My media coursework

My media coursework group is made up of myself, Jamie Roper and Tom Hodgson. We will be deciding our roles within the group as soon as possible. which is the next required step on the checklist.

ghost ship opening sequence analysis

Opening sequence analysis 1

The opening sequence of the horror film ‘Ghost Ship’ tricks the audience into thinking that the opening scene is a happy, warm, romantic evening on a very expensive cruise ship. This mood makes the audience feel like the night is too good to be true and that creates suspense and makes the audience want to figure out what is going to happen before it does. In the first few minutes the genre is hidden from the audience by the way in which soft classical music is playing, and couples are dancing. However the clue given in the title ‘Ghost’ creates dramatic tension because we are aware that something is likely to go horribly wrong.

The films genre becomes clear when a mysterious man pushes a lever that causes a wheel to spin dangerously fast. The soft singing voice is bridged in to a loud alarming noise thus indicating to the audience that something bad is about to happen. The young girl who seems to be the protagonist as she is the only one left alive, is introduced to the audience as a young girl who is bored on this ship and looking for something exciting to happen. The audience are made to feel worried for the girls life but thanks to her hight she was not cut in half like the rest of the people on board. 

The enigma to the film 'ghost ship' is that we want to find out who set off the leaver that killed everybody on the ship and also would like to see how the young girl copes with what has just happened to her. The editing used to show the metal cable uses slow motion in order to show how fast the wheel is spinning. This emphasizes to the audience that this is an important part of the film and the slow motion slows down the pace of the film to clearly show this. A camera shot that helped suggest horror was when at 4:35 there is a long shot of the ship and then the shot tilts under the water. Going down into the deep blue ocean adds a scary feeling of the rest of the film to come.