How does the director use Media Language to communicate messages and engage the audience?
[media language is mise en scene, camera, sound and editing]
Mise en scene
The director shows the audience that the woman singing is partly responsible for the mass murder by dressing her in a red dress
The colour red has connotations of danger, blood and violence
Whilst these colours could be interpreted as love or passion as the start of the film appears to be more of a period romance than a gruesome horror, by the end of the first scene it's clear that her dress foreshadowed what was to come
After the fast-paced slice happens, there are a few moments of pure shock portrayed by the actors in the scene - nobody moves or says anything or even begins to bleed out for at least a few seconds
This is a moment where the audience realises what has happened and is brought to the realisation that this movie is not what they originally thought it to be
The director has done this to create tension and shock within the audience
Sound
In the beginning of the scene, the song that plays begins as non-diagetic (as we are panning around the ship) and turns into diagetic sound when the woman in the red dress begins to sing
The song is romantic and almost like a lullaby - this gives the audience a false sense of security and the director has used this music to juxtapose the horrors later in the scene
After the slice, the foley sound effects of squelching, bodies falling to the ground and the morbid groaning of people dying are very over-exaggerated and over-the-top
The director might have done this (with no music over the top) to let the shock and horror of what has happened sink in and sit with the audience and really make it a horrifying scene to watch
Camera
The scene begins with an establishing shot into a crane shot around the boat
This presentation of the boat - looking cosy and warm and lit up, again, is providing the viewer with the impression that this will be a nice romantic movie
Also, the string lights are shown predominantly in this shot - foreshadowing how these lights will be the cause of mass murder later in the scene
Many of the shots before the slice and mirrored after the slice
e.g. a shot of the man dancing with the little girl, him looking down at her, is mirrored later at the same angle except this time half of his head is sliding off
Editing
At the beginning, a title is superimposed with a curly, cursive pink font
This presentation of the title juxtaposes the genre of the film which is nowhere similar to the romantic nature of this font
When the wire begins to unfurl, there is parallel editing between the fast motion of the wire and the slow motion of everyone dancing
The contrast in speed of the two scenes as well as the different colours (the wire scene is dark colours and the dancing scene is more warm colours) unsettles the audiences and creates tension before they realise what the wire is actually going to do
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