Film 2 minute opening analysis of Hush:

Hush analysis. The certificate for the film is a 15, a British horror/ thriller genre, 91 minutes long and was released in 2008. The basic plot is that a young couple on a motorway journey are drawn into a game of cat and mouse with a truck driver following a near accident. The film’s director and writer was Mark Tonderai, starring actors such as William Ash, Christine Bottomley and Andreas Wisniewski. The genre is introduced into the film because of the range of wide shots introducing the setting, the setting tend to be dark and mysterious. What also helped introduce the setting was the weather; it was raining, dark and gloomy which follows the conventions of the film genre I am looking to re-create. Because of this reason I thought of different ideas that I could do to re-create different scenes that are similar to hush. I want my film opening to be as clear as to what type of film it is as soon as the audience begin to watch it, being a stereotypical horror/ action film. The film is introduced straight into action of the couple in the car on a journey on the motor way, however the female is challenging stereotype as she argues back and just as much as the male. From first impressions I can tell that the woman is slightly confident and not afraid to argue back, however she does uphold stereotype when she seems to become upset after the argument the couple share. Her appearance is casual comfortable clothing which suggests that this is a normal car journey for them that they are used to and by doing this makes it easy for the target audience to relate with the couple making it more appealing to them. The males appearance is slightly similar to the female, which again suggests the same type of things, also it is dark and the roads seem empty which makes me believe that it is a very late drive. So, for that reason is understandable / again relatable for the target audience to relate to their situation. There are a mixture of wide/ mid shots and close ups during the opening sequence of hush. I believe that these mixtures of shot types worked well for different reasons. Firstly, the wide shots helped introduce a range of different locations such as the inside of the car, where they were driving (the motor way), where they stopped off (petrol station) and also the other vehicles involved in the film opening. Introducing the setting into a film is important for a audience to be able to understand and be able to familiarise themselves with what is going to happen in the film. Mixtures of wide and mid shots were used to help introduce the actors in the film and what type of people they are. So, for example how they dress, how they sit- so what they’re posture is like, how they present themselves to each other, how they react during the opening sequence to each other and also to get slightly more detail than a wide shot using a mid shot gives you a little bit more detail. The close ups helped the audience to be able to understand the actors emotions and how they felt about the situation, so for example when they were arguing, I found it easier to tell who was more in control in the relationship and also I was able to tell that she felt more upset after looking closely at facial expressions or close ups of her hands for example fidgeting.