US (2019)
Basic information
Genre: physiological horror
Director: Jordan Peele
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
Box office: $256.1 million
Cinematography: Mike Gioulakis
Overview: tells the story of a family visiting Santa Cruz, California when they are confronted by a family nearly identical to them, with grotesque features and mysterious motives.
Film Opening video
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gXzAYkTvwHg2Pnhw5WEwKWo299YJa64j/view?usp=drivesdk
Film Opening Analysis
Start off with a familiar introduction of film producing company Universal. With a big globe meaning everywhere around the world with a big capital and bold words written: “UNIVERSAL” mention the importance of the name of the company slowly wraps around the globe and into the middle
The introduction still continues with a scene inside a running train with bright colours and vibrant tones: blue and orange; red and green. These complementary colours mix in well and a scene of a hand stirring the cup of tea using slow zoom and track in shot introduces the productions team: MONKEY PAW PRODUCTIONS being shown in bright highlight blue
The scene doesn't start right away with showing the scene setting however it starts with a black scene and white words pop up on the screen, this is a great contrast as it represents the light and the dark, the good and the bad, the life and the death, moreover as the words keeps showing up there a sound of strong waves or wind follows each time the words appear creates a intense heavy feelings.
An opening scene with the diegetic sound from the old television using tracking shots and slow zoom which focuses the audience's attention and suggests watching what’s happening on the television screen. It’s an advertisement about fighting hunger through the quote: “Hand across America” with red people holding hands, this connotes a signal of the film. For this, we can see there’s frequent use of the colour red to signify the main colour.
Switch of scene, at a night market there’s a tracking shot zooming in at three people conveying that they’re a family with background noise of people playing other games. Constant switching between medium close-up cuts of the girls and other shots at the market showing the girls ', way of looking while the sounds of games and rollercoasters behind.
A long shot and low angle shot of the girls looking down at the stairs where there is less light signifies she shouldn’t go down, suggesting that there’ll be something abnormal down the stairs and showing her curiosity as to what happens when she walks down. The diegetic sound as the girls walk down and the footsteps on the beach enhance the actions and support the scene, presenting that she’s going somewhere that she wasn’t meant to go.
Overall mood became darker, showing mystery with a slow tracking following as the girls walked. The use of multiple tracking shots connotes that she may be the main character, but the diegetic sound starts to fade showing clearly that she’s going somewhere far from the market.
An established long shot of a circus helps to introduce the new location and suggests the girl to follow in and as we can see, the girl does follow. The red color and yellow LED light stand out from the dark background somewhat captivating the girl which makes her drop the apple lollipop in her hand.
The entry was dark with cool tone colors blue and green with some orange at low intensity, the small light above followed the girls to make the girls stand out in the dark. The music and light suddenly stop, which puts the girl in a fight or flight situation and attracts the audience's attention with a moment of sudden silence. The red exit sign pops up signalling the girls to leave the place. Everything is black and the red sign which is colour matching with the red people holding hands. This helps increase the importance of 2 colors.
Here we can see the stereotype of the girl and her way of thinking when facing problems. Portraits the girl of a kid who likes to explore new things alone, being easily attracted to bright colours and things which may seem entertaining, the film directors also establish the girl to be afraid of the dark as she leans in when the lights black out. The diegetic sound of whistling helps to calm down the girl and the audience, using different angles: medium close-up, medium shots and long shots while she’s walking displays disorientating places with unreal images and reflections.
Suddenly, another sound of whistling but this time not from her, a medium close-up of her face looking confused as she looks back, it raises the awareness and intensity of the scene. The blue light shown above plays a good part in being the only light source and emphasizes the coldness, isolation, and passivity which puts the girl in the right situation. Set the tone and mood of the movie, being more intense and creepy at the time.
The girl is looking up, behind her there is a reflection of her. However, it is weird that it isn’t moving like her, not turning her head or following the movement of the girl. This raises the question from the audience, who is the other girl behind her? It may not be a reflection but might be something else. When she turns back, this confirms that the other girl must be another version of her, perhaps a doppelganger? Sudden strong music appears to describe the girl's facial expression that she might be frightened and surprised at the same time.
Some other Idents are shown after, the big red title placed in the middle, introducing companies involved in making of film overlapping a scene of a bunny in a cage that is slowly zoomed out, with the sound playing as it is introducing the main music of the film, The music seems spiritual yet obsess with the drums add on and the ways they sing makes it sound like music of a cult, a secret organization. It also signifies that the film will involve many people as the song sounds like a choir that has many people joining. The red letters appear again, emphasizing the importance of the colour red throughout the movie.
What I can learn after the film analysis is the main colour and theme of the film. It uses an overall dark theme with a bright red colour that is classic to use for horror films. The obsessive music can get the audience easily reminded about the film and camera technique of tracking shots use of slow zoom in and zoom out. The US has a slow flow of opening sequences however, it keeps viewers excited for the rest of the movie. Also with the dark colour, the red font.
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