AS Media Studies, film opening evaluation no.1

1. The story plot
the story of Charlie is all about a little
girl who after her brother "pushes" her
awakens from death only to haunt the
rest of his life and any other person
who dares to venture into the
treehouse. The film opening was an
insight as to how it all happened. like a
prologue of a book. it tells you key
information relevant to the rest of the
story.
The opening scene is of the character
Rosie peering in on Charlie's life, she
continues to follow him without his
knowledge, thus signifying to the
audience of how she is always within
his life even when he is unaware of it.
Another part of the opening that
signifies her impact on his life is when
she scares Charlie with a “boo”, this
literally shows the rest of the film but
in less horrifying circumstances.

2. Music and special effects
The music and special effects used
helped us to convey our genre and
emotions within the film opening. For
example Set It Offs the Haunting’s
lyrics “dirty secrets hidden memories
and broken harts across the floor.”
signifies the lies and the heartbreak
Rosie causes the family to suffer after
her death.
Another use of sound as a special
effect was the ‘drone’ noise. The noise
is heard when the character Charlie is
leaning over the side of the treehouse
to see the dead/not dead body of his
sister. The drone symbolises the
thought process of Charlie, he’s in
horror of what he just did/witnessed
and so the noise symbolises that time
has stopped for him and his mind is
trying to process what just happened.

3. Props and costume
The props used were for bens
character only, this was his
headphones, they are used to
symbolise how he distances himself
from the world and others around him.
They also help is to incorporate the
music into the film opening smoothly.
The costumes for Rosie and Charlie are
supposed to be polar opposites to
symbolise their characters differences,
Charlie’s clothes were to be black and
dark, his makeup was pale and the
eyes and cheekbones were shaded to
make them more pronounced,
whereas Rosie's clothing was bright
and childlike with patterns and
splashes of bright colour, her scarf in
particular was especially bright. These
clothes were supposed to symbolise
how she appears innocent but like a
poison apple she has the power to kill
deep within her.
Totally looks like.

4. Shot 1
The first scene we see of Charlie (ben)
is of him having a family dispute with
his mother, he is the stereotypical
‘distressed teen’ dark clothes,
malnourished and a tendency to shout
a lot. I based this character on
‘Dominik’ from a film called ‘the
suicide room’. Both hold a darker more
evil side, it makes the character
appear nasty, however there is also a
side of them that is happy and less
evil, this is what I believe leaves the
audience confused on whether Charlie
pushed his sister or tried to save her.
Within the suicide room the characters
dispute with his parents leads him to
do horrible things to himself and
others. Much like the character of
Charlie.

5. Shot 2
Introducing the character of “Rosie”,
we first see her with a close-up shot of
her peeking through a door. Showing
the characters thirst for knowledge of
what is going on, she is nosy and
intruding on a private conversation,
the worried expression also shows us
that she is aware of her broken family.
This is used in films such as the first
harry potter movie. Harry is seen
spying on a conversation between his
aunt and uncle, this helps the
audience understand more about his
nosy character, he wishes to learn
more about the world around him.
The shot of him peeking though a
closed door like our character “Rosie”
suggests that they are wishing to be a
part of another life.

6. Shot 3
The low angle shot of “Rosie”
following "Charlie" to create
tension and to create a smooth
transaction between two
settings. he’s being followed
but because we cannot see her
face, it is slightly disturbing.
The same effect is used in
many horror movies where the
character is hiding and a foot
shot is used to establish that
they are not alone.
For example in the walking
dead a young girl is seen hiding
from the zombies, but all we
see is the zombies feet.

7. Shot 4
The camera used is a hand held, this
choice of camerawork was decided
when Taylor and I were looking at
thriller movies and discovered the
better thrillers were the ones that
involved you in the suspense of the
scene. This effect was created by using
a handheld camera, it is because the
wobbly film effect it bring the
audience closer because it feels as
though they are running along with
her.
This effect is used in many thrillers for
example within James bod they use
over the shoulder shots in many if all
of the car/vehicle/chase scenes.

8. Shot 5
Low angle shot of the treehouse to give
the audience a sense that something bad
is about to happen. And to show the
location of the action. The low angle shot
does this to show how high the
treehouse is, and also personifies it by
giving it a feeling of power.
We chose the location of a treehouse
because it symbolised innocence,
however this specific treehouse is rotting
away, its dying and so it gave of a sinister
atmosphere. It is also pathetic falisy in
reference to ““Rosie””.
Low angle shots of buildings and
locations or objects are used to show the
audience that it is important within
upcoming events and it holds power over
what will happen next.
For example: low angle shot of harry
potter with his new wand, showing us
that the wand is a powerful object in
terms of the story. This is also relevant in
hotel Transylvania

9. Shot 6
The dark shadow, silhouette of
Rosie and the stairs. Forebodes the
character literally climbing to her
death. It also implies that later on
in the movie she is an evil
character. The silhouette lighting
signifies the characters evil
intentions this is also evident
within the film psycho –shower
scene- the darkened figure
represents an evil presence.
The shadow and dark colours in
the shot signify the evil about to
happen. We tried to shoot as much
as possible with dark lighting and
clothes to also help to represent
this.

10. Shot 7
Our Genre is a thriller, and the opening
suggests this in a subtle way. For
example at the end of the film opening
we see the character of Rosie fall off a
treehouse and survive, thus
symbolising she is something more
than a normal human child.
She survives the fall and whispers the
name of her brother telling the
audience her victims name and also
who we will be following within the
film, many thrillers will base
themselves around one character and
their story of either how they die or
how they survive.
Charlie is a thriller and we use the
opening to suggest this by making it
clear to the audience that we are not
dealing with a normal little girl.
The film psycho uses the same shot to show the
audience the slow death of the character.

11. Shot 8
the title of Charlie appears at the end
of the opening credits rather than at
the beginning this is because we
wanted to make clear the scene the
audience had just witnessed had been
a past event. The credits are on a
white backdrop symbolising Rosie
heading ‘towards the light’ after
death. The actual title is of the
character Charlie's name, the reason
behind this is because he is the main
reason for Rosie's revengeful ghostly
appearances.
The lettering was bold and the motion
was for it to shake much like many
other horror/thriller films opening
titles, the shaking effect of the
lettering symbolises the theme of fear
within the genre of horror and thriller.
The film seven (based on the seven
deadly sins) uses this shaking effect on
the lettering to symbolise the same
thing.