HORROR: "Get Out" Opening Scene Analyzed
OPENING SCENE RESEARCH – film: Get Out
CAMERA: The camera shots and techniques add so much to this specific opening scene. This scene enhances pretty fast and uses the camera to add the element of surprise, manipulate the audience and introduce things to the audience without them even being aware. The first shot is a wide shot of a dark sidewalk. We don’t see anyone, but we can hear someone approaching. Shortly after the character walks into the frame and he is walking on the sidewalk, and we can see his whole body. As he walks towards the camera the camera moves back, but the character slowly gets closer to the camera transforming into more of a mid-shot. And rapidly zooms into a close up as he is ending his phone call, so we can see his expression of confusion on his face. This tells the audience that he may not know his way around this area and doesn’t live here. Then as he walks past the camera, they pan to the left to follow him. They are now in a track shot following the character behind him. The strategy behind this shot is so that we can see his surroundings because they want the audience to see the car approaching the man's left. If he was still walking toward the camera, you couldn’t see the car enter the frame. The camera gets closer to him and walks beside him at a height a little taller than amid shot. The camera makes a full 180 around him so the character is walking towards the camera again. Keeping in mind the whole time in the back the camera is tracking the car driving by. They then keep the character to the left of the camera to use framing to ensure the audience can see the car turning around right behind him. Then the depth of the shot changes. The car is now going the same way as the man is walking and is approaching next to him. So, the car that was recently blurry is now pulled into focus. They continue to walk in this same shot for a while, the car driving next to the man. Then the man decides to turn around because he is now cautious of the car. As he turns the camera stay the same, a mid-shot, but also tracks him from behind as he walks into the street. The camera then gets faster and walks up beside the character and pans to the right. You can now see him from the side and the car parked behind him in the street. The camera pauses for a moment letting the audience see him realize the car door is open. Slowly continues to pan to the right to see the man dressed in all black sneak up from behind the man and kidnap him. The camera backs up so you can accurately see the now 2 shot of the man getting strangled. The unique thing about this shot is you can see the character getting strangled but the kidnapper you can only see from the neck/chest area down. You don’t see above that area for the rest of the scene, making it more mysterious. The strangling happens under a streetlight, for good lighting to see what is happening. Then the kidnapper drags the man out of the light over to his car. The camera tracks them walking to the car, keeping the same height. This allows the audience to see the man's limp body and feet dragging across the pavement, adding eeriness. Once they made it to the car the next shot is a cut to an establishing shot. Showing the whole street, sidewalks, and some of the houses, and the car is centered into the middle of the frame. Then this stays the same as the opening credits start to play.
EDITING: In this scene of the abduction there isn't a lot of post-production editing techniques used as it is a flow of one continuous shot until the end. There is only one cut throughout the whole scene but there are still “editing” accents throughout the scene. First, the pacing. There isn’t pacing between cuts, due to the lack of the cuts but the movement of the camera adds the same effect. In the beginning the camera moved very slowly. Not enough to know if the camera was moving, or take away from the character. Things begin to turn when the character notices the car is displaying skeptical behavior. He suspects something that is following him, he turns and walks faster in the other direction. The camera’s speed quickens, and things move a bit faster. The camera is fast moving until the character gets strangled. Then it slows down, and eventually stops moving and cuts to an establishing shot. The pacing not only matches the energy the film is supposed to give, but also affects the mood and in a way tells the audience what to feel. Speeding up the camera movements adds tension and tells the audience something is going to happen.
SOUND: The sounds highlighted, and music added in this span of 2 minutes adds an immense amount of effect onto the impact of the opening. In the first scene when he is walking down the sidewalk by himself at night the only noises, we hear are the crickets and the man's voice. This allows the audience to know how alone he is and listen to the topic of his conversation he is having on the phone. Shortly after he hangs up the phone and starts mumbling to himself. Still being quiet reveals that he is saying to himself that he doesn’t know his way around and forgot and is trying to navigate. Clueing to the audience he obviously isn’t from around the area. Then a louder song that drowns out his mumbling is a car approaching. Along with the bright lights of the car it is obvious that they want to bring the audience's attention to the car. This causes you to follow the car and watch how it turns around and follows the character. Then you can hear the brakes to let you know that he is stopping next to the man. Then we begin to hear him mumbling to himself, to not be stupid and keep on walking. He then turns around and mumbles to himself more, he is now aware and cautious of the vehicle saying things like “not me.” He then gets quiet, and the man appears from the dark and strangles him. As this is happening a song from the car grows louder and louder. The song is a famous song from 1939 called “Run, Rabbit, Run!”. This song is old fashioned sounding, so it adds a creepy and eerie effect to the movie. Then as the abductor drags the characters' now limp body over to the car, we hear the dragging of feet as well as the now very loud song. Then lastly, the credits start playing to the song. In further detail in the sections about the opening credits the song changes to an intense creepy song. Then changes to a song from 2016 called “Redbone” a very lighthearted danceable song to prepare the audience for the movie and take away the eeriness.
MISE EN SCENE: Along with some of the big elements like sound and camera, mise en scene is one of the biggest elements that makes this scene what it is. First, the setting of this scene takes place in a neighborhood, at night. This neighborhood looks nice from what we can see in the dark, maybe a middle to upper class neighborhood. There are trimmed bushes, and the houses look nice, and sizeable. This scene takes place within the sidewalk and street. So, the setting alone, a man walking on a sidewalk by himself in the dark it is the perfect set up for a horror movie. Moving onto lighting, when caught up watching a film it's hard to realize the effect lighting has on the scene. Throughout the whole scene it is relatively dark, but it slightly changes as well. When the man first walks in he is a silhouette. Then other misalaneous lighting from the street and houses to introduce the character and see him better. The next part where lighting is utilized is the car. The lights on the car are the brightest part of the whole scene so it draws attention to the car. Which is exactly what they want the audience to do because they have tried to draw your attention to it in several ways. The last time when lighting is very prevalent is when he is being strangled. Before getting captured, he walks out into the street right under a streetlight, therefore the abduction is in good lighting and the viewers can tell what is happening. Next, costumes are a big part of mise en scene, adding character and giving information about the type of people the characters are. The man walking, and main character in this scene is wearing casual clothes such as jeans a short and a jacket over it. He is wearing dark overall clothes with a tan jacket. I think the brighter jacket helps contrast him against the abductor. The abductor is wearing all black with a mask on of course, a classic horror movie convention. This makes his identity a mystery, ultimately making it scarier.
PRODUCTION & DISTRIBUTION: Get Out was directed and written by Jordan Peele, he went on to be nominated for several awards regarding his successful movie. And it was produced by Universal Studios, a very well-known company. Before entering the horror genre Peele did a lot of comedy. But he felt the 2 genres were similar, so he tried out horror. Peele started writing the movie in 2013 after the pitch had been bought by Sean McKittrick. Then in 2015 the two main characters were chosen and continuing to choose characters into 2016. Then filming began in 2016 and took place in Alabama. The first trailer came out in October of 2016 by Universal Studios. They said that it was coming to heaters that coming February, so 4 months after announcement. The trailer received 17 million views creating lots of excitement for the movie. It was then first premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, in January of 2017. The release date was announced, and it was February 24th, that’s when it was being released in theaters. When released it made a total of $255.4 million at the box office, when the budget for the film was $4.5, making a huge profit. Then as most movies do after it stopped playing in theaters it began to be released on streaming platforms. It was released on Netflix, although it is not available there anymore. But you can watch Get Out on Spectrum TV, ROW8, Prime Video, Vudu, Redbox. or Apple TV.
OPENING CREDITS: In the movie Get Out the opening credits happen after the opening scene of Andres Abduction. Once Andre is dragged to the car while he is being put into the car the camera slowly zooms out to a wider shot making the body being put into the car seem casual as the credits play. The credits come up in the middle of the screen in a small font and bright teal color. They only show up one credit at a time and are paced very slowly with a few seconds in between another one appearing. Making the audience focus on what is on the screen without distraction of lots of words. In the background Andre’s body is being put in the car and eventually the car drives away into the distant. Then it changes to the title slide. In big print it reads “GET OUT”. In the background it is like someone is driving past trees. The song turns from “Run, Rabbit, Run!” into an intense instrumental song keeping the background the same. Then the background changes into a shot of an apartment and introduces the two main characters through short shots behind credits. It is one man and a woman; they look young and introduce them while they are doing daily activities. And the song changes to a song called “Redbone” released in 2016. The pacing of the credits gets slower making it easier for the audience to pay attention to the shots of characters.
AWARDS NOMINATIONS: Get Out was a popular movie when it came to awards. It was nominated for countless awards and won several. In total the movie was nominated for 39 big awards and won 17. Some include The National Board of Review and the American Film Institute calling it one of the top ten films of the year. The director and writer, Jordan Peele won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay at the 90th Academy Awards, along with nominations for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor. The movie also received 5 nominations at the 23rd Critics Choice Awards, and 2 at the 75th Golden Globe Awards, and 2 at the 71st British Academy Film Awards.
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