Existing Product Research (Final Destination 2)

Final Destination 2:

In Final Destination, there is a variety of Mise en scene used. The costumes used in the clip are crucial in informing the audience of who the characters are. The costume the first character introduced is wearing an American police costume. There is then a biker wearing a complete leather biking suit. There are people in a car wearing colourful clothing. The costumes help the audience identify what each character is, such as the people wearing colourful bright clothing; we can identify that they are teenagers, and the person wearing the police outfit is a policeman. Lighting in the clip is minimally used as the scene is taking place on an American highway during the day, therefore the only lighting used is the daylight. This is interesting as the audience relate horror and gore with night time as it is dark, however the scene is well lit and is at daytime; this shows that the producers want the audience to be able to see what is happening in the scene clearly and is not for the faint hearted.

Makeup is used effectively in the production to show the audience what people look like. The policeman is wearing makeup that shows his skin as bright and clear; in turn this connotes that he is a good person. Makeup is also used on the two teenage girls as in the scene there is blood on their face; this helps the audience realise the intensity of their crash and see that they were hurt in the process. Where the makeup was most effective was when the man was burning alive when he was trapped in his car; there was blood and severe burn marks on his skin to show the audience how badly burnt he was and to illustrate the amount of pain he is going through.

In the scene there were many props used, all of which played a significant part in building a cataclysmic event. The main prop which also created dramatic irony in the scene was the large logs of wood. The logs of wood were the cause of the continuous, disastrous events. There was also other props such as the coffee, which directed the policemans attention away from the road while the logs started to fall off the truck, and the water bottle which fell under the brake pedal of the lady’s car, which in turn prevented allowing her to stop.

Sound was used in a variety of ways to illustrate the erratic events that were occurring. Majority of the sound used was diegetic sound as the sound that was in the scene was dramatic and loud enough to create a tense feeling in the audience. There was diegetic sound of tyres screeching, people screaming, fires blazing, logs pounding the floor, etc. There was also a non-diegetic sound of a dramatic theme tune playing which is effective as the audience notice that the events have stopped and the person being shown when the tune is playing is stunned and shocked from what she has witnessed.

Cinematography was used effectively to shock the audience. There were close ups of the characters faces to show their expressions as they were facing death; this was effective as the audience was able to see what the people in the scene were feeling like. Point of view shots were also frequently used, which created a sense of fear in the audience as they were able to see what the characters were witnessing before they were about to die. Panning was used to track the vehicles before they were about to become involved in the accidents also.

The editing of the scene was good at building up action. Continuity editing was used to show that the events were taking place in the order in which they were shown. There were straight cuts throughout the scene; when the action scene built up the cuts were fast and interchanging between events that were occurring simultaneously; this was excellent in building up shock and suspense in the audience as the fast cuts showed how fast the events were taking place which also made the audience felt at unease as many people were dying all so fast.

Audience:

Final Destination 2 is one of the films of a film franchise. It is about a girl who foresees people dying and starts to save their lives, however, the survivors mysteriously begin dying.
The target audience of Final Destination 2 are late teenagers to young adults, therefore being 16 to 25 year olds. This target audience would watch this movie as people who are younger would not be able to cope with the blood and gore and people who are older would not be attracted by the narrative. However the target audience stated would like to be kept shocked and discomforted by the extreme series of events that take place.