Sunday 24 January 2010

REC Opening sequence analysis.


"REC" is a spanish supernatural thriller and is part of the "found footage" genre. The opening sequence begins with a medium close up of a women with a microphone, she seems to be in some kind of hanger, with many firetrucks behind her. She begins by introducing a TV show, but halfway through pauses and seems uncomfotable, and asks the cameraman if diffrent parts of her body are visible. She continues to say the intro, pauses, then tries it again. The effect of having her repeat the opening over and over again, and the way she pauses and seems uncomfotable is both confusing and ominous for the audience. The way she looks uncomfertable for seemingly no reason makes the audience uncomfotable, and creates an unsettling effect from the get go. Also this adds realism, which makes the scarier scenes later in the film have much more impact.
The scene then cuts to a policeman standing outside with the camera trained on him, and the women from the last scene is standing next to him. She walks over to the camera man and whispers in his ear that if the interview does not go well, then he should cut to save tape. She then goes on to interview him about how the firemen are organised. the way that the scene does not begin with the interview, and the fact that the footage has obviously not been edited again adds a dimension of realism. The negative dialouge in this mini scene seres the same perpose that the awkward pauses in the last one did, which is to say, that all is not somehow well, and that people are rather aggresive towards eachother, which ties into later narrative since people begin to be very distrusting of eachother and the authorities view the main characters as expendable.
All the sound in the sequence is diegetic, which makes sence considering that the entire sequence is built around making the footage seem as real as possible which is a major covention of the found footage genre. The opening includes no titles, credits, or a a conventional opening of any kind, all for the sake of realism.
The shots that the sequence includes are:
Medium close up.
close up.
track.
zoom.

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