand corner, which is also half covered, as some of the other props used in the setting. There are also leaves on the floor, which connotes that there hasn’t been any who has visited the attic in ages or the attic would be cleaner and tidier.The image on the right is a mid-shot of a young girl and a boy standing behind her. The female character is standing in front of the male character, which connotes that she is trying to protect him from something that she is looking at because her face is looking straight ahead. I chose this shot because of the character facial expressions, which connote that they are worried or scared. The dark background adds to the idea that there is something wicked happening in the scene; dark colour connotes evil, mystery and danger. The audience is not able to see what the female character is looking at, which means it creates a sense of mystery in the scene. The characters costume are casual house wear, as the female
- 4. I have chosen this scene on the left because in the teaser a female character see’s something move underneath the pieces of material, which startles and frightens her. This is done deliberately in order to create a similar feeling for the audience, as they watch the film and almost being in the characters place seeing something move creates unease. The scene is placed in the teaser trailer, to allow the audience to be aware that there are going to be scare scenes, were the audience is going to feel uncomfortable and getting prepared to get scared. The setting of the scene s in a room full of a variety of things; however, the objects the pieces of material on them stand out the most because they are the only things covered and that move. The lightening is quite dark but has light on the main things, that the director wanted the audience to focus on. After the above scene it straight away cuts to the setting in the attic; a slowly zooming-in shot of the mirror. As the camera is zooming in, the mirror begins to let out a red type of liquid, which connotes that it is blood because of the colour red. The mirror is presented to be a more dangerous item, due to it having blood going down. Blood connotes danger, someone being hurt, evil and pain. This portrays that the film is going to be based on the mirror having something wicked inside; for example, a curse or an evil spirit. The lightening of the scene is a dark background and only a spec of light focusing on mid-way of the mirror, which is done so that the audience draws their attention straight to the mirror.
- 5. After a few scenes there is a transition back to the mirror, but this time it is zoomed in on a piece of the mirror, were the blood is running down and creating a letter ‘S’. This connotes that it is creating a title and that the director wanted to make the title look unusual, dangerous and scary by making the title of blood forming the letters. The colour red brings in the sense of pain, danger, blood and violence. This connotes that in the film there is going to be violence or that someone is going to be hurt and that there is going to be blood. The letter ‘S’ is in focus and the background is slightly blurred, which connotes that the director wanted the focus to be on the first letter appearing on the mirror and that the audience would be concentrating on the letter being created in blood. Following on from the above image, the image on the right is when the title of the film is created and is in full focus to the audience eye. The font of the title is large, bold and the colour is white, which connotes it is done purposely so that the title stand out from the dark background and is easily readable and focused on. The red blood remains flowing downwards the mirror, which continues to create an unsettling atmosphere and a sense of danger. This furthermore portrays that the film is a horror genre based and will have scenes of violence and characters either dying, due to the blood flow of the mirror or being tortured.
- 6. Straight after the previous scene it cuts to a scene of a women standing in front of the mirror or that the female character appears to be inside of the mirror. The character has an evil expression on her face and seems to be watching straight ahead, as if she is watching the audience, which creates unease. The character in the mirror is portrayed as an antagonist because her face is shadowed, and her eyes seem to be completely white, which connotes that she is evil. The lightening of the scene is quite dark, even the character’s most of the body is overshadowed by the dark, creating mystery of who the character is and why she might be there. The costume that the character is wearing (white shirt), connotes that she might have been pure and good; however, her facial expression overshadows that idea and represents her as the antagonist character of the teaser trailer. This is the last scene of the teaser trailer, showing that the film is going to be out soon and below the production companies that helped create the film. For example, Relativity. Below the COMING SOON, there is a tag line (SeeYourEvil) in red font, which relates to the colour of the title and portrays that the film is horror based and the word evil, connotes that the film is based on something being wicked.
- 7. Sound The sound of the teaser trailer begins with some swooshing sound; sound of the wind and a background music, which is low and barely hearable. The sound of the music includes a rattling sound. After a number of seconds you hear a young females voice, talking about the mirror (‘see the mirror hanging there’). Her voice is calm and even but afterwards the music changes and creates tension for a few second before cutting the music off completely. It stops completely because it is showing quick cuts between different scenes of the film; however, afterwards again the young girls voice appears and she continues to talk. There are swishing sounds again throughout the voiceover of the girl. The main focus of the sound is the young girls voice talking about the mirror.