Media Research

Media Research

We Need to Talk about Kevin (2011)

I chose to look at a quite well known film considering it is classed as Gritty Realism,'We Need to Talk about Kevin' was directed by Lynne Ramsay.

There is a 2 second darkness before the first title appears,

BBC Film - 10 seconds, no sound.




















Fade of 4 second darkness.

UK Film Council - 6 seconds, still no sound.

       Fade of 4 second darkness.

Piccadilly Pictures - 10 seconds, no sound.

      Fade of 2 second darkness.

Footprint Investments - 4 seconds, no sound.

Fade of 3 seconds darkness with a maraca like sound happening.

The film title starts to appear with the maraca sound ongoing - 2 seconds.

Then there is a sudden flash with a bang sound and the name 'Kevin' appears, the maraca sound starts to die down - 3 seconds.

     Fade of 5 second darkness, with the maraca sound very quite.

After the 5 second darkness, the film fades up into an empty bedroom where your eyes look straight towards the white net curtain blowing in the wind. You don't see anything else appear or happen apart from the quite maraca sound still going on. (non-diegetic sound). This creates quite a mysterious and unsettling atmosphere for the audience.

The camera then starts to zoom towards the net curtain which continues to blow in the wind and maraca sound starts to get faster and louder. Then underneath this sound you start to hear a womans voice (diegetic sound) and she sounds a bit worried, at first the maraca and voice are happening at the same time but then as the maraca gets louder the voice starts to fade and then stops. This then leads the audience to expect something horrible to be happening which creates a very tense atmosphere.

Then as the maraca gets to its peak the film snaps to a white screen where the maraca is played the loudest it can. This then creates lots of suspense for the audience because they don't have a clue what is coming next.

Then there is a total whiteness which is a shock to the eyes because it snaps onto the screen quick.

The maraca then starts to sound like an old film role being used, then the film fades into a birds eye view of lots of topless people covered in a red substance. whilst this is happening the film role sound also fades into lots of voices shouting and in between all the voices you pick out the womans voice you heard earlier. This may put the audience at ease because nothing terrible is happening but then they might think 'oh god, what is all the red stuff?'

The shouting voices continue and whilst that is happening you pick out some other noises like a whistle and a splat of something. Whilst you are hearing this you realize that people are throwing tomatoes hence them all being covered in red stuff. Unlike many other films you don't see any actors names or production team names.