American Horror Story Hotel opening credits deconstruction

American Horror Story Hotel: opening credits

The purpose of this task was to do a deconstruction of an opening credits, as inspiration which lets us explore the horror genre and the importance of genre appropriation.  

    

Lighting

shadows: 

One particular feature of the opening, that I thought was effective, was the manipulation of shadows to make the opening more eerie and sinister. I liked how the shadows appeared around the out sides and edges, which gives the frame a keyhole-like effect. 
 

 This cleverly mimics the theme of the series, which is based in a hotel. But also makes the scene appear to be enclosed in, making the subjects visually claustrophobic, generating the sense of suffocation or danger.        

Low key lighting:

Low key lighting conforms to the common conventions of the horror genre, as it creates mystery and the single source of light acts as a spotlight so the focus is on the blood on the carpet.   

Mise-en-scene

Blood:

A frequent use of blood is used in the maid scene, and is repeated throughout the opening credits.  

Dripping blood and the pool signifies murder and danger as it suggests overkill, paired with low lighting lends a fear factor to the scene.    

Rooms:

Long barren corridors with no foreseeable end, and barely any lighting adds to the feel of claustrophobic surroundings and endows a sense of entrapment with no escape.   

 Bare walls, where plaster is flaking off makes them seem as though the building has been abandoned, leaving it exposed.

Sound

Non-diegetic soundtrack that plays throughout is a distorted piece which has a recurring stringed, staccato rhythm with occasional metallic screeching noises. This complements the static, fast editing, and quick pace of the opening sequence which develops its creepy feel.    

Editing 

Fast pace: 

There are many cuts from one scene to another, but the one that stood out was this example of the mattress, where many cuts of are edited together to make a fast pace motif, which gives it a jittering effect.  

Between all the frames, it suddenly zooms out with each shot, were we see a transformation of the innocent-looking child to the disturbing stages of creature emerging out of the hole in the mattress. The quick change, heightens the horror presented in this scene.

Nothing is really in frame for very long which imitates jump scares.       

Camera angles

I noticed that when a subjects was fully in frame it was viewed through the keyhole, however when there is a close up to something close-up shot is always full frame. This acts as a way to hide the identities of those in the scene, so that they may remain an enigma which fuels the eerie feel of the opening credits.

Typography

The typography for season 5 Hotel titles still looks like the original font of the logo, but this time it's made to look like a motel sign, which matches the theme of the series.
Sans serif font implies that the show itself is quite a contemporary form of horror, which isn't so much focused on religion as this would have been serif font.  

Conclusion

Though my group in particular are not doing horror, American Horror Story-Hotel showed me that you can still make an effective film opening of a different format. However, the success is based on the appropriate use of filming and editing so the opening adheres to the genre, so in my case, Film noir or neo-noir. 

  

Se7en opening credits deconstruction

Se7en opening credits deconstruction

Inspiration horror

The opening credits to Se7en uses many techniques to make it effective so it adheres to the genre of psychological horror. 

Lighting

The low lighting seems to be from one source and seems to be from one source, shadows are created and often move around suggesting that the setting is in a reclusive place and that someone unseen is moving around in the space, as if the subject is hiding away which makes it more sinister. 

Mise-en-scene 

Obsessive behaviour is displayed through showing the character frequently writing, cutting out and highlighting various biblical verses, with extreme close ups on the word "God". This effectively establishes the nature of the obsession with religion, which is common in most serial killers. 

 The images are often disoriented which develops the understanding of this person's character, as it represents them to have a distorted mind leading us to believe that they are a psychopath.

In addition, their macabre intentions are clearly displayed with the use of the razor cutting away their finger prints implying that they don't want to be caught for something they are about to do, which lends to the tension created. 

Close ups and extreme close ups of cut outs images from what seems to be an anatomy book as well as the hands are used to conceal the identity of the character as they are not fully in frame, which intensifies the mystery before the first scene even starts. 

Another effective feature of the opening credits which I found interesting was the fast paced editing creates a detachedness with the abundance of jump cuts, building on tension and mystery because we always see snippets of the character.

Sound

An appropriate use of non-diegetic sound becomes a prominent part of the opening credits, as a constant low ominous beat plays throughout to, potentially mimic a heartbeat . What seems to be a clattering and scratching of metal, and distorted screeching of a disk generates an eerie sound.This plays on repeat throughout the opening credits. 

Typography

The lanky sans serif font emulates the handwriting style that the character has, which makes it the actors and those part of production become more involved, adopting the theme of obsession. 
    

All of this follows conventions of a psychological horror as it plays on the audience's through our anticipation and fear.       

   

 

Creating a production company introduction sequence

"Rouge Anecdotes Films"  

In the making:

I decided on using playing cards as a motif, which is common in Film noir films as my opening sequence:
1. First of all I started by setting up by laying out scrap paper against a wall in my conservatory as I wanted the wall to be in the background to convey an industrial underground setting.   

2. I next used a dark pink food colouring and tested the colour, as this would be my blood for the introduction, which I would flick onto the cards, with the paintbrush, to create a gunshot blood splatter effect.    

3. When filming my first attempt, I slowly dropped the cards and was happy with the way it fell and the diegetic sound it made.  



4. However when I used the blood I found that it didn't show up very well and was unsatisfied with the outcome.

  



 5.As a result I moved in closer but I already liked the bloody effect on the cards. So I used this and flicked the food colouring onto the cards again.   

6 .In VideoPad editor I played around with the effects on the video effects tool to see different ways I could make this more appropriate for a Film Noir genre. Firstly I tried to enhance the red but the rest of the cards still wouldn't show up at all.   

  

7. Making the whole thing darker and suturing the image more generated a Film Noir feel.  

8. Blurring out the edges I made the cards seem more sinister and dark and thought this was effective for my introduction. After this I used a gunshot sound effect and it's shell falling as the splatter of blood was shown in frame, emphasising the gunshot splatters and making it more realistic and dramatic.    

9. Using the text tool I added "Rouge Anecdotes Films" as the name of the company to the side of the frame so it doesn't block the cards. Though I made it fade out later on so the gunshot can be heard and seen, making that the focus of the introduction instead as this made it more dramatically effective. 

Final product:

Evaluation 

Improvements and developments:

I could make on this would be to remake this with a fresh pack of cards for full impact of the gunshot effect, rather than keeping the blood on the cards already, so I can compare which one looked better.

Also, I could have tried to use final cut to edit the clip however as I did this at home and don't have a Mac, I resorted to the next best thing.   

What went well:

The filming itself was simple to do and easy to put together, and once it all came together it worked well. I believe that using cards is an appropriate motif for the film noir/ neo noir genre. Therefore, would be suitable for the filming of our opening scene.