F.L - Technical Analysis, Funny Games (Haneke, 2007)

I analysed Funny Games (Haneke, 2007) I looked at each shot and focused on the following four areas:

• Camera angle/distance
• Duration of shot
• Mise-en-scene
• Sound

• From this I can clearly see that 55% of the shots feature the family (who you are lead to believe are the protagonists). This immediately allows the audience to create a positive bond with the family because they are given prevalence. 
• The average length of shot ranges between 5-8 seconds, with 45% of the shots being this length, this is quite a slow cutting rate in comparison with other horror film opens, this fits well with the opening because the opening is different to a horror film and doesn't feature many typical horror-film aspects. 
• Camera movement is kept in a fixed position (be dies the tracking shots of the car). This keeps the sequences relatively repetitive and allows a small sense of continuity editing (very minimal), however it doesn't create much pace and the scene lacks any real tension.
• The framing mainly uses central or slightly left/right aligned, but mainly centred with titles either central or located at the bottom of the frame. On one shot there are hands in the bottom of the frame, but the next sequence in which it focuses on the same shot, the hands are then centred to the centre of the shot. 
• The transitions are simple cuts between each scene with no apparent continuity or montage editing. The only visual effects which are featured are the title credits, which use a basic font, plain red colour and medium size text; these are normally located in the centre or bottom of the screen. The bold colour draws attention to them and could potentially detract the audiences attention away from the characters/shot. 

I feel this film opening is relevant to my groups planned production, because:

• It focuses on a family structure, which is the main focus of our production – a normal family that seem innocent and nothing ‘strange’ about them, however as the story develops you learn more about them.
• Also, the beginning looks at mundane aspects of life, like a normal car journey. Similarly to our production, the first half will focus on a normal family kitchen scene, and this is clearly paralleled with the ‘Identity’ opening, but just through a different set up (car journey vs. kitchen discussion).
• Lastly, both use simplistic shots but focus on the parents’ emotions; this is similar to our production because we will aim to capture the characters emotions through close-ups and mid-shots as well. We feel this is an accurate and appropriate way of showing the characters thoughts and feelings to the audience, without presenting them as the antagonists too obviously.