Continuity Research

The movie I have chosen is Scream.  The genre is quickly defined as a black comedy – the title presentation tells us that it’s horror with the name itself as well as the sound clips played as it appears on screen: screaming, a phone ringing, the sound of a knife scraping etc. Also the first scene is a classic teen horror setting, but there is humour when the protagonist starts having a normal conversation with the killer and acting how she conventionally wouldn’t. When the conversation between the girl and guy turns weird, we then realise that the genre definitely incorporates horror, which is cemented when the boyfriend of the protagonist is seen strapped to a chair and beaten, outside.

The scene is built up through different camera shots that reinforce the setting and show how desolate the protagonist is and how powerful the antagonist is; for example the pan over the outside of the house.

There are lots of uses of close ups and mid shots. These help portray the genre, but the collaboration of the camera distances and following of the character around her house also show continuity as we see the viewpoint of the protagonist and sometimes antagonist. The protagonist’s viewpoint uses lots of close ups as I mentioned earlier, and this contrasts with the antagonists viewpoint and the shots associated with them. They involve pans and long distance shots, so together these contrasting shots show the varying level of both the antagonist and protagonist’s understanding of the situation. This adds to the continuity as we are able to suspend our belief as it is expected that the antagonist has a wider knowledge of a murder situation.

Continuity is shown with the cross cutting of the girl and her popcorn on the stove. As she gets nearer to her impending doom the popcorn also reaches a climatic state, expanding in its packet and threatening to burst.  The close ups of the popcorn add to the tension and the use of Barthes’ symbolic code simplifies the story by showing the tension rising and the inevitability of the protagonist’s death.