Welcome to the blog of Rasam Production's Asa Newmarch (The Cinematographer), charting the evolution of the opening to the new feature film "Test Drive", jointly produced with Sam Pollock (The Director) and Rob Shaw (The Producer). You'll be able to see the final cut on YouTube [will be linked on a future day] as well as various short videos and vod/podcasts right here on this blog! Enjoy, and please feel free to comment/add suggestions!

Monday 17 January 2011

SP - Deconstruction of Scream

Scream(Wes Craven, 1996)


Budget: $15m
US Box Office: $100m
4 films in the franchise. Scream 2 was released in 1997, Scream 3 in 2000 and Scream 4 is due to release in 2011



  • First shot is of a blonde woman (scream queen) on the phone to mysterious caller 
  • Narrative enigma is used on the man on other end because you and she doesn't know who he is.
  • Shot of outside the house and a swing attached to a tree is moving. This signifies that the mysterious man could be outside
  • Close up of woman putting popcorn on the cooker when the phone rings again but this time the girl is quite flirty with the man and plays with a kinfe which could foreshadow later events
  • Popcorn starts over cooking but the woman is distracted with the phonecall
  • Camera tracks woman through her house when man says "I want to know your name ............ because i want to know who im looking at". This is when the music stops and the camera zooms into the girls face showing her emotion
  • Music suddenly starts becoming loud and dramatic and we can hear a dog barking outside
  • Again she hangs up and she runs back into the kitchen where the popcorn is on fire which signifies danger
  • The phone rings again as if he is stalking his victim and this time he is really angry and he starts playing on the girls mind 
  • The next shot is of her boyfriend tied up on the porch with blood and bruises on his face
  • Intertextual references from Halloween and Friday The 13th as mysterious man plays a game with the girl to save the boyfriends life
  • When girl gets the second question wrong the boyfriends insides gets ripped out which signifies the mental state of mind of the killer 

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