Sunday, January 26, 2020

Genre Research: The Intruder

The Intruder, a thriller movie made in 2019, is about a young couple (Scott and Annie) that buys their home from a lonely, mysterious widower (Charlie). Trouble arises when we discover that Charlie is too attached to the house and refuses to let it go, then ends up feeling the same way about Annie. He will stop at nothing to get what he wants. This movie is filled with suspense and action. This allows the audience to stay intrigued, alert, and speechless wondering what’s going to happen next.

The camera angles present in this movie are close-ups, medium close-ups, eye level, high- angles, low- angles, and God’s eye. Close- ups were used for n this movie to show the characters emotion to what just happened, like a reaction shot, and to show the intensity of the situation. Medium close- ups were used to show the conversations between the characters and the emotions that came along with them. Eye- level angles were used to capture the realness of the situation. This also applies for high angles, low angles, and God’s eye (aerial). The camera movements present in this movie are zooms, dollies, tilts, pans, and tracking shots. Zooms were used to focus in on the subjects when the scene is calm. Dollies and tracking shots were used in this movie to capture the actions like running and jogging which is very present in this film. Tilts were used to build up the scene by showing the aspects of the scene and the physical characteristics of the subjects, then getting to the main idea or focus of the scene. Pans were used to show the areas that were important to the scene(s). The camera shots present in this film are establishing, two- shots, three- shots, over the shoulder, long, medium-long, medium, point of view, and wide shots. Establishing shots were used to show where the following scene is taking place. Two- shots and three-shots were used to show the main conversations taking place between the main characters. Over the shoulder shots did the same thing, but they also showed the intensity of the conversation. Long, medium- long, and medium shots were used to show the characters’ full physical response and reaction in a scene. Point of view shots were used to show the antagonist’s (Charlie) view when he’s lurking and spying on the couple. Wide shots were used when the scene is calm or uneventful; this is usually followed by a zoom.

There were many aspects that made up the film. These are known as mis en scene. Said aspects are, costumes, lighting, actors, makeup, props, and setting. The costumes in this film are the day-to-day modern wear of average citizens. The lighting in this film is both natural and artificial, but mainly natural. The actors in this movie portray various strong emotions to fit the scene; they come out of there true characters in a remarkable way to get the audience to really feel and understand the direness of the situation. The makeup in this movie starts off simple, like the every day makeup that majority of people wear; this was present on Annie. As the plot thickens the makeup progressively gets gory; it starts with a few bruises, moves to a bloody gash, then ends with both of those combined and an added puddle of blood coming from the antagonist. The main props used in this film were a few shotguns, an axe, a wooden baseball bat, smart phones, and modern cars. This film had many different settings that proved to be important to the scene. These settings include inside and outside of the house, the woods which the backyard of the house led to, the hotel where the antagonist was supposedly residing, an office inside Scott’s work establishment, outside of a bar where Scott was meeting with clients, inside of 3 cars, a cafĂ© where Scott found out information that led to the climax of the film, the closest road to the house, and the hospital. All of these were in the suburbs and city side of Napa Valley, California.

The common edits in the film were cross-cutting, shot-reverse-shot, cutaways, eye-line match, action match, and jump cuts. Cross- cutting was used when the protagonists were talking about the house while leaving the house viewing in the beginning of the movie. While they were discussing their thoughts of the house and their future plans, the antagonist was doing something questionable and heinous in some people’s eyes. This contradicted the original calm, optimistic tone and mood set by the protagonists. Shot-reverse-shots were used to show the magnitude and severity of the situation. Cutaways were used show the thoughts of the antagonist, and events of the past. Eye-line matches were used after a close-up of a character to show what they were looking at. Action matches were used when a characters were describing or doing something in one scene and another character was doing the same thing. Jump cuts were used to show the passage of time. After the couple toured the house and were discussing it, the next scene shows when they move into the house. Later in the movie the holidays change from Thanksgiving to Christmas in the matter of minutes.

The common sounds in this movie were diegetic, non-diegetic, dialogue, voice-over, incidental music, ambient, and sound bridges. The diegetic and ambient are found when the scene takes place outside, like bird chirps and leaves rustling, and inside, like water running and dishes clinking. The non-diegetic sounds can be found in scenes outside, like when there were shots fired outside of the house. The dialogue present in this movie goes from calm to very dramatic and intense. Voice overs are present when the protagonists are having a conversation that relates to the antagonist’s actions in the next scene; this conversation continues into that scene. Incidental music was used to build suspense in the movie, like when one of the characters are about to do or find out something exciting or important to the movie. Sound bridges were used in this movie identity the suspicious sounds being heard. The protagonists would hear a strange sound in one room of their house and go to find out where it is coming from in another room in the house.

The elements that I enjoyed in this movie were the acting abilities of the actors, and the detail that was put into the settings and makeup. The elements that I didn’t like were predictability of the scenes, and the lack of intelligence in the characters’ actions.


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