This is my first attempt at critiquing film, but here it goes. The example of mise-en-scene I chose was when Buffy and her love interest were leaving class. The camera starts off in a broad frame, but narrows in on them as they walk. I believe the intent here is to set the stage and show that they’re on a busy campus, but quickly focus the viewer in on the conversation. I don’t think this had any affect on the aesthetic of horror, but the zoom in technique is used quite often in horror.
There were several examples of non-diegetic sound in this piece, but I would like to focus on the music during the “silent” period. They used music a lot to heighten the intensity during action and fighting scenes. It is interesting how the void created by the lack of dialogue makes this even more important.
The diegetic sound I chose was Buffy’s scream at the end. What a great choice by the writers or director to break the vocal silence with the classic female, blood curdling scream. I think this had such a great effect, due to the minutes without dialogue.
I really appreciated your blog post, and your example is interesting. Your perspective is unique because you talked about the filming technique which I think is professional, and I agree with your opinion. The horror movie is always using the way to film from a broad space to a narrowed space, which creating a tense atmosphere. Sometimes silence is an effective way to create intense feeling, because it leaves enormous imagination to audiences to thinking. You provided a great example which the silence at the end of the movie to explaining the diegetic sound. I didn’t think about that part, and your opinion gives me another perspective.
Even though it was your first time critiquing a film, you did a great job. Personally, I think that your example for mise-en scene was spot on, even though I do not exactly fully understand the definition. I agree with you that zoom is a common technique used in horror movies. Zoom can definitely make a movie more scary.
Your example for non-diegetic sound was also good. Non-diegetic sound is a very interesting technique. It tends to force the viewer to be more focused on what is going on in the movie because there are no words to follow the actions that are being done. The music was also scary. Sometimes it can be very hard to know what exactly is going on in scenes where the non-diegetic sound technique is being implemented. Music definitely does help set the mood for movies. Do you think that there should have been diegetic sound at any point when there wasn’t? I believe that the use of non-diegetic sound during this scene contributed to the horror episode.
For diegetic sound, I thought the example you used was really good. I actually almost picked this scene as well. I agree that it was good that the movie ended the non-diegetic scene with a scream of bloody murder. It for sure got the viewers attention again if maybe he/she had spaced out. If there was no loud scream, I think the movie would have been more confusing.
Do you think that Buffy’s scream added to the horror of the film? I would personally say it had a different type of affect on the viewer. This is because her scream saved the day, therefore I would assume the viewers were relieved when they heard it rather rather than scared. I know I was. I agree with you that her scream was a good way to break the silence. I was happy to finally hear a voice. Do you think that the reason the non-diegetic sound was amplified during the silent period was to make up for the lack of diegetic sound since there was no talking? I thought this week’s assignment was interesting because we had to watch something in such a different way than we are use to in order to critique it. It seems like you are on the same page with me since this is also your first time critiquing film.