This morning, we watched some clips of an art film titled "Under The Skin" which was directed by Jonathan Glazer and stars Scarlett Johansson who also starred in "The Avengers" in 2012. The film "Under The Skin" was made in 2013 and was filmed in Scotland on a budget of $13.3 million.
Just from the opening of this film, a strong feeling of unease spreads over you- and none of the strange happenings during the film have even been shown yet. Here is a clip of the opening:
Just from the opening of this film, a strong feeling of unease spreads over you- and none of the strange happenings during the film have even been shown yet. Here is a clip of the opening:
There are a few factors that make this so uncomfortable to watch. One of these factors is the unsettling audio which helps to build the tension. There is a static mechanical ambient sound that seems to be building up and getting more intense as the blue light you see at the beginning is getting closer. Near the middle you can hear a voice saying letters in the English alphabet, making sounds used in common English words such as the "th" sound and then finally some words beginning with the letter 'F'. Here is a screenshot of the speaking from this scene that I found on IMDb:
I found this voice really unsettling as it just didn't sound natural. It's as though it is someone who's trying to get their head around the English language and is trying to learn it. With this unsettling audio there is also the strange visuals. What's different about this opening- compared to other openings where something is a close up and appears to be something unidentifiable, and then the camera zooms out and the object is revealed- is that it is so long. The tension in this opening scene makes you feel so uneasy because usually scenes like this seem last for about a minute or less, however this scene lasts for just over three minutes. If it wasn't for the audio in this scene then I could imagine it being quite frustrating trying to work out what the black and white objects are.
Due to the colouring of the objects on the black background it makes it hard to try and identify the objects. They're moving incredibly slow and there is one particular part where a black objects appears as though it is going to eclipse the light, however there are 2 small gaps which is very frustrating and unsettling as you would have expected it to have completely covered the light source. I really didn't enjoy the opening to this scene as I thought it was really creepy and it made me feel extremely on edge.
Due to the colouring of the objects on the black background it makes it hard to try and identify the objects. They're moving incredibly slow and there is one particular part where a black objects appears as though it is going to eclipse the light, however there are 2 small gaps which is very frustrating and unsettling as you would have expected it to have completely covered the light source. I really didn't enjoy the opening to this scene as I thought it was really creepy and it made me feel extremely on edge.
Above are some stills from another clip that we watched. The clip was symbolic for the woman seducing the men and then proceeding to murder them. In this scene they both begin to take their clothes off and the man follows the woman into the black. As he follows the woman he begins to sink into the black floor as though he is walking into the sea. The floor appears to engulf him. Now this alone is strange enough, however it then moves "underwater". There is a blue cast over the scene which I would imagine is there to mimic water, or perhaps its for the same reason that horror films use the colour blue: for sadness and grief, as cool colours such as blue create very negative emotions for the audience.
At first, you think that the man is alone in this vast dark space, and he appears to be very confused,however then he sees another man looking creature and attempts to drift towards him. There is no dialogue in this scene, which adds to the creepiness of it. As the man gets closer to the other man, he looks as though he has been underwater for an extremely long time, as his skin appears to be very loose and wrinkled and seems to move with the "water". The man stretches his wrinkled hand out in a very stiff motion which makes it look as though he has been filled with something and can no longer move in a human way. After they make contact, there is a strange echoey popping sound (which actually made me jump, as I wasn't expecting it considering the audio had been silent up until this point). The "man" then goes all saggy as though he has been popped and all that is left of him is skin:
At first, you think that the man is alone in this vast dark space, and he appears to be very confused,however then he sees another man looking creature and attempts to drift towards him. There is no dialogue in this scene, which adds to the creepiness of it. As the man gets closer to the other man, he looks as though he has been underwater for an extremely long time, as his skin appears to be very loose and wrinkled and seems to move with the "water". The man stretches his wrinkled hand out in a very stiff motion which makes it look as though he has been filled with something and can no longer move in a human way. After they make contact, there is a strange echoey popping sound (which actually made me jump, as I wasn't expecting it considering the audio had been silent up until this point). The "man" then goes all saggy as though he has been popped and all that is left of him is skin:
After the "man" has "popped" that same awful music from the opening scene returns and makes the scene extremely scary suddenly. The scene becomes scary due to the music sounding like it is building up to something, but what else could it be building up to? After all a man has just popped, what could come next? Well after a minute or two of watching this saggy "body" distort as it floats around, we are then shown a "red river". I'm not entirely sure if it is water that is flowing or whether it is something thicker as the way it flows is too viscous to be just water. When I first saw it, I initially thought that it was something disgusting like the man's insides but now I'm not too sure.
As weird and disgusting as this scene was, I still enjoyed how the two contrasting colours were used: you go from a somber blue colour to a bright dangerous and angry red. The scene finishes where the red river seems to run out and then it is morphed into a beam of light. I think the visuals of this are very interesting and I'd really like to experiment with things like this, just to see what I could create, as you can easily influence how the audience feels with visuals such as objects morphing into something else.
The audio in the scene creates a juxtaposition. Our tutor told us about a video (which unfortunately I couldn't find) of a pencil being sharped in a sharpener, but the audio has been replaced with sex sounds which makes people feel uncomfortable- in a similar way that the opening to "Under The Skin" does. He told us of another video with a ceiling fan where the audio has been replaced with the sound of a helicopter, which again creates the same feeling. I'm going to try and create a similar thing. I thought that a good juxtaposition to do would be an animal being cuddled with crushing/squelching sounds, as when someone finds something cute, it is instinct to want to squish it, but your brain stops you, so I thought that this would work well to make the audience uncomfortable.
As weird and disgusting as this scene was, I still enjoyed how the two contrasting colours were used: you go from a somber blue colour to a bright dangerous and angry red. The scene finishes where the red river seems to run out and then it is morphed into a beam of light. I think the visuals of this are very interesting and I'd really like to experiment with things like this, just to see what I could create, as you can easily influence how the audience feels with visuals such as objects morphing into something else.
The audio in the scene creates a juxtaposition. Our tutor told us about a video (which unfortunately I couldn't find) of a pencil being sharped in a sharpener, but the audio has been replaced with sex sounds which makes people feel uncomfortable- in a similar way that the opening to "Under The Skin" does. He told us of another video with a ceiling fan where the audio has been replaced with the sound of a helicopter, which again creates the same feeling. I'm going to try and create a similar thing. I thought that a good juxtaposition to do would be an animal being cuddled with crushing/squelching sounds, as when someone finds something cute, it is instinct to want to squish it, but your brain stops you, so I thought that this would work well to make the audience uncomfortable.
Mini Video on how sound affects visuals
For this, I recorded myself giving my dog a cuddle. I then went on to YouTube to find some copyright free squishing sounds and I instantly found the perfect one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boRHs3Uidc0 and this one too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jg61AJC7yU
Sources:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1441395/quotes?item=qt2205329
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1441395/trivia?tab=qt&ref_=tt_trv_qu
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1441395/locations
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under_the_Skin_%282013_film%29
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1441395/quotes?item=qt2205329
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1441395/trivia?tab=qt&ref_=tt_trv_qu
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1441395/locations
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under_the_Skin_%282013_film%29