Blade

Today we was shown a 5 minute clip of the opening to the film Blade.

We were told, in the 4 micro element topics, to analyse it.

• Mise-en-scene
• Camera angles/movement
• Editing
• Sound

Analysis

Blade begins with the two characters in a car. It is clear that the woman character has the power. This is shown by way that she squeezes the leg of the man character. By doing this we can see that the man is the submissive character and the woman has all of the control. Furthermore, the idea of control is shown by the way that the woman is driving and only she is able to control where the characters go. This makes the audience feel uneasy as there is a small space between the two characters and we feel intimidated by the woman.

The camera shots that are used are very shaky. This could have been used in order to make the audience feel uneasy and panicked as we could guess that something bad is going to happen. We could feel this because the camera movement could symbolise the shakiness of our bodies when we are scared. Furthermore, at the beginning of this scene there is no establishing shot as it starts in media res. This could imply that something is going to happen as on Todorov's equilibrium there is a build up (disruption) before it is recognised.

Whilst this initial scene is taking place there are titles that have been edited on. The writing used is bold, bright red font which stands out to the audience. This fits with the horror genre as the colour red connotes danger or death which could foreshadow the later events of the bloodbath or symbolise the vampire characters. However the colour red could also connote passion which is shown between both of the characters before they go into the night club when they kiss.

We first get the idea of vampires when the two characters enter the chophouse. Surrounded by dead animals, human bodies wrapped in bags also were shown. The camera angles used here show the bodies taking up the majority of the screen and then switching to the boys face to see his reaction. It then changes to a front on view of the woman to show that she is again in power whilst the boy is distracted behind, at this point we can clearly see that there are human bodies in the body bags. After this when the body guard opens the door to the club we can only see black. This suggests mystery however connotes the idea of danger or death.

In the nightclub the shots have been edited when the girl is dancing by speeding up the shots and cutting each shot quickly. This gives us the idea of vampires being quicker than light. Again as part of the editing technique non diegetic sound has been used when the vampires were preying on the boy. Roars were added over the top to make the vampires animalistic and perhaps to make them sound more scary and more of a threat. Another way that the vampires are related to animals in this extract is the way that the camera pans to show a meat hook hanging up in the club. This suggests to the audience that perhaps the vampires hang up their prey how we hang up animals or could foreshadow events to come. This is supported by the way the the boy is targeted as someone that the vampires want to eat.