Case Study 1: Scream

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Camera Shots + Angles:
Close Up shots are used in the opening scene to Scream to show different emotions on the characters face, this is to allow the audience to know how the Character is feeling at a particular moment.
A close up is also used at the start of the film to show the telephone, this shows the importance of the phone call the character is about to get. 
Establishing Shots are also used in the opening sequence to introduce the setting of the film to the audience.
Medium Shots have been used in the opening to Scream so that the audience can get a view of the characters body from the hips up, this is important for the audience to see and understand the characters body language as body language can express a lot about how the character is feeling. 
High angled shots are used in the opening to the film to make the character seem smaller and not very dominant, this makes the character seem more vulnerable.  
Panning is used a lot in the opening sequence to show important things around the room such as knives.


Title:
The opening titles of the sequence represent a lot, the title of the film Scream appears in big bold letters, the title starts of white and then turns red. This portrays that something is going to happen in the film. The color red represents death and danger. The title then zooms out and the screen is red and blurry, this is used to represent blood. 


Sound:
Over the opening titles, non-diegetic screams and sharp sounds are made of which sounds like people getting stabbed. This is used to exemplify something that may happen in the film, it may also be seen as a flash forward to give the audience an idea of how people are killed in the film. The screams are used to connote something that is yet to come in the film. 
The first diegetic sound we hear is a phone ringing, this matches the stereotypical view of somebody getting a scary phone call in a horror movie. 
During the opening both parallel and contrapuntal sound is used to help set the mysterious and scary scene. The music also slowly builds up throughout the scene to show tension. 


Mise-en-scene:
The mise-en-scenein the opening sequence is very important as it helps to set the genre and the story. During the opening scene of Scream, there are some very important things introduced in  the shot such as, a set of knives, this connotes how deaths may occur.


Iconography:
Costume is also very important as we are able to see who the antagonist is, for example in Scream, the antagonist is wearing a mask and also dark colors such as black which is used to represent there dark personality.  

Settings:
There are two settings in the opening of the film Scream, a large house, this exemplifies how the character is made to seem really small in such a large environment. This shows that the character in the house is not very superior and does not have much power.
The other setting shown is the outside of the house, this is very dark and big, this makes the house that the character is in seem very isolated which represents the character being alone. 

Characters:
The opening to this film introduces the monster fodder, the film has stuck to the typical view of where the monster fodder is usually a girl, it also introduces the antagonist.