Scream (1996) - First 5 Minutes (Opening scene)

We find out that the genre of this film is a horror. One of the conventions of a horror film is that there is tension and it is trying to make the audience jump. The non diagetic sound builds tension as it is makes us feel that something bad is going to happen. The music in this film gives us the impression that it is building up to something that will make us jump. This film also shows a young woman at the beginning being stalked and harassed. This is another convention of a horror film, usually in horrors there is a young woman being targeted first. Horror films are supposed to bring up our worst nightmares. One of peoples main fears is being stalked and watched while your alone, and this film exploits that.

The young girl has a lot of camera time and there are alot of close ups of her. This will make the audience sympathise and warm to her. With alot of camera time being on the girl the audience are able to put themselve in that situation. The villain conforms to the stereotype of villains being mysterious. He is masked, which makes the audience want to know his true identity.

The opening scene is located in the middle of nowhere, this is a convention of a horror film. If it was located in the middle of nowhere this would mean if the woman was attacked she would have nowhere to run. I believe that the target audience of this film would be people of both ages aged about 15-25. I feel that many young people would be attracted to this as some of the main characters are young people, if the characters are the same sort of age range the audience will be able to relate to them which will make them more interested.