Task 2: research into existing products- Red Dragon

Analyse how the film’s opening establishes genre conventions and reaches target audience through technical codes.

Red dragon is a thriller prequel to the film of the same genre ‘Silence of the lambs’. The plot of the story fits in to the thriller genre because it includes the conventions such as blood, gore, mystery, suspense and others which are used to thrill and scare the audience. The main difference between horror and thriller films, despite the similar conventions, is that what happens in a thriller could potentially happen in real life (serial killers, cannibals) whereas horrors tend to include the supernatural i.e. ghosts, the un-dead, possessed objects and urban legends coming to life… Although Red Dragon could be argued to have some aspects of horror due to the legend of the red dragon, the legend rather than physically coming to life has a psychological effect of the man who is committing the killings.

The plot of the film includes a series of gruesome murderers made by a serial killer nick-named the ‘tooth fairy’. In order to try and prevent more of the seemingly random murderers’ detective Will Graham must face the demon from his past- a man whom he once trusted named Dr. Hannibal Lector. In the opening a flashback is used in order to explain what caused Dr Lector to be sentenced to life imprisonment. The audience finds out that he is actually a cannibal who committed murderers in order to eat his victim’s meat and Graham was the one who found him out. The plot fits in to the genre well because as described above, it includes the conventions, has a lot of suspense and gives the audience excitement of not knowing what will happen. This excitement may also stay with the audience long after they switch the film off because of the fact that it is a thriller and there is some possibility that the events in the film could come true.

The opening of the film is accompanied by slow, chilling non-diegetic music which conveys to the audience that the film they are about to watch is not something for the faint hearted. The violin creates an almost eerie atmosphere and the low sound of the piano gives a sinister feeling. The music builds up before cutting in to silence. This could foreshadow that everything that will build up will eventually lead to a rapid conclusion which will stun the audience making them ‘silent’ too. Soon, after the abrupt stop of the chilling music, an orchestra opens up the film’s flashback. The opening may seem as quite unfitting because the music turns happy and has a much more rapid tempo. However this could be seen as ‘calm before the storm’ and later proves to be true because within the 10 minutes the audience finds out the secret of Lector and witness him trying to murder the agent while telling him that he would like to eat his heart. One of the first opening songs is called ‘Legos’. This title is suiting because the events that build up will create something which, for the killer, is like play time with his victims. He is murdering them one by one in order to create something bigger. The only question throughout the film is- what is the killer trying to prove? There seems to be no logic behind his killings and the suspense draws the audience in as each of the pieces put together unfold something new that questions and confuses both the characters and the audience more.

The opening of the film uses the two basic shot types used in films. A long shot which builds up the tension, for example, when Graham tells Lector that he suspects the murderer to be a cannibal and goes to inspect his drawers only to find solid evidence for the Dr. to be the murderer. The shot creates tension because the audience expects something to happen and is eager for it, dragging out the action makes it harder to guess when and if something bad will happen. The second type of editing is rapid, like cuts. This shot type is used to surprise the audience and often follows the long shot. Again, an example of the combination of these shots being used is when Graham explodes the shelves and finds the bizarre books. Hannibal appears out of nowhere and stabs Graham startling the audience after their tension was being built up. Other types of editing used in the opening are shot-reverse-shot and continuity editing. Shot-reverse-shot is used during the fight scene as the camera jumps from a close up of one’s face to the others. The fact that the characters are shown on separate cuts portrays how different their points of view are and also allows the audience to see how different each reacts to the situation. Graham is shown to be in deep shock and Lector seems to go as far as being excited. The continuity editing is used mainly during the supper when Hannibal is still seen as sane and a friend. The fact that such a highly educated character who was trusted by so many turns out to be insane also adds to the tension because he’s not the typical crazed murderer but one that can cause further potential threat. Also the audience may start asking themselves about who else in the film they can trust if someone as important as the Dr. was actually a cannibal.

The camera in the films gives the audience a good perspective of what is happening and what to expect. This is done through the use of high and low shots which often portray the dominant and not so dominant characters at some point in time. During the struggle to murder Graham, Hannibal is shown through a low angle. The low angle is portrayed through the point of view of Graham, Because Graham is looking up at Lector it shows that currently Lector has the power over him and at this point the audience will feel like Graham will lose his life to the mad cannibal. Lector, on the other hand, sees Graham from a high angle. This means that he is looking down at him and currently knows that he is in the dominant position and is winning the fight. Because from both perspectives it looks like Graham will die it is what the audience is expecting as well. However in the climax of the fight Graham overpowers the Dr, and the angle’s change. Now Lector is shown from a high angle showing that he has lost the fight and Graham can look down on him.

Camera is also used to portray how a character is feeling during different times of the films. Zoom in’s on the face allow to see a clear portrayal of emotions. For example, the camera zooms in from a MCU to a CU on Hannibal’s face to show that he has a deeply hidden excitement in his eyes at certain points in the opening of the film. The focus on expressions allows the audience to see that some characters don’t always respond to news or situations in ways that we would expect. Instead of being shocked they look mildly surprised, instead of being repulsed they look excited or intrigued. In this way the audience can create a list of characters that they could consider to be murderers in a film or could guess at why some act in the ways in which they do. Also the audience often tends to mimic the emotions and feelings of the main characters with whom they sympathise with. In this case they are most likely to react in the same way as Graham. If he looks like he is suspecting something the audience will too. If he looks uneasy this will help to create tension because the audience will also start to feel uneasy. In thriller films this tendency of mimicking the lead character can be used in a few ways. Either to mislead the audience in to thinking that someone innocent is the one to look out for or to build up and create a suitable atmosphere at different points of the film.

Something which is very important in thriller films and all films in general, is the use of mise-en-scene. Mise-en-scene tends to be the first thing the audience look at when they look for a film of their interest. Funny and happy films will tend to have bright colours while films like horror and thriller will, more often than not ,use colours that are dark and sinister with accents of electric blue, red and white. The Red Dragon has a case that is dark and will attract the target audience because the mise-en-scene is carefully though through. The lighting is limited, the location is dark and isolated etc… The mise-en-scene is extremely important. In the opening of the film the props are what gives Lector away. The zoom in’s on all of the bizarre objects on Lector’s shelf hint that something about this man is off. Then there is special focus on the book and handwriting which lead Graham to believe that his trusted friend is actually the one behind the killings. Another important aspect of mise-en-scene are costumes. In the opening Lector is wearing a white shirt. White is associated with innocence and purity and it is ironic that a man who has murdered and eaten other human beings is wearing the colour which is virtually opposite to everything that he is. Later on in the film Lector will be shown to be wearing dark clothes and a mask. A mask is often used in thrillers because it conceals the face of the character and it’s much harder to read the expressions the character is doing, making it that much harder to guess at their intentions. Mise-en-scene also covers the aspects of lighting and location. In the opening those aspects are not as important as later on however straight away the lack of lighting hints at a film that is scary. The limitation of light and often avoidance of natural light is important because we as an audience are limited in what we can see and this helps to build tension. Location is important too because different locations are associated and connote different things. Thrillers often use places that are hard to access or ones that are long forgotten e.g. abandoned or isolated places, because in such places the victims are more helpless because the chances of help coming by are much more limited and also it makes finding the criminals that much more difficult.

Overall, the film’s use of conventions and technical codes is well though through. It gives the audience a taste of what the film will be like early on due to the flashback of violence and taboo subject at the beginning of the movie. The film targets a specific audience and limits it down due to the age restriction. The sound in the opening helps in establishing the film’s genre easily because the non-diegetic music sets a ‘creepy’ atmosphere and the dialogue covers subjects like mystery and murderers and taboo subjects like cannibalism which are only covered in specific film genres and are bound to attract only a specific audience who enjoys violence and a sense of mystery and suspense.