Filth To Ashes, Insidious close analysis

Filth to ashes, Flesh to dust (2011) 

Filth to ashes is a recent horror movie which represents the modern sterotypes of horror movies and explores  a range of ideas within the media.

Sypnosis

Purge: To put to death, eliminate what is undesirable. The serial killer known as Purge lived and died by this code. But is he dead? Driving home from a road trip, ERIC and SHELLY take a back road to avoid a traffic jam. They encounter the serial killer Purge. Eric survives but Shelly is murdered. A year later, a group of adventure-seeking high school grads venture to purge's lair. Among them is Eric's brother JUAN. Eric sets out to save his brother, and get revenge on Purge. For the six teens, their imperfections will be the deciding factor if Purge shows them mercy. But if everyone is imperfect, will any of them survive? Written by Armont Casalle

Like most trailers, it opens with a production company and begins to fade into a range of images; firstly a knife, then the characters at an equilibruim point where the mood is mellow. Things then become unsettled as the lighting changes and things become dark, text appears on screen informing the audience on the unsettled equilibrium. From then on, lighting becomes extreamly low key and is made up of shadows only (chairo scuro. Sharp camera movement and loud screams and music is then present.

Mis en scene

-Location is mostly set in a rural arid area prehaps a desert. The characters are also surrounded by wooden huts, almost like a warehouse but smaller. This conveys a cliche horror movie location; isolated woods, dark, myserious.

-Costumes are mostly normal; females wearing tight clothing vest tops ect (goreporn) this is to convey that the misery they are about to be out through can happen to anybody normal

-props are mostly setprops for example, the knife, female with the gun ect...

some scenes are also set design (in a studio)

Lighting

Lighting begins brightly lit by High key lighting use of natural light (daylight) however changes to low key lighting as the equilibrium is unsettled. Colour palette (an effect used for dramatic emotional scenes) is used also to create suspense and a feel of fear this suggests danger to the audience and will potentially scare them when the movie is watched. Majority colours used are blues and greys (hense the text) creating a sence of coldness.

Sound

Music plays throughout the whole trailer starting at a slow equal place with a beat resembleing a heart beat. Music fades to a silence when digetic sounds such as dialouge and heavey breathing. This is simply to build tension and set a tense tone for the film. Most dialouge is based around screaming and shouting. This adds an emotional state to the movie. No voice-overs are present as usally horrors do not have voiceovers as it can make them seem fictioanl and not fearful. Dialouge conveys to the audience what the movie is roughly about.

Camera angles/shot types/framing/movement.

shots are mostly close ups. the shots are mostly framed where shadows are present . this is conveying the casts' emotion and what they are going through to the audience. Movement of the camera is often in tracking shots as if the camera is following the disturbed people running around screaming for their lives. This is conveyed personally as horror movies are usually well known for close ups and cinema-verite. Through the shots and framing, the females are portrayed weakly as they are the victims (sterotypically).

Editing

Slow whipe cuts are used at the beginging when high key lighting was used. the meaning of this was related with the mood and was also used to build the suspense. Fade shots were used for the majority of the film as pace begins to quicken as the trailer progresses. The meaning of this is that it gives the audience a sence of going into darkness creating suspence and tension for them as they subconciously feel as though something is going to jump out in the next shot.

Insidious 

Flesh to ashes and Insidious are two very different hybrid genres of horror movies. Whilst Flesh to ashes is more of a slasher horror movie, insidious is a paranormal horror. They are both released and produced at the exact same year (2011) so technical Due to their differences in genre, they both use simular conventions in the trailers however some significant differences also which will be analysed below.

Insidious (2010)

This trailer is very different in its own way and goes against most conventions and rules of film trailers. 

Most film trailers tend to follow TODOROV's theory (begins with a balanced equilibrium then becomes unsettled and leaves a cliffhanger at the end to see if the problem has been resolved or not) however this one does not.

The trailer opens in a way which most trailers dont begin like. This one opens with the production company then transforms straight into text on screen of the actual title of the movie.

This conveys to the audience that it is not a movie like all horror movies, it is something the audience will have never seen before. 

Instead of following todorovs theory and starting with a balanced settled mood, this jumps straight into the action of horror and sets the audience in a very eerie atmosphere and tone. As the male (Father in insidious) is set in a trance, conventions are used to make audience feel like they are also in a trance as theyre is a montage of fastpace previous events which have happend in the movie. the audience immediently assumes that something is wrong and that the male is having his life 'flashed before his eyes'. The 'flashbacks' (which are previous scenes from the movie) are telling a story of why the man is being sent into a trance in the first place and begin unravelling the outline of the storyline. This is a very unusual way to do so as usually the beginning of the story is building up to the end however this is doing the opposite. 

mis en scene

The mis en scene in insidious is significant for many reasons. Costumes are very very generalised and normal. The family are dressed normally to suit the significant difference between the paranormal activity happening to their family and the 'normal' family which they think they are. This highlights and exaggerates the situation. Location is mostly set indoors, scenes are rarley outdoors as horror movies and houses have a strong correlation. Paranormal events very rarley happen outdoors in the open, but usually in a house or room where victim is trapped. House is presented as eerie. Lighting is extremly dim.

Lighting

Lighting throughout the whole trailer is very very dim and eerie. Lighting is low key which is very common in horror movies as dark dim depressing colours are strongly associated with the genre as horror movies are usually/always about dark/evil things. This lighting is connoting the dark and evil things happening to the family at the time. Colours are very bleak and depressing also, the whole trailer seems as though it has a 'sephia' effect on it. All in all the colours and lighting used is simply connotating the mood of the family. 

Editing 

As the trailer is so short only the most important parts can be included. The cuts included must hook the viewer in and encourage people to go and see the film; therefore the trailer is edited to only include the most exciting shots, and the most frightening. The shots are edited chronologically to tell a narrative story that the viewer can follow to get an idea of what happens in the film and how it plays out. Transitions of the trailer are mostly straight cuts in sync with the sound of the trailer, scenes of course become more dramatic as the drama in the film progresses and becomes more tense. transitions become of a faster pace. 

Sound

At the beginning of the trailer there are sound effects included to work with the introduction – who the film has been made by and the title. When the ‘Film District’ logo appears there is an eerie ‘boom’ noise that we hear as soon as the logo appears.

When the title ‘Insidious’ appears, there is an eerie sound played that goes with the way the text moves- i.e. goes from ‘Insidious’ to ‘Is’. When we are taken to a shot of the old fashioned ticker, the ticking continues as the screen changes to black to introduce the film, running in a steady rhythm throughout, creating an eerie sense. This ticking continues for a further 20 seconds after, playing through different clips that also include speech. There is also the eerie sound of a rocking horse rocking during the clip in which the woman goes to see the rocking horse. The next time the title shot is shown, it is shown with an eerie ‘boom’ sound accompanying it similar to the introduction of ‘Film District’. There is then a creepy sound rising to a crescendo. 

There is further eerie music that rises to a crescendo as the action increases. 

There is also dialogue from all the characters featured as important clips from the film are included. Some of this dialogue matches with the clip and you can see the actor speaking it, and some of the dialogue does not match the action, i.e. you can’t see the actor speaking it and it may not necessarily be taken from that certain video clip. Further into the clip the ticking of the old fashioned timer continues again, although less prominent than before. This ticking again ends when the woman’s dialogue comes to a head – this is when all the action begins. This is when high paced music begins and once again comes to a crescendo at the end of the clips. There is then a title screen again and the ticking continues. At the very end of the trailer when the scary girl moves towards the camera there is a loud screech, then deadly silence.