Orphan- Film Analysis

Film: Orphan
Year: 2009
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra

Sound: The music that is used in the title sequence of 'Orphan' is very eery and tense. The instruments used are mainly strings (violins) that tend to squeak at certain moments, normally when the pictures are about to be 'distorted'. This piece of music builds up throughout the opening sequence, making the audience feel tense and slightly uncomfortable during this opening piece. Throughout the titles, there are a series of images and when these images become distorted so does the music because on top of the music, there is a sound effect that sounds similar to fire cracking or thunder crashing. This effect on top of the music with the distorted image is nerve-racking as it builds up, making that audience quite restless and nervous.

Mise en Scene: The distributors are presented first in the titles, then lots of pictures that look as though they are drawn by a child such as a tied up Bible and pictures of a family. These images are displayed on a dim background but then they change and distort. The images distort by colour being splat on them at a high pace, this contrasts with the whole pace of the titles and creates a tense atmosphere. The Bible drawing could symbolise that the family or the 'Orphan' is religious or maybe not religious as the Bible looks as though it is tied up. When the images of the family are displayed on the screen, it distorts to show that they are burning in a fire or being killed somehow e.g. a picture with a pair of scissors to the neck.

Camera work: The opening titles for this film don't have a wide range of camera angles and movements, I think that is used for effect as the images and the sound build tension for itself, so really the camera stays central for most of the time so we can see the images clearly and also it creates an eery effect. Saying that, the camera does move slightly; when the images are shown on the screen with the titles, the camera very slightly pans across the images at a extremely slow pace, this creating more of a scary/eery effect as it moves ever so slightly so that the tension builds up. Most of the opening titles are shown at a mid-shot with some of the images shown being seen through a close up shots, this maybe to emphasise the connotations the images have with the film.

Editing: The whole film is very dim, not black and white but more of a 'sepia' wash, this immediately shows that this isn't a happy, cheery film but dark and cold. A lot of fades are used as transitions in this opening sequence to build tension towards the end title, the fades set the eery atmosphere of the titles and makes the audience feel the suspense as soon as it starts. The images that are presented in the titles are dim (the same as the background) but then the images change as the effect looks like bright colour is splattering onto the images; the splatters also look like blood being splattered. When the colour appears it looks like a light is flickering on and this immediately gives connotations of a weird/creepy setting and foreshadows what happens at the end of the film.

Titles: The titles are next to the images that are presented during the titles. The font is standard but when the images become distorted so does the font and looks like it's been scratched into something, giving a scary feel to the titles. The titles are of mid size so it's not too big therefore it doesn't dominate the screen, taking the effect away from the images and not too small so that we can't read who stars in the film.