Scream Analysis

How is gender represented in this opening?

The protagonist in the opening of blade is in a cream jumper, she has blonde hair and wears minimal make-up the fact that she has a cream jumper on represents that she is innocent, her hair also ads to the look of innocence. The representation of her at first glance is that she is vulnerable. Although she is wearing minimal makeup her lips stick out, as she has lipstick on this sexualises her, as lips are a very sexual part of the face. In addition, when we see the house it's adds to her look of innocence as it is a very big, white house. The fact that her house is white represents the fact that she is innocent, we also see that the house is in the middle of nowhere and this tells the audience that she is isolated from the outside world, and she is vulnerable as she is by herself.

In addition, Drew Barrymore is represented by being very desirous of her security has we often see her locking her doors, however her doors  are glass and so the audience can therefore the audience can take pleasure in her lack of intelligence as if someone was to break in they would simply smash the glass. Once she has locked her back doors, we have a shot of her from outside the doors and in the background is a picture of what looks to be castle, this may represent a damsel in distressed as she needs saving from the unknown. This is also shown again when she looks out of her front door, it looks like she is caged in, like a prison, and she can’t get out, this represents her to be weak and she can’t escape, she is also very emotion at this point and has been crying seconds before.

Furthermore, the first piece of non-diegetic sound we hear after the titles is a scream, it sounds like a women screaming and she seems very distressed. This conveys to the audience that, the main character in the film will most properly be a women. From stereotypes we understand from the scream sound that, she is very emotional women. This scream sound foreshadows what is going to happen in the film, after the scream you hear a sharp knife sound, this also foreshadows what will happen in the film. So the two piece’s of non-diegetic both hint what is going to happen throughout the film.  

Furthermore, dialogue drives the narrative of the opening of scream. At the start of the opening, Drew Barrymore is very flirtatious over the phone with a man she has never met before and she is very talkative, this soon changes as the man over the phone becomes very strange, and starts to scare Drew Barrymore. When he starts getting aggressive, she becomes very weak and starts getting emotional, as a stereotypical women would,she goes from being very confident at the start of the phone call to becoming very pathetic and weak when the man on the phone gets angry with her.

The first shot we see is a tilted angle of the phone ringing it then pans up Drew Barrymore, the camera stop on a tilted shot of Drew Barrymore's face, in the background you can see glass doors, this is conveying to the audience that she is weak, as glass is easy to smash and you can see straight through it, so it makes her weak in the situation. This happens a lot throughout the opening of the film.

Moreover, when Drew Barrymore is talking on the phone with this man, at the starts it tracks her and isn’t zoomed in, but at as soon as he begins to get angry and aggressive it zooms into her face to show her reaction, as her facial expressions change and that's when the opening starts to build tension and it starts with her reaction to what he said to her.

Additionally, the beginning of the film starts with red titles this foreshadows that something bad it going to happen. Dimension is working in synergy with Miramax, and they both start with a black screen. When the title of the film comes onto screen it starts of in white, and the flashes to red, as the viewer you see, this red flash on your screen and then  the films starts, thi is to show that someone will die in the film or something bad is going to happen.

Throughout, the opening of ‘Scream’ they are lots of long- length shots and they are slowed paces, they are edited to be slow and long as that builds tension throughout the opening so the audience is getting more and more agitated watching the tension build and then the tension ends and face paced editing, makes it seem more frantic.