SAW II opening research

SAW II made in 2005 and a sequel to Saw is a horror film directed by Darren Lynn Bousman. Many codes and conventions suggest the genre of the Saw II (Sound, lighting, props, camera angles, setting, edits, plots and characters). The opening will be used as an example.

The sound in Saw II mixes both diegetic and non-diegetic to create fear, tension and to pace the opening. The diegetic sound echoes throughout the opening of the film, this shows the audience that the room the main character is in, is a chilling, empty room with nobody around to help this man (Michael Marks). When the shot first opens, the audience hears heavy struggling breathing while the camera looks around the room, giving a first person feel and the beat suggests that the character is in danger straight away. The sound coming from the character on the television(Jigsaw)is all diegetic and a crackling noise repeatedly playing with the sound inside the television helps to build up the fear in the opening. The volume of the ticking clock has been raised to emphasise the little amount of time the character has left to live and to pace the one minute the character has left to escape. The non-diegetic sound that has been used creates an unnerving atmosphere, when the first shot opens, laughter is heard, but in a high pitch voice from a doll, also a wind noise is used to build up suspense in this is a metallic noise as well to suggest more in the setting. When the trap is shown to the audience another metallic sound is used to emphasise the sharp spikes Michael is in danger of. A typical convention used in a horror film is a quick sudden non-diegetic noise used to startle the viewer, in Saw II this is when the television first turns on showing an image of the character Jigsaw. More sudden noises are then added when the audience get a quick glimpse of Michael's only escape this is used to gross out the viewer with the sick idea of what will happen. The final noticeable non-diegetic convention that has been used is a delay in sound from the camera, while the camera moves around Michael the sound is late to follow, this builds up a lot of suspense as the audience would suspect something to startle them, but unknown of when it will happen.

The lighting plays a very important role in the opening to Saw II, it is very dark, with a hint of green to give a feel of decay in the room that Michael is in. The light bulb seen in the very opening shows how little light is in the room, then to introduce the setting more to the audience and the character more lights are introduced from the ceiling and walls of the room, this creates multiple shadows giving a more eerier effect and shows everything in the room at once. The next light introduced is from the television, this creates a lot of flicking with the audience expecting to have something startle them. All the lighting used in the opening is natural light from objects within the shot. Doing this creates realism to the opening, making the idea seem more possible to happen in real life and adding more fear to the viewer from the film.

Unlike most horrors the props in the opening are at a bare minimum, in most horrors a lot of props are used to suggest hidden characters that would startle the audience, however in Saw II the main threat of a hidden character is coming from inside the television. The television turns on by itself after Michael has woken up, this idea of "Someone is watching him" creates a tense atmosphere.

The camera angles are very similar to ones used in other horror films, a P.O.V. shot is first used to show the character looking around the room, then a close up of Michael showing what he looks like and his emotions, but in a reflection of a mirror. The camera then moves up the back of him to a high angle shot, showing the trap around his neck and making the character seem vulnerable, the shot then zooms in rapidly to an extreme close up of the spikes in the trap showing how bad the situation Michael is in. A lot of close ups are used on the character Jigsaw, this shows that he is the threat to Michael. The camera then does many extreme close ups showing the x-ray of Michael, the knife near his eye, Jigsaw and the clock. All of these show the danger that Michael is in and builds up a lot of suspense and tension. A hand held camera is used when Michael falls to the floor and the camera does a 360 degree turn to have the last full look of him before he dies, also the use of a handheld camera shows how scared Michael is. Finally there is a close up of him falling to the floor with blood pouring out of the mask, this is used to be the final part of the opening, being a close up you can see him perfectly so it makes the shot more disturbing.

In the opening there is only one setting, this is the basement (a repeatedly used location for torture) it is displayed as a chilling, frightful, disturbing small room. The walls suggest that the room is quite old and never used as they are black, green and blue these colours could be related to decay. The floor is stone suggesting that it is cold in there. No doors are focused on in the opening suggesting to the audience that Michael will not escape. Michael is placed right in the middle of the square room, this shows that he is very vulnerable from all four sides of the room.

The opening titles (Not shown on this Youtube example) flicker on when the light goes out, the colours help set the scene as the text is the same colour as the walls again suggesting decay, while the font used is very simple but is blurs out after a few seconds. The blur edit is used a lot in the horror genre for titles.In the opening the edits are very quick when Michael is in danger as it is creating tension and showing the audience how little time he has left to live, the quick flickering edits again are used a lot in horror as it shows how much danger the main character is in. More edits that are used include time changes some shots are slowed and other speed up, this interferes with the countdown of Michael's life pacing him and making it very unclear if Michael will really live or die.

The opening title does suggest a plot, however a very unclear one. Unlike most horrors where the plot is set very quickly, Saw II just reveals that this man deserves to fight for his life. The audience get to see the villain clearly in the opening that is very strange for a horror where the audience doesn't get to see the villain fully until near the end. The death mask and the idea of escape show that the plot to Saw II is extremely twisted but has a deep meaning to it from the speech Jigsaw gives.

The first character that is shown in the opening is very common for a horror, he is vulnerable and confused of what is going on, only wearing underwear suggests that he was attacked and bringing the sight of his eye in shows that there was more done to him, then the conversation starts giving more to his history and why he was brought there. Jigsaw the second character is shown as a creepy looking puppet who knows a lot about Michael, this shows that he has chosen him for a reason.