Wednesday 23 October 2013

'Ghost Ship' Deconstruction

The sequence I will be deconstructing for typography and sound is the opening of 'Ghost Ship'.


Typography




The font is bright pink in colour and looks kitsch and retro as font like this was used in many films circa the 60's and 70's. This is synchronous with the film opening as the opening scene is set in 1962. The bright colour and swooping font conveys a sense of fun, which lulls the audience into a false sense of security as 'Ghost Ship' is a horror film and the tense atmosphere is not made apparent in the first couple of minutes of the opening, making the impending horror even more impactful on the audience.

Sound
The sequence begins with off-screen diegetic music compromised of high strings and piano that is synchronous with a panning shot of a cruise ship. In the next scene the diegetic sound of a woman singing a slow love song is onscreen and synchronous with shots of the singer and people dancing to the music on the ship's deck,creating a relaxed and romantic atmosphere. The singing is overlapped with the diegetic sound of people's general chatter in one scene, reinforcing the relaxed social atmosphere and keeping the audience unprepared for the horror soon to come. Later on in the sequence the now off-screen singing is overlapped with eerie non diegetic music and diegetic sounds of levers cranking and whirring and metal wire grating against more metal. These harsh sounds juxtapose the calm singing and interrupt the previously happy atmosphere while the background music creates a sinister undertone to the singing, foreshadowing the impending horror. The background music intensifies, gradually getting louder than the singing and comprising of tense high string instruments and echoing wind instruments, creating tension and dissipating the previous atmosphere as it's made clear to the audience that something terrible is about to happen. The diegetic sound of metal wire unravelling, snapping and slicing through the air, furniture, and eventually the bodies of the people dancing on the deck overlaps the non diegetic music, followed by the wire vibrating with tension which is synchronous to the sinister background music that has now completely drowned out the previous singing. As a result, the mood from the beginning of the sequence has now changed into a tense, frightening one synchronous with the gory action happening onscreen. The non diegetic background music quietens to a high synthesised note that is overlapped by the grating diegetic sound of the wire swinging back and forth, followed by blood splattering on the floor and people's bodies hitting the floor from where the wire has cut them in half. The last notable sound is of a young girl (the only survivor of the incident) screaming shrilly; the sound of the scream is edited so it sounds slightly echoed which has sinister, supernatural connotations and so is appropriate for the film genre.

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