|
Introduction |
Title Graphics |
Camera work And editing |
Lighting |
Iconography |
Music and sound |
Costume |
Comments |
|
|
1931 James Whale |
Story teller Evening suit / showman Formal intro / Friendly Warning and explains the themes |
B/w – blurred Faces and fists / Mad eyes surrounding Devilish face |
Long pan around Mourners / long Uncut sequences/ Long close ups / Straight cuts/ Fade to black/ Very static camera |
Low key/ Sharp shadows/ gloomy |
Stakes/ burial Ground/ mourners/ priest/ grave diggers/ Grave robbers/ gibbet and body/ hunch backed Assistant/ figure looks Like ‘Death’?/ barren landscape |
Opening Scary music then none / no dialogue for long time / Diegetic noises only e.g. storm, Church bells, shouting of mob |
Men in suits / fashion of the 1930s/ Elizabeth in white plus blonde hair/ Peasants in Rustic clothing |
Dispenses with start of story entirely, starts with Henry (wrong name) and Fritz (stereotypical name) robbing graves; Henry and Elizabeth engaged; Victor is best friend; monster’s brain came from a criminal; nobody dies except one of his professors! Ends with …
Question: did this director read the book at all??? |
|
1997 Kenneth Branagh |
Female voice over reading quotation from book |
White text gradually growing larger on screen : Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and scrolling up screen a note about the setting and themes of the story. |
Establishing shot of ship in storm; slow zooms in on characters, intercut with close ups of reactions to storm and of approaching ice, shot reaction shot; lots of edits a high speed visual montage; mid shot lingers over loss of man over side; later close up on bloody hand on ice; long shot of figure looming in the mist in the distance; later scenes in the wood panelled captain’s cabin. |
Natural; dark with a sense of moonlight in the storm, lanterns, later full day light but no shadows almost a white out. |
Storm Dark Screaming Weird sounds Figure looming out of mist Howling dogs Sudden death of dogs Bloody hand Fear of sailors. |
Storm and dramatic music; men shouting and dogs howling, peculiar and spine chilling sounds; mixture of diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. |
Early 19th century costume. (of the right era) |
Obsession of Walton clearly shown as link between the two men and set as focus of story. |