Research - Analysis of the first 15 minutes of a similar film

I have chosen to annotate the first 15 minutes of "Captivity", a psycological horror from 2007. It focus' on a woman who is drugged and taken. Jennifer awakens to find herself locked in a cell with no way out. The film has similar themes to our own film as it is about someone being kidnapped with no way out, featuring the hostile situation that is the main focus of our film. Below is my annotation, including screen shots.

The film starts with showing us a close on a gas hob being ignited and a pan being placed on top. We see a hand covered in a black glove take a box of plaster of paris off of the shelf. The shot then jumps to a jug of what looks like water then to an extreme close up of a mans face. The mans face shows fear as his eyes move franctically move backwards and forwards. The right side of his face is barely visible due to the dark lighting that symbolises that something bad is going to happen to him. This shot of the mans eye's is the kind of effect we want to get when emphasising the three teenage hostages faces, to show that they are worried, but can't do anything about what is happening to them. The camera seems to follow the direction of the mans eyes to show that he has seen his kidnapper. The kidnapper is stiring something in the pan on the stove. The film then cuts back to a close up of the kidnapper inject something into their victim.

The film cuts again to the kidnapper over the pan. The close up of his hand and the plaster of paris emphasises that he isn't simply building a model with that plaster of paris. The next shot is of an alarm clock/timer; the shot is very low lighted, so it is hard to see what it actually is making the ringing noise. The camera then pans to see a man laid down with what looks like the bandages over his face. The next shot is of an extreme close up yet again of the mans eyes. The man is covered in what we assume is bandages, with tubes that hover over his face. When the man first open his eyes, they seem to flicker, like when a light is first switched on, or you wake from a deep sleep. This is also the effect we want to create when we first see our hostages, we want them to be disturbed by the light being turned on but also fearful as they know that someone is there.

After seeing the name of the film, we then change the scenery completely. The film seems to cut between two different scenes, a black and white scene of someone driving in a car, which is possibly a flash back for the person in the other scene. The other scene is in colour, and it seems like an interview with a girl. We later find that it isn't a flashback for the girl, but simply of the kidnapper. They pick up a magazine whilst in the car to show that the girl in the interview is actually on the cover of the magazine. The colours of the magazine are black and white with blues, yellow and peach. Any colour relating to the image of the girl that is on the cover is then the only colour shown when on the scenes with the driver. We soon find out that the kidnapper has a fascination with the girl since whilst the kidnapper is creating a college on their new victim, they are watching her interview. Plus every time we are in the scene with the kidnapper driving all they seem to see only billboards and posters of this one girl no matter where they go. We want to create a sense of fascination with our characters Jane and Steve. Their fascination is that they want children which they are unable to have, so they kidnap the ones they feel will make their perfect family. The film seems to mix the idea of evil and good together with the fact that whilst the kidnapper is performing the torture on his victims they are also playing relaxing, soothing music in the background, creating a sense of a sadistic human, who believes that what they are doing is relaxing therefore they believe it is right. We want our characters Jane and Steve to be like this, and have this sense of sadistic nature about them since they have kidnapped teenagers, but they believe that what they are doing is right.

What we can take from "Captivity"
The key inspiration from this clip is the way in which the victim uses their eyes to show how they are feeling. We need to create this with our victims/hostages in order to create an overall sense of fear and torment within the film. The use of the close up on the eyes of the victim is the main technique that we could use. The similarities between Steve and Jane and the kidnapper inthe film is that they are both kidnapping someone to fulfill themselves and their lives.