Interview with the Vampire- Intro analysis

(Analysed from a DVD)
During the first scenes of the intro, the names of the cast are shown before any other plot details are shown. These actors are extremely famous and widely known so this will help the popularity of the film increase.

These names occupy the middle of the screen to emphasize the famous actors that are cast in this movie. You can see from the first scene that the scene is occurring at night time, which is a very common theme for horror, thriller or paranormal films. During this introduction, the non-diegetic sounds used are violins and a choir. This is a very typical type of sound to be used for horror films as this creates a tensed atmosphere.

The size of the intro sits in the middle of the intro screen to emphasize the title. The words 'INTERVIEW' and 'VAMPIRE' stand out the most because they are the main aspects of this film, it starts with the interview and the whole film is about vampires. The colour is white which makes the title stand out among the dark background and the font is a serif font which connotes that the time this film was set in was a while ago.

 The camera slowly lowers to the ground until it is eye level with the public people among the streets whilst the credits are still appearing on the screen for things such as make up artists and the writer of the novel Anne Rice. 
The sound in these scenes are the same as the first scene, but fades louder than the outside world slowly over the period of the credits.

Here the choir start to quieten so the conversation between the interviewer and Lestat can be heard.
 You can see here that Lestat is peering out of the open window using a low angle. This angle makes him appear very powerful because he is above the camera and audience. This is very common when showing powerful characters in movie scenes. This camera shot is also crooked which creates disorientation, this is a fantastic technique to cause uneasiness.

 The scene where you get the first look of Lestat is a very vague one. You cannot see much of his characteristics which makes the introduction a lot more mysterious and creepy. Lestat's voice is very quiet and patient which creates more mystery about his character. You can also see that the lighting is hitting his chin and jaw which shows that the lighting is underneath him. This is a huge aspect of horror films which is used to create shadows on the face to connote danger, the first example below is from Dead Silence (another horror film) and a few plain examples.

Back to Interview with the Vampire, when Lestat turns around, still only a fraction of his character  can be seen because he doesn't turn around fully. This shows he has a lot of attitude and it keeps the mystery vibes high during this scene. The lighting angle is now behind him which now creates a low lighting on his face which supports the previous idea.

The position of his head connotes that he thinks he is of high power. Usually when a person turns around, their face points to the place they are talking to and usually move their head around before turning their body. Lestat here turns his head and body around at once without moving his neck with his nose high which is odd with the "normal" average person.

Next, you can see a match on action. Lestat states that his movements are too quick for the human eye. This scene shows him turning on the light extremely quickly. 
When he turns the light on, strings of a violin  and a "swoosh" sound are used for the "jumpscare" tactic, used to scare the audience. This is very common among horror sound conventions.



When Lestat very quickly sits down infront of the interviewer, you can now fully see the characteristics of his face. The detail and quality of the MES used is very high because you can see each individual blood vessel on his face, the colour of his irises and the point on his fangs. This makes the intro a lot more unnerving which is why this film is classified as a horror film. The sound used at the point of his seating is very quick and loud with low and high tones (violin and cello), again to emphasize the speed of his movement and to also scare the audience.

An over the shoulder shot is used typically to show a characters reactions, this shows the audience whether the character is dangerous or not and may influence the audience to feel the tension present in the scene.

A lot of techniques from this film may be used for my future production because the messages that the production team attempted to get across to the audience have done so nicely and the scenes flow smoothly which is what I want my production to be like.