Film: Saw V
Genre: Horror
Date Released: October 24th 2008 (USA)
Director: David Hackl
Opening two minutes
The film I am going to be deconstructing is Saw V, which was released in 2008. This film genre is a horror. It was given an age certificate of 18 by the BBFC, due to the 'strong bloody violence'. We can tell that the genre for this film is horror from the very beginning, as the opening credits are shown on a background of a bloody wall, with a non diagetic sound of metal scrapping together.
The establishing shot is a long shot of what looks like an old rusty factory door. The first thing we hear as an audience is the crack of thunder in the blackout after the opening credits, this followed by the shot of the door and a flash of lightning. Another diagetic sound we hear is the sound of heavy rain hitting the metal objects outside the door, there is also a faint noise of car horns, suggesting that this may be set in town or city. The shot then starts to zoom into the door but before the sign on the rusty door comes into focus, the shot fades into darkness. this is followed by yet another of the opening credits, again with the same bloody background and noise of metal touching together. the light that wipes across the writing of the credits is in time with the sound of the metal, this may be done to insinuate that the light was the metal.
The next shot of the film is in the room of the rusty door, as the long shot continues to zoom in as if it were one continuous shot, like match on action. the sound of the rain and thunder is still present, all be it quieter, with the rain patting on the windows, which are shown to be covered with plastic sheeting, with time, the sheeting has been torn down. the room is dark, apart from the far wall, which has slits of light shining on it from the slatted windows. There is not much to be seen in the room, but where the light does shine, a body can be seen lying on a table surrounded by a table and a machine. As the camera zooms closer to the body, there is a dark noise, it sound like banging of footsteps, but is the thunder getting louder to build the tension. The shot fades to darkness again.
When the shot reappears, it shows a close up of the legs of the person lying on the table, but the lights shows the legs are bolted to the table. This backs up the viewers thoughts that this is very dark film, as this wouldn't happen in a child's film. The sound does not change, but to build the tensions a incidental sound gradually gets louder, then a large crack of thunder is heard. The camera shot tracks the body up, we can see the body start to breath faster and louder, the camera then passes a machine, then fades into another opening credit, yet again the sound of metal and a bloody backgrounds appears for the last opening credit. As the shot comes back to screen, a birds eye view shot is shown of the man's face, as he starts to panic the lights switch on with non diagetic synchronous sound of lights coming on. We can also hear the diagetic sound of the hand and feet chains, as the man panics and tries to get free. Before the shot turns to a close up of each of the feet, there is an arc shot of the man trying to pull the chain off his neck. The next shot starts a reverse zoom, but as it is zooming out it turns the camera to a long shot to show the whole body on the table. A match on action shot is used to cross the room, but the actions of the man stay the same, this is creating verisimilitude. This is a long shot at a high angle to show the whole room, this shot may be used, to tell the viewer that no matter how loud he calls out no one can hear him, it also shows the dark damp conditions of the room he is in, which may mean that it has not been used in many years that is why its a safe place to keep him. The incidental non diegetic sound continues to play, this is used to build tension.
The shot then jump cuts straight back to the man's upper body in a mid shot. Then an arc shot is used to move from the panicking man to the television screen. Then that shot jump cuts to a close up of the television screen, as the screen is focusing there is a crackling noise that silences the thunder for a few seconds. The man's face and the television exchange a few shot reverse shots. the next shot shown is a worm's eye shot looking over the man's body to focus on the television screen. While we can hear the voice of the man on the television, we can still hear the heavily breathing man on the table still trying to break free. Shot reverse shot is used in the next few shot to show the chained up man's reaction to what the man on the television is saying. A non diagetic sound is heard in the background, it sounds like a heartbeat, although it is faint the viewer can still hear it as it is mirrors the heartbeat of the viewer as they don't know what is going to happen.
The man on the table starts to listen to the man on the television as he know that he wont be able to get out without do what he says. We as viewers of the film feel sympathy for the man on the table as we believe that he hasn't done anything wrong to deserve this, the tension of the first two minutes of this film clearly shows what the whole film is going to be about. Under the voice of the man on the television we can still hear the non diagetic sound.
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