Wednesday 13 November 2013

Genre Research 3: Ginger Snaps II Unleashed

Ginger Snaps II: Unleashed  
Brett Sullivan, 2004
  (prod.)


Budget: $3.5M (canadian dollars); US box office: $80K

Opening duration: 2:15/7:20 (two possible opening ending points)
Rottentomatoes.com 88%; IMDB 6.4.


Summary/Ideas I Might Use
Extreme close up at the beginning to create narrative enigma.
Disequilibrium right at the beginning e.g. someone dying.
Font that fits the theme/genre of the movie for the titles e.g. werewolf scratches.
Synopsis
Set after the events of Ginger Snaps (original film), Ginger's sister Brigitte, now a werewolf herself, must try to find the cure for her bloodlust before the next full moon whilst hiding out in a rehab clinic from a relentless werewolf.

Title card
Idents/Titles
There are no idents in this film. 
Before the main title and film starts, there are 2 titles: the companies' names, and the director's name. The font looks like it has been scratched, which fits with the werewolf theme. The 'unleashed' part of the title zooms in which draws your attention to it, because it is the main part of the title.

Mise-en-scene
Opening shot (pink razor)
The opening shot is an extreme close up of of a razor and a hand. This creates a narrative enigma straight away as you don't know who it is. The narrative enigma continues as the girl changes the razor for a scalpel and you see cuts in her arms. She then injects herself with a purple drug. This makes the audience want to continue watching to find out what has happened to her. 

We know that the person is a girl before we see her because of the signifiers that have been placed in the mise-en-scene. The razor is pink, she is shaving her legs, and there are candles by the bath, all which the audience would associate with a girl.

The weather is also reflecting the mood of the girl (pathetic fallacy). It is bleak, cold, dreary, snowy/icy.

Representations
Brigitte sat in the library
In the 'second half' of the opening (after 2 mins 15 secs), the girl is represented as quite nerdy and bookish because she is at the library. However, she acts quite bluntly to the librarian who is trying to flirt with her, and mysterious when she walks out on her overdue books at the library. She is probably the 'final girl'  because she has brown hair, is quite covered up, and quiet and withdrawn from others. She is represented as a girl with secrets as well because she acts normal in public but we know there is something up with her.
Narrative, Genre, and Exposition
In the first section of the opening we see already that there is a dis-equilibrium happening e.g. the girl is panicky and shooting up and cutting herself. This shows that already there is a dis-equilibrium.

In the second half, we see that someone dies (the librarian gets eaten by a werewolf). This again emphasises the dis-equilibrium.

Vignette filter example
There are lots of genre signifiers in the opening. There is a vignette filter on the first part of the opening, which makes it look darker, and signifies the horror genre. The blood dripping into the bath is a foreshadowing of what is to come. The titles match the theme of the film. Screams in the audio also signify the horror genre.
Soundtrack
There is an audio bridge of non-diegetic speech and music between the titles and the opening. There are screams in the background which signifies the genre. The music matches the blood dripping into the bath which emphasises the fact that there is blood. The screams fade in and out, which makes it sound like flashbacks, possibly to the previous film. The speech is a girls voice also sounding like flashbacks. There are more long drawn out notes which puts the audience on edge, and banging sounds, like heartbeats or footsteps (polysemic). The music and screams and voice alternate fading in and out. 

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