Analysing opening scenes-The conjuring

Analysing opening scenes-The conjuring

the conjuring starts off by showing us the company logos of Warner bro's studio's and new line cinema to give the audience the idea of what to expect from the movie. Both companies are well known so people automatically expect the movie to live up to certain standards and to be able to do certain stuff which all horror movies can, stuff like jump-scares, tension and an overall spooky feel is what people expect from a horror movie, especially one made by such good companies.

Sound is used very effectively during the opening 30-35 seconds of the film because it starts us off with a black screen with the diegetic sound of people talking in the background, this creates a sense of mysteriousness about the people and makes the audience think about whether or not these people are the main characters or not. It is also very effective because it doesn't use any music and so the audience member's undivided attention is on the voices of the people speaking and what they are saying. This automatically involves the audience member because it makes them think simple thoughts like "its a girls voice", "their talking about possession" and other general thoughts to help the members of the audience feel more connected to the character in the film through what they hear rather than what they see.

After this we hear a loud knock on the door 5 times in succession twice at a generally even spacing between each knock, however when the character has opened the door and picked up the not it knocks three times louder, quicker and more aggressively and also adds what sounds like children laughing to add to the atmosphere created by the silence after the knocking.

The sound during the whole scene is mainly diegetic sound with the dialogue, knocking, objects moving, doors opening etc. however it has a limited amount of non-diegetic sound used, for example when we see the doll behind the door there is a bit of music played not very loudly but enough for us to realise that it is there and the same when the guy says he can help them there is a subtle piece of music maybe trying to make us think its not a good idea to involve this guy.

The first shot we see is of what we assume to be the problem these people are facing, it starts of with a close up of a the right side of a creepy dolls face, this implants the message into are head just by the way the doll looks that there's something not right about it and the fact that the shot was a close up shot makes us feel like the doll has to be significant for us to view it in such detail. It also still hasn't any music because the dialogue is still happening, this doesn't create the usual sense of tension rather a sense of uneasiness. 

they use an over the shoulder shot when the people read the notes so that the audience tend to think that they are in scene and they are the person standing behind the main character and looking down on the note,

they use long shots when showing the doll to give us the idea that its still quite far away but still too close for comfort, there also seems to be a general trend that everyone time they show the doll in the movie it gets closer and closer to the people and the view of the doll gets closer from a long shot to a close up. They also keep using a view where we look straight ahead at the person to try and get it to feel like that character is talking directly to you and you to them. This makes the audience feel like they are more involved in the movie and therefore get more engrossed into the film.

an enigma code is used at the end when the the lady who we presume is one of the less important characters who are just there to ask questions so the audience don't get lost on what's happening asks "can you help us" to which the man reply'

s "yes we can", this exchange of words is a bit strange because at the moment all the doll has done is scratch a few photo frames and so isn't much of a danger yet they still looked for professional help, strange seeing this doll hasn't said or done anything to hurt them in anyway and is only trying to scare them for whatever reason it has but yet they still look for professional help instead of just destroying it by burning it or hitting with an axe or any other method which could get rid of it.