Research-Analyzing 2 opening scenes

 Hello everyone! Welcome back to my blog. Today, I will be analyzing two opening scenes from two horror movies. The movies The Conjuring and The Black Phone.

In the first 2 minutes of The Conjuring (2013), director James Wan uses many close-ups and low-key lighting to automatically create a sense of fear. The film opens inside a dark room with the Anabelle doll, followed by paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine, explaining the case. This scene already creates a sense of fear and realism before the actual haunting arrives. It starts with a slow fade-in from black to a close-up shot of Anabelle. The close-up shot forces the audience to pay more attention, and shallow depth makes the background blurry, so the camera focuses only on the doll. This scene immediately unsettles the viewer and tells that ordinary objects, like a doll, can be threatening. 

The camera uses slow, deliberate zooms and pans rather than quick movement. For example, when the Warrens are introduced, the camera slowly tracks toward them as they are speaking. The techniques that were used were slow zooms to increase unease and minimal movement to avoid jump scares early on in the movie. In terms of lighting and color, the lighting is low-key, with heavy shadows very small amount of lighting sources. Warm light is used; it's from lamps, but it creates an uneven illumination. These create a claustrophobic and realistic atmosphere, which makes the supernatural feel more believable. 

The opening uses diegetic dialogue (the Warrens explaining the case). It also uses ambient sound, sound bridges, and minimal music. This makes the audience feel tense and alert. The scenes consisted of slow editing with long takes. There were only a few cuts, which allows the tension to come naturally. Cuts are usually only used when something new is about to come in. The slow pace reinforces realism, which makes the horror feel more disturbing. The introduction of authority (Ed and Lorraine) makes the audience feel like the story is more real and serious. They are framed in medium shots, and the camera is placed at them at eye level, which can build trust and credibility. 

In the opening of The Black Phone, it starts during a league baseball game, with wide and mid shots that show the kids playing. These shots are bright and can establish a sense of everyday life. The camera is calm and steady, which gives the audience a sense of a safe place. The wide shots are used to show the setting, while the mid shots are used to follow characters and actions. During the game, we see Finney pitching at the game, which was shot with a medium close-up on his arm. Then we can see Bruce scoring and celebrate. These shots automatically build up some tension between the boys and can tell the audience the roles of these boys are without anything scary happening. Cut-ins are used to show action like pitching or celebrating. They also used slow tracking to capture movements across the field. The use of panning shots throughout the game was crucial because the audience got to follow and see the game. Tracking shots were also used to move alongside the players. The lighting was high-key lighting, which creates a sense of innocence, youth, and safety. The sound was mostly diegetic because there was a lot of crowd chatter and cracks of a bat. 

Reflection:

I discovered how various filming methods may drastically alter a horror film's tone and vibe from beginning to end by examining these two openings. The Black Phone begins with a calm, everyday scene that increases the effect of the next horror, but The Conjuring uses dark lighting and slow camera movement to create anxiety right away. In general, I discovered that directors purposefully employ lighting, sound, and camera techniques to manipulate the audience's emotions.