Halloween 1978 - Horror Genre

Halloween is a 1978 low budget, American Independent horror film set in the fictional suburban town of Haddonfield, Illinois, USA, on Halloween.
A psychotic murderer institutionalised since childhood escapes on a mindless rampage while his doctor chases him through the streets.
Halloween was produced on a budget of $320,000 and grossed $47 million at the box office in the US (equivalent to over $150 million as of 2008) becoming one of the most independent films of all time.
Many critics credit the film as the first in a long line of Slasher films inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960). The movie originated many cliches found in low-budget horror films of the 1980's and 1900's. However the film contains little graphic violence and gore.

Halloween 1978 (Trailer) from Roy Chen on Vimeo.

Camera Angles

The film starts with an extreme long shot of a pumpkin slowly zooming in and eventually ending with an extreme close up of the pumpkin.

As the camera zooms in, the titles appear on the screen in a bright orange/deep red colour, the colour theme suggests that the film is of a horror genre. The pumpkin is very iconic of Halloween and the red colour on the titles show connotations of blood, gore and death.

The opening scene starts off with a master shot of the house from an extreme long shot, this scene again, like the titles scene slowly zooms into the house to a close up. surrounding of the house is dark and gloomy, again iconic of Halloween time where it is very quiet and dark on the streets.

The camera then changes to hand held, this shows a subjective point of view; through the eyes of one Michael Myers. Hand held gives a more real feel to the film, it engrosses the viewer, making them feel they're almost part of the scene.
Throughout the scene, while walking up the stairs, looking around his sisters room and watching his sister brush her hair, Michael Myers has a mask on his face, the camera also appears to have the same mask on. This again shows a subjective point of view, through the eyes of Michael Myers.
The director uses a higher angle view go give the audience an illusion that the killer is a full grown adult, where in reality, the killer is a small child.
The scene ends with a reverse tracking shot while Michaels parents return home and reveal his face on camera.


Mise-En-Scene
Halloween opens with a plain black background with a pumpkin carved with a face in the distance. The carved pumpkin is iconic of Halloween as it is typical for families to carve and light up pumpkins at this time of year.
The titles appear in a bright orange colour and then fade to red and then black. The black/orange/red colour scheme suggest that this film if of a horror genre, also, the red colour shows connotations of blood and gore.


Sound & Editing
Halloween starts off with the non-diegetic, iconic theme tune as the titles appear. The tune is ominous, eerie, and repetitive, almost psychotic. It plays at a steady pace, creating suspense.
As the scene opens, we hear diegetic sounds of young children chanting Halloween songs, supposedly as they're trick-or-treating. The camera then moves on to Michael Myers moving inside the house, at this point, we hear incidental creepy music playing at a slow pace. Myers progresses towards the stairs, the music gets louder and speeds up slightly thus creating tension. In the background we hear an incidental church bell, this also helps to build up suspense.

Camera Shots & Angles

 The camera is also known as ‘the all Seeing Eye; it shows viewers parts of a scene that they wouldn’t be able to see in real life.

Camera angles and movements combine to create a sequence of images, just as words, word order, punctuation and grammar combine to make the meaning of a sentence.

When describing different cinematic shots, different terms are used to indicate the amount of subject matter contained within a frame, how far away the camera is from the subject, and the perspective of the viewer. Each different shot has a different purpose and effect. A change between two different shots is called a ‘cut’.

Types of camera angles include:

ECU (extreme close up) - As its name suggests, an extreme version of the close up, generally magnifying beyond what the human eye would experience in reality. An extreme close-up of a face, for instance, would show only the mouth or eyes, with no background detail whatsoever. This is a very artificial shot, and can be used for dramatic effect. 

CU (close up) - This shows very little background, and concentrates on either a face, or a specific detail of mise en scène. Everything else is just a blur in the background. This shot magnifies the object (think of how big it looks on a cinema screen) and shows the importance of things, be it words written on paper, or the expression on someone's face. The close-up takes us into the mind of a character.

MCU (medium close up) – a shot taken with the camera at a short distance from the subject. Medium close up usually refers to a shot of the head, neck and shoulders.

MS (medium shot) - Contains a figure from the knees/waist up and is normally used for dialogue scenes, or to show some detail of action. Variations on this include the ‘TWO SHOT’ (containing two figures from the waist up) and the ‘THREE SHOT’ (contains three figures...). Background detail is minimal, probably because location has been established earlier in the scene - the audience already knows where they are and now wants to focus on dialogue and character interaction.

MLS (medium long shot) - A shot taken with the camera at a distance from the subject, but closer than a long shot. A medium long shot usually shows the fully body, but not to life size.

LS (long shot) - This shows the image as approximately "life" size i.e. corresponding to the real distance between the audience and the screen in a cinema (the figure of a man would appear as six feet tall). This category includes the full shot showing the entire human body, with the head near the top of the frame and the feet near the bottom. While the focus is on characters, plenty of background detail still emerges.

ELS/ES (extreme long shot/establishing shot) – This can be taken from as much as a quarter of a mile away, and is generally used as a scene-setting, establishing shot. It normally shows an exterior, e.g. the outside of a building, or a landscape, and is often used to show scenes of thrilling action, for example, a war film or disaster movie. There will be very little detail visible in the shot, it's meant to give a general impression rather than specific information.

HAS (high angle shot aka aerial shot) – Not as extreme as a bird's eye view. The camera is elevated above the action using a crane to give a general overview. High angles make the object photographed seem smaller, and less significant. The object or character often become part of a wider picture.

LAS (low angle shot) – Low angles help give a sense of confusion to a viewer, of powerlessness within the action of a scene. The background of a low angle shot will tend to be just sky or ceiling, the lack of detail about the setting adding to the disorientation of the viewer. The added height of the object may make it inspire fear and insecurity in the viewer, who is psychologically dominated by the figure on the screen.

SRS (shot reverse shot) – A shot of one subject, then another, then back to the first. It is often used for conversation or reaction shots.

OSS (over the shoulder shot) – shot reverse shot positions the camera behind one figure, revealing the other figure, and part of the first figure's back, head and shoulder.

PVS (point of view shot) – The camera is positioned as though it is a human actually observing a scene, for example, actors' heads are on a level with the focus.