David Lynch's Blue Velvet Analysis

David Lynch’s Blue Velvet Analysis

Blue velvet was directed by David Lynch, an extremely talented director who is known for his surreal outlook to films and dark comedy behind certain scenes. This opening extract to his Blue Velvet is no different.  It begins with surreal fantasy-esque music in the back ground to bright white picket fences and white lilies. The mise-en-scene in this and the couple scenes that follow are all setting the scene to show a calm suburban place. For example the bright blue skies, the firemen driving by in slow motion and smiling. All of this tries to show how the neighborhood we’re looking at is a perfectly normal suburban neighborhood. However being a David Lynch film the audience can expect that this is not all it seems.

However it turns quite sinister as an elderly man watering his flowers soon struggles and dies from what looks like a stroke. Despite this the happy fairy tale-esque music continues to play, creating a contrapuntal effect to throw off the audience. This is the hook of the opening, showing that this town isn’t all as what it seems.  While the elderly man lies dead his dog is drinking the water from his hose enjoying himself as if nothing else happened. This is in slow motion to give the eerie effect that something is wrong, it creates tension eve n in the strangest of conditions. All of it links back to something being wrong. For example when a director wants to show something is off or different from normal life then they may do an astute angle, as seen in The Hobbit poster:

David Lynch does the same thing only with contrapuntal music, slow motion and a dog, instead of an astute angle.

After a long shot of a baby in the background, the dog drinking from the hose and the man’s corpse a tunneling almost POV shot follows under the ground into the darkness until the audience hears the diegetic sound of scurrying. Until soon you see the catacombs of beetles scurrying around. This represents the dark underbelly  of the suburban life, linking back to what was said earlier about nothing being what it seems.

Se7en - Opening Sequence Analysis

David Fincher’s Se7en Analysis

David Fincher is known for his dark and gritty style and this opening sequence follows suit. It’s a dark atmosphere with only one light to suffice for the entire room; you can only see the outline of Summerset for the first few seconds until you see Morgan Freeman and his noire style detective attire. This is David Fincher’s style and it lends itself greatly to the scene. It gives the effect that what they’re doing isn't happy or nice, but it’s life and it’s just another day on the job for Detective Summerset.

Se7en is largely based around iconography of the characters. You have a specific character archetype for all three of the main characters and in the opening scene you see each archetype in great detail but little amount, for example you will see Morgan Freeman questioning whether or not a small child is okay and get laughed at, because that’s what the city does to you. The city is covered in sin, portrayed by rain; another great effect by Fincher. You’ll notice Brad Pitt’s brash attitude towards police work letting the audience know that he’s the student in this scenario and Freeman’s character knows what’s best and could teach him. Finally through the title sequence you will see Kevin Spacey/The killer meticulously planning and journal writing of murders later to come, almost as if it were foreshadowing, warning the audience that these two characters are dealing with a methodical evil mastermind.

In the scene where Freeman’s character Summerset is lying alone is his house the sound tells much more than the dialogue ever could. The diegetic sound throughout is the ticking metronome and the sounds of the city. This is a highly effective technique and tells us so much about the character. For example all you can hear from the city is violence and crime such as sirens and shouting, Freeman’s character uses the metronome in an attempt to block out all of that, block out his work from when he needs rest. Some may consider this selfish but to an isolated man with the years’ experience that Summerset has had, it’s more logical than selfish.

In conclusion the opening sequence of this film uses a range of effective techniques that grabs the audience fright from the start; using some of David Fincher’s iconic film style and the ability to tell a story just by ambient sound. It sets up the archetypes of the characters without making them too stereotypical and sets the dynamic and tone for the rest of the film.

Mission Impossible Analysis

The extract opens with speed ups of a tracking shot through the mountains, this gives the audience a view of the surroundings and shows that the environment is dangerous and hazardous, so when the camera finally zooms into the main protagonist, the audience knows already from the previous shots that he's a thrill seeker.

As he climbs the mountains there are tracking shots that show his every move, these are from a  high angle shot so you get the idea that the camera is a similar height to birds which shows how high Tom Cruise's character is, this also adds to the thrill seeker aspect because of how dangerous it is to be that high. You can also make connotations with the camera height to predatory birds that stay in that height, such as Eagles. This shows that Tom Cruise's character is dangerous and can survive where only eagles and other can survive; in hostile environments.

Frequently throughout the shot there are close ups of his face to show the strain of his activity, however he still carries on despite the strain. This shows that the protagonist is resilient, or as it's a sequel to confirm to the audience that the character hasn't changed and he's still the Ethan Hunt that they saw in the first film. At 1:51 seconds in there is a shot of him struggling against two rocks with each arm out, this is considered Jesus imagery and shows that the main character is the 'messiah' of the film and will be who his 'disciples'  will go to for danger, this is seen later on as the Government send Ethan Hunt on  the mission.

During his climbing there is contrapuntal music throughout, this is to manipulate the audience and confuse them. This carries on all the way until a 'missile' is fired at the main character. The reason why this relates is because the misfile is not dangerous, but instead just a mission for Ethan Hunt to accept in the form of glasses embedded into a missile. The contrapuntal music leading up to this scene is effective because it confuses the audience and throws them off course. Which is what the director wanted, to show the audience from the start that there's going to be twists and turns throughout.

Another example of audience manipulation is the slow motion effect used when he is climbing up. The effect is used when he jumps from gap to the other. The slow motion is to manipulate the audience in thinking that he might not make the jump. It's an effective technique that creates tension and adds emphasis on the main characters skills. However it also done for the audience and keeps them interested in what's happening as it is increasing the anticipation. It also lends a hand in making the direction seem more artistic and cinematic.

The non-diegetic music towards the end of the clip starts to become less contrapuntal and more and more fitting for the title. There are many different stages of this throughout the end of the extract. The first stage. At first the beginning contrapuntal music begins to fade out and then once the audience learns that the missile fired at him was not dangerous, espionage music fitting to the overall theme and institution of the original TV series starts playing. This is to let the audience know that 'holiday' time is over and it's time to start the mission.

Finally at the very end of the extract Ethan Hunt reluctantly accepts the mission after saying ''If I tell you where I am... then it's not a holiday' this dialogue is humorous for a couple reasons. the first is the director wanted to show new fans some character development, showing that Ethan Hunt is a humorous character that can be likeable. Another reason was that John Woo wanted to assure to old fans of the TV series and the first Mission Impossible that he's still the same sharp and quick character as he was before.

To conclude the extract has a wide variety of techniques used to entice the audience and is used effectively. The audience knows from the start what they're in for, a typical John Woo film, however depending on whether or not you like typical action films; this is not a bad thing.