RED LIGHTS ANALYSIS

13/9/14 RESEARCH | THE ART OF THE TITLE: RED LIGHTS (2012)

Red Lights is a sci-fi thriller opening sequence. I really enjoyed deconstructing it as I enjoy sci-fi films, so I found it fascinating to analyse. I could tell it was a thriller firstly because of the soundtrack. It was instrumental music with violins which added a sinister and tense edge to the music and the mood of the extract. This was a code as to the genre of the film; that it might be sinister, even a little bit creepy, which fits the sci-fi genre.

The images were another code. They were streaky, blurred, unclear images that suggest mystery and add a sense of intrigue as to what the pictures are really showing. Editing is used to add effects to the text – dots of light appear around the credits, as if building up a blurry image of something that cannot quite be seen. Black and white images of an eye, equations on a board and historical portraits denotes secrets from the past; it hints at something unknown that someone/something is searching for. Then the clues become more obvious; spidery hands that don’t look human, a newspaper cutting of a story about a UFO sighting. These are the final codes as to what the film will be about, the last pieces of the puzzle and mystery the previous images built up. They suggest science fiction, aliens, extra-terrestrial life waiting to be discovered, as well as the idea it may be harmful or scary.