Applying Theory to 'Fixation'

LEVI-STRAUSS - BINARY OPPOSITES
Levi-Strauss believed that all themes and elements in a story are paired in opposites. In the opening sequence of 'Fixation,' some of these can be identified:

• Normality vs Abnormality (Katie Jones appears to be quite normal, whereas the murderer is obviously disturbed)
• Good vs Evil (You cannot tell whether or not Katie Jones is a 'good' character or not, as not much is revealed about her, but she is wearing a pink dressing gown and talks in a quiet voice which suggests she is quite innocent. The murderer on the other hand is clearly evil as he has planned to murder her and has murdered others)
• Warm vs Cold (The murderer seems very cold and emotionless, as he is wearing plain colours like black and white, whereas Katie Jones is wearing a warm, pink dressing gown)

PROPP - CHARACTER TYPES

In the opening sequence only two characters are identified

1. Villain - Murderer (You can tell that he is the villain as he has killed people and it is obvious that he is goign to carry on killing)
2. Victim - Katie Jones (She doesn't really fall into any of Propps character categories as she is just one poerson in a line of victims)

BARTHES - ACTION AND ENIGMA CODES

An action code is an action that leads onto another action in order to create suspense. An enigma code is where a question is raised by either an event or a camera shot.

Action codes in opening sequence of 'Fixation'

• Murderer knocking on front door
• Murderer hitting Katie Jones' head against a wall
• Murderer putting his tie on

Enigma codes in openign sequence of 'Fixation'

• Why does the man have a photo of a woman?
• What does the burning of the photo symbolise?
• What position is he marking on the map?
• Who is going to open the door that he is knocking on?
• Is Katie Jones still alive when she hits her head?
• What is he going to do with her?

TODOROV - NARRATIVE STRUCTURE

I cannot apply Todorov's Narrative structure theory to my sequence because it is only the first two minutes of the film, and his theory applies to the whole film. His theory is that a film starts with an equilibrium, which is then disrupted by an event, there will then be failed atempts at a resolution before it is achieved. The film then ends with a new equilibrium.

Final Film

Comparing my opening sequence to the opening sequence of 'Se7en'



Similarities:
- The killer is a man with a disturbing obsession.
- The faces of the killers in both openign sequences are hidden.
- In the opening sequences, both killers are seen doing weird things eg. in 'Fixation' the murderer is collecting hair and urine and in 'Se7en' the murderer is peeling of his own skin to remove his fingerprints.
- Both opening sequences are used to introduce the killer, they arent vital to the story line.
- Both opening sequences use 'ghosting' effects and quick cuts to disorientate the audience.


Differences:
- In the opening sequence of 'Fixation' you see the murderer kill someone, whereas in 'Se7en' you dont see him murder anyone.
- The murderer in 'Fixation' targets women, whereas in 'Se7en, he kills people who have committed a sin.
- The murderer in 'Se7en' has all his victims planned from the beginning, whereas in 'Fixation' the murderer plans his murders one by one.
- 'Se7en' is a big budget, hollywood production whereas 'Fixation' is independent.

Personal Evaluation

In this project i believe i have developed some skills that i did not have before. Due to being in a small group of just two people, i learned to be a lot more organised becuase i had a lot more responsibility than if i was in a larger group. Neither me or Luke missed any deadlines or failed to do something that was agreed to do in our group. I now have a lot more confidense in my technical ability because i was left on my own with the project a lot during my private studies and this gave me a chance to experiment, and achieving some good results that were used in the final sequence.

The main critisism of myself was that i did not plan the shoots enough in advance and ended up desiding a lot of what we were going to shoot, there and then. We were lucky that we were only filming at Luke's house which was easily accessible and we could go back and reshoot whenever we wanted.

Influence

After watching the the opening sequence for 'Se7en' in class, it became a major influence on my own two minute sequence. The things i liked about Se7en was the music, the pace, the editing style, and its slight horror influence. I wanted to try and incorporate these into my opening sequence.

Originally, we had no music, which made it difficult to edit to a fast pace. We were recomended the website www.audiolicense.net where we found a lot of good music, including 'Break the Beat' by Barrie Gledden and John Horrocks, which was the music we desided to use. The music was quite fast paced. unusual and jumpy, which was very similar to Se7en. Using this music, we could edit the sequence the way we wanted to, making the pace quicker, and using more interesting editing techniques such as jump cuts.