Friday 30 October 2015

Media analysis; Title sequence, 'Red Lights'

2012 Thriller, 'Red Lights' is about professional skeptics played by Cillian Murphy and Sigourney Weaver, try to prove that a famous psychic is lying about his ability.

Unlike the title sequence for, 'Gone girl' it doesn't consist of production logos at the very beginning, this connotes that the movie have the ability to make it by itself with a powerful narrative. It also signifies it relies on other iconography such as famous well-known actors such as Robert De Niro to connote to the audience that it is a good movie (denoted from the first shot being graphics of his name), therefore the connotations of a well-known production company is not needed. Similar connotations from the production logos, the well-known actors used signify to the demographic an understanding within the genre or style of movie from previous movies he/her may have starred in. However the oppositional view subverting the demographic being able to connote the film; is that the movie goes against the predictions of the target audience and place the actor in an character which he or she wouldn't have played before.


Low key lighting is used the title sequence, up to 1:11 when it takes a strong contrast into very bright high key lighting. However even though the shots are split into high key and low key lighting throughout the production it is continuously in black and white filter. This connotes a sense of mystery thriller genre as the high contrast between the two basic colours allows the editors to hide information in the shadows or expose it in the light, also creating enigma to the demographic to weather the entire film will be in black and white.


After watching the title sequence for the third time, i noticed at the very beginning subverting the ideology of the title sequence being entirely in black and white filter. Glared, out of focus, shots of a red light is visible in the first 20 seconds of the film opening. The producers have placed it with the graphics of the title, 'Red Lights' to connote the importance of the title and the meaning behind it and how that plays in the narrative of the film. This also creates enigma to if the white glared lights denoted previously are also red lights, however with the black and white filter placed over the top. This signifies the genre to be exposed in the first 20 seconds as an mystery thriller.


Very similar to the mystery thriller, 'Se7en' all the shots are filmed closely, signifying a link between the two sharing the same genre, making close up shots of props an convention to the genre. However unlike, 'Se7en' the movie, 'Red Lights' film opening as an match on action, close up shot of an eye, this includes an character in their production, signifying information from the eye from the famous quote, 'an eye is a window to someone's soul'. However cleverly the editors and producers restrict this information as the shot is filtered in black and white. At a signified level the denotation of the eye can act as a subliminal message to the demographic about the narrative, connoting an perceptive or view of one person. All the shots are edited together to make a montage of shots, in a subliminal editing famous, making cuts between the shots hard to discover. This connotes the fast pace sense to the narrative, letting the target audience know the movie isn't boring. In the title sequence a large ratio of shots are of pictures, new papers and reports signifying the crime genre giving the demographic a small insight the star persona of the protagonist and the narrative, without giving too much away and creating enigma.

Non-diegetic soundtrack is present from beginning to the very end. This signifies as a cover-up of information that could be represent however the pace and beat of the non-diegetic soundtrack making the target audience weary distracts them from the truth. At no point is any diegetic soundtrack produced leaving enigma as a large amount of information is restricted from the protagonist or antagonist. 

The website which the title sequence was found was: Art of the title

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