Textual analysis - Conjuring

Textual analysis

Conjuring analysis

The location of this opening scene is a small room where an interview of paranormal activity is being discussed. I’m not to sure where the scene is based but I can see that they are sitting in a dim room being filmed.

At the very start of the opening scene the people are talking and the screen is dark. The video camera has obviously not started recording yet as it all of a sudden it clicks and a jump cut is used to start it off. The doll is placed in the corner of the opening showing a slight glimpse of her face, this gives the audience a clue into what is about to come. The camera then fades out from the doll giving us more detail of her small fragile face then jumping to the 2 girls and lad sitting on the sofa being interviewed. The camera starts with a side shot of all three of their faces as they begin to talk. The camera then jumps to a front view of the three slowly zooming out as they speak about their experience.  

Later on in the scene the 2 girls go back to their apartment where they find a letter on the floor with ‘miss me?’ on it. The two girls look at each other then look down the hallway finding the doll sitting in the hallway with its back pressed up the wall as if it was waiting for them. The girls then freak out and one takes the doll and chucks it in the bin. The camera here is above the girl showing her chuck the doll, this shows that the girl is powerful as she’s the bigger person and the doll is presented as small as she is being thrown away. The scene continues with the girls being woken by a loud knocking of the door. They both exit their bedrooms and look down the hall way and make there way towards the door. The girl opens the door with the camera behind her jumping the a close up of her face as she looks out the door and looks down finding another ‘miss me?’ letter. The door then knocks again and the other girl opens the spare room door to find the doll sitting waiting.

After that the scene jumps back to the interview between the 2 girls, man and the two ghost hunters discussing what has happened and why.

Throughout the opening scene there is non diegetic sound being played, this is when a sound/music is being played in the background, the audience can hear this but the actors cant.

During start and end of the opening scene there are no titles being shown apart from the film productions before the film begins, this is because this is an insight before the film actually begins taking us back to where the doll came from and where it all started.

The characterisation is evident; in this scene we see five people and a doll. Three are women and two are men. The two women on the couch being interviewed seem to be younger that the women interviewing them. Same with the man being interviewed. The two interviewers are a couple and the three people on the couch are friends, the two girls seem to be closer compared to the lad.

The mise on scene of this sequence shows very low lighting making the scene tense and dramatic. The props lead us into thinking about the genre and the narrative of the film as dolls and letters show the conventions of a typical horror. The colour and tone of the film is dark and dim linking back into the genre. 

The camera angles and shots throughout the opening scene change frequently showing editing skills. In terms of editing the editor has used fast and slow jump cuts in and out. This makes the fast parts dramatic and the slower parts tense.