Scream opening sequence analysis

Within the first 15 seconds of the opening sequence, we see our main female protagonist. She appeals to the male gaze theory due to her attractiveness as the subtle low key backlight is showing off her facial features and appealing more to the male target audience. We know that she won't be fulfilling the final girl theory as that is sterotypically taken by a female who is: shy, not heavily made up and is typically not blonde. She is all of those things and also as we are left to suggest through barthes theory, the person that she is on the phone to is the murderer, she must be the victim. Due to the main conversation points being on the phone, we are left with the enigma of who is the male on the phone? and what does he want with this female? At 0:33 seconds we see a zoom on the females face, her facial expression changes from a seeming smile to a serious or anxious look. This builds up  the semiotics that this character is weaker and more scared than the stereotypical horror lead. We also see a side light on her face the connotations of this are that she has something to hide or has a split personality, this could foreshadow future events or lead to further character development.

The main props seen in this scene are knives . We see at 1:49 a medium long shot of this character on the phone and in the foreground we see knives and she picks one up and messes around with it knives have the connotations of violence and could foreshadow future events in the film. At this point in the sequence she says "you know the one in the white mask who walks round and stalks babysitters." This could be seen as ironic, due to the fact that the scream costume has a white mask and this male on the phone (who we are left to assume is the murderer) is stalking her. This could also foreshadow future events leading up to her death.

The popcorn is first seen at 1:08 and could be seen as a metaphor for rising tensions or the females fear as it starts out small when she starts talking to the male as from what he says, she has nothing to worry about, bu it is as he becomes more frantic in his tone at around 1:54 that the popcorn seems to grow, much like the females fear and the tension seems to rise to a point at around 2:27 where he says "I want to know who i'm looking at." At this point, the woman panics and walks away. There is then a cutaway to the popcorn, which is about to burst. This could show that the main character is very scared and tensions are high after what the man on the phone said to her. We also see a change in lighting as up until 2:30, the lighting seems to be high key top lighting, which could connote divinity and or purity, but after 2:30, we see darker lighting as the woman is scared and in most shots, we see it consuming the whole of her face. This could show that she has lost the divinity since she got the call and is fearful for her life.