Textual analysis of opening of Scream

Sound
During the opening of the film, sound has a major part in building up tension and allows us to categorize the film as a thriller. At the start there is a lot of sounds taking place. There is a constant non-diegetic heart beat mixed with a diegetic phone ring which is suddenly stopped by a non-diegetic scream and knife-stabbing sound effect. The diegetic cricket sound effect playing in the background gives us the idea that the house is in an isolated area so we know that when the character is put in danger, she will have no where to go. In the conversation between the female character and the man on the phone, he says, "So I know who I'm looking at." As he says this, the sound shifts to a dramatic, eerie, non-diegetic track, which increases the tension. As she turns around to check outside, there is a diegetic sound of a dog barking to signify that someone is outside and it heightens the sense of danger. After she hangs up the phone, he rings back and this time the volume of the eerie music increases, along with the sound of boiling popcorn and the phone ringing. Additionally, there is a sort of booming sound which seems as if it is symbolising her fast paced heart beat, or his footsteps tracing him getting closer to her, both of which build up tension. Near the end of the scene, the non diegetic sound starts to speed up which suggests that she is going to try to run away, However, she gets stabbed and a different non diegetic sound plays with an angelic tone which signifies her innocence and that she is dying.


Camera
The camera also plays a significant part in this scene. At the start of the scene, the camera tilts down to the house from a high angle in an establishing shot to symbolise the isolation of the house she is in, therefore she will have nowhere to run to quick enough if anything bad were to happen. This also connotes that she is being watched by someone as it moves down onto the point where she is. The camera starts tracking her as she walks through the house on the phone which points out that she is alone in a big, dark house so she is quite vulnerable to anything at that moment. The camera makes a fast zoom into her face whenever she gets scared to signify that she is in danger and does an eye-line match with her when she sees all the fog outside with no one else there to highlight the danger as she is alone. As she paces around the house frantically, the camera makes a tracking shot, following her at a fast pace to create a sense that she is being followed. The camera makes a close up shot of her face when she cries so that we feel sympathy for her and makes a wide shot when she hides from the man to show her vulnerability. Whilst she is lying on the floor after being stabbed, the camera shows a dtilt angle on the screen from the floor to signify her weakness and as this gives a low and uncomfortable feeling to the audience, we know that she won't survive.


Editing
For editing, there are a lot of switches between shots and it keeps cutting to the woman's eye-line view to a shot of her, along with the sound increasing in tempo which creates tension so we hear it as she sees it. There is an edit of a match on action cut as it cuts from one side of the windohe other as the murderer's face pops up at the window. \This is especially effective as it shows both the frightening mask of the murderer and the terrified facial expression of the actress. We also catch a glimpse of the masked murderer's reflection in the glass. At the end of the scene when the actress gets stabbed to death, we watch this in slow motion which heightens the effect of the murder.


Mise-en-scene
The darkness of the lighting on the house in the woods depicts an isolated area which tells us that the film is a horror. As the female character is blonde and dressed casual, this portrays her naivety as she is engaging in conversation with a with a psychopath.