Thursday 18 December 2014

x-files essay


How does the opening sequence to the X-Files Squeeze attract the audience?

In this episode of the x-files there is a person called Eugene victor tooms who is a killer mutant who only goes after people with damaged livers he then he can shape his body to fit through the smallest of spaces. He only kills 4 people when he comes out of hibernation which he hibernates for 30 years. Scully and Mulder are the two agents that are sent to try and sort the case but after Eugene is captured he is let out of his mental institution  he goes after Scully for his final kill before hibernating.

The X-Files and CSI have the same start of someone dying or someone finding a body audience expectation and anticipation both shows use of the horror/thriller genre.

Establishing shot which is a long high shot showing where they are. Its dark it’s the x-files which means you know what’s going to happen. The scene dissolves from 1 to 2.

The purpose of the high angle shot of the man leaving the building tells you he’s the one to die the angle makes him look isolated and vulnerable.

The effect of the editing when the man is walking to his car while he’s being observed makes him look vulnerable everything goes grey around him but he is normal it adds tension because the series of edits from the drain to the man until you notice a pair of yellow eyes staring at the camera out of the drain.

The man I slowed down and everything is de-saturated to tell the audience he’s the target he’s the one going to die. He also has a yellowy glow to his skin. The man has liver damage because his skin is yellowish.

The sound used in the sequence is a low quiet relaxing song at the start when you first see the man outside the building, then when you see the man in the drain the song turns into strings being plucked (sound motifs) everyone is getting quitter while the strings being plucked is getting louder. It also has a crescendo.

The man is made the victim when there is no one watching the security cameras so he is definitely alone or is he? You see a jump cut to the elevator that has the doors open but the elevator isn’t there you here and the wires shaking off each other as though there is someone climbing up the elevator shaft.

You can’t see behind the man as he walks away because they don’t want to reveal the killer. The man walks into his dark office ( mise-en-scene) the man sits down and realises he wants a coffee he goes to make one and the camera tracks behind him as though he was being followed.

Then as the camera leaves the room it keeps changing from him to the vent but then the vent starts to have a screw coming out as though there is someone unscrewing it and a loud screeching sound is playing as the music starts to die down the vent opens up for an innuendo.

In the final section after the actual murder the significance of the camera movement and sound is used like the camera is a quick movement to his room which is pitch black so you can’t see in the room and after the door closes the man is attacked and the you can see the curtains moving then you see the door handle moving because he wants to get out then it breaks. Then when the camera gets into the room you can see something that looks like blood dripping from the desk to the ground then when the camera tracks up you see its coming from the coffee cup so you think it is just the coffee that is dripping then the camera tracks to the right and in the reflection of the picture you can see his dead body lying in the chair/sofa. The camera tracks around the room and you see the globe that the man was playing with is now gone because the person who killed him takes a little gift for himself after but you also see the coffee mug and you notice that there is some blood coming from it but you think it is coffee this is playing with the viewer’s mind but further into the episode you find out that the killer eats the livers to survive because he needs to kill 5 people in order to hibernate. Then the camera tracks over to the wall and the air vent Eugene Tooms came from, is closing and the screws start screwing back into place. Then it cuts to the title sequence. And the rest is people looking for clues.