Case Study 3: SAW II

Micro Features

It firsty begins with the production titles. The scene begins with a close up on a light bulb hanging from a ceiling with a green filter, this adds a very isolated and gloomy atmosphere to the scene. It then pans across a dark space, which acts as a swipe transition, towards a close up on a vent; this could anticipate something is behind the vent like a camera. It then pans across the room to focus on a green filtered light on the wall; evoking a enclosed gloomy atmosphere then to a medium shot of a televison; emplying that a film will shown through that. It then hows a box with is door half broken off; hinting theres something in there which is significant to the scene. It then pans to a over the shoulder shot of a man pulling a small mirror toward him to reveal his eye been mutilated and he has a metal device on his neck; the blood and gore is a typical iconography of the horror genre, whilst the device represents torture. This sequence is like an establishing sequence showing the viewer the key things to focus on during the scene, they do not show a way of escape like a door only a vent.

It dwells on the monster fodders reactions in the mirror to evoke panic. The musci is diagetic and experimental to maintain the portrayal of panic. It then zooms out in a distorted way into an establishing shot of the room; showing him in the centre. It then pans to an overhead shot of the victim, this shows the viewer another view of the metal device, showing it is a mask filled with spikes. The victim is also looking up at this point showing more reaction shots of panic. It then shows a montage of quick, match on action shots from an overhead camera view. In each one it shows him screaming help or looking round for help; the montage shows that hes lost track of time and it also shows how helpless he is. At the end of the montage there is a extreme close up on the mask and its spikes. It then cuts to a hand held camera as he begins to stand up and walk around, the cuts remain quick to portray panic.

There is then a transition of a televisions white noise with a really quick shot of the puppet in a red filter, red representing blood and death. It then cuts to the televison which is now on, it then does shot/reverse shot between the monster fodder and the puppet on the television. The puppet tells him the 'game' he has to play to stay alive. On the television, it cuts to a medium shot of a man leaning over a man on a table and the voice of the antagonist tells him it's him. He tells him he needs a key to escape the trap and that he will give him a hint, the pace of his voice quickens to build more tension. The hint is a really quick shot of an x-ray with a key behind the eye; it is almost like a flash. This is done to evoke panic. It then goes onto to show a montage of distorted close up shots of him attempting to retrieve the key from his eye to continue the panic. The scene ends with the mask closing and killing him; with the main "SAW II" title proceeding afterward.

Macro Features

The genre is introduced in this scene as a gore/splatter horror, this is judged by the blood, the mutated eye and the climax where the mask closes on him. The antagonist Jigsaw is re-introduced as well as his phrase "i wanna play a game" continuing the franchise as a sequel to the original. The iconography used in this scene include;

• Green filter- evoking a gloomy atmosphere
• The scalpel- a device for cutting as well as a possible weapon
• "help" - commonly used in horror to evoke the sense of helplessness