To study a film of your choice.

To apply the knowledge from the media book and

from the class in identifying and interpreting the
following in the film.

Date: 07.09.2010
SAW I (Media Comm. Film Review)

Media Foundation Course – End of term assignment

SAW I
Saw is a 2004 American horror film directed by James Wan
and starring Cary Elwes, Leigh Whannell, and Danny
Directed by James Wan
Produced by Gregg Hoffman
Glover. The plot of the film was conceived of by James
Mark Burg Wan, while Whannell wrote the screenplay. It is the first
Oren Koules instalment of the Saw film series. The film's story revolves
Written by Leigh Whannell around two men who awaken kidnapped and chained in a
(Screenplay and Story) dilapidated industrial bathroom. They are given
James Wan
(Story)
instructions via a microcassette recorder on how to escape
Starring Leigh Whannell by following the "rules" of their "game". Meanwhile, police
Cary Elwes detectives investigate and attempt to apprehend the
Danny Glover criminal responsible.
Monica Potter
Michael Emerson The film was first screened January 19, 2004, at the
Shawnee Smith Sundance Film Festival to positive reviews.
Tobin Bell
Dina Meyer
It was then screened at the Toronto International Film
Music by Charlie Clouser
Cinematography David A. Armstrong Festival on September 18, 2004, with theatrical releases on
Editing by Kevin Greutert October 29, 2004, in the United States and December 2,
Studio Twisted Pictures 2004, in Australia. The film was originally rated NC-17 for
Evolution Entertainment strong, graphic violence, though after being slightly re-
Saw Productions
edited, it was released with a R rating.
Distributed by Lions gate
Critical responses varied. Some critics denounced the
Release date(s) January 19, 2004
entire film as nothing more than a "sadist gore fest" and a
(Sundance)
October 29, 2004 "low quality" and "cheap snuff film", while others praised
(United States) its stylish visuals and called it a true "chilling" and
December 2, 2004 "terrifying" horror film. Despite mixed reviews, Saw was a
(Australia) financial box office success.
Running time 103 minutes
Country United States Australia Box office
Language English
The film made $18,276,468 on its opening weekend which
Budget $1,100,000
Gross revenue $103,096,345[1] averaged $7,894 per theater from 2,467 theatres, and
Preceded by Saw (short) ranked #3 for the weekend behind The Grudge and Ray.
Saw went on to gross $103.1 million in 9 weeks of being in
theatres.
Followed by Saw II

Media Foundation Course – End of term assignment

Media Assignment
Purpose and Aims
1. To study a film of your choice
2. To apply the knowledge from the media book and from the class identifying and interpreting the
following in your film.
3. 1000 – 1500 words

Film: SAW I
A. What the film you have chosen and what the genre is, explain why you have chosen this film.

The film that I have chosen is “SAWI”. The film genre is horror. I have chosen this film because it not
stereo type horror films. Because the film does not scare us, there is no scene that makes us frightened
as much as we cannot sleep but there are many scene and ideas that are enough to curdle the blood.
So, I choosed it because if you watch it you will see the point that keeps feeling exciting, nervous, fear,
doubt and surprised.

B. Who are the director, their history, and film genres in the past, have they won any awards. What
is the director message to the audience?

Saw is a 2004 American horror film directed by James Wan and starring Cary Elwes, Leigh Whannell,
and Danny Glover.

James Wan (born 27 February 1977) is a Malaysian-born Australian producer, screenwriter, and film
director of Chinese heritage. He is widely known for directing the horror film Saw. He also directed
Dead Silence and Death Sentence.

Life and career

Wan was born in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia of Chinese ethnicity. He was raised in Perth, Western
Australia from a young age. It was his dream to make films from the age of 11. He went on to study at
the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, completing his Bachelor of Arts degree.

Before becoming popular in the film industry, he made his first feature film Stygian with Shannon
Young, which won 'Best Guerrilla Film' at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival in 2000.

He met future business partner Leigh Whannell while studying at RMIT. He would later go on to direct
the 2003 horror film, Saw with the help of Whannell, who wrote the script. Wan and Whannell made a
short version of the film to showcase the script. Whannell played the role of David in the short film, and
the leading role of Adam in the feature film. The three producers who saw the short film and read
Whannell's screenplay agreed to produce the film before Wan and Whannell even landed in Los
Angeles. Wan and Whannell decided to forgo upfront salary in return for gross profits. Shot for a low
US$1.2 million budget, the producers had a straight-to-DVD release in mind. However, Saw' was to
become a surprise record breaking theatrical horror franchise, earning Wan and Whannell much more
than they had originally predicted.[citation needed]

Since creating the franchise, Wan produced the sequels Saw II and Saw III, and served as executive
producer for Saw IV. He has been busy creating other works with his film school partner Leigh
Whannell. In 2007, he went on to broaden his filmography with another horror movie, Dead Silence,
and the action drama Death Sentence. Having worked on his last three films back to back, Wan told
Crave Online that he is ready for "a bit of time off just to chill... but at the same time I'm using this
opportunity to write again." Wan also directed a trailer for the survival horror video game Dead Space.
Wan current film, Insidious, is set to premiere at the 2010 Toronto Film Festival.

Media Foundation Course – End of term assignment

C. Where is the film shot- on location or in a film studio, give examples and why this may be
important for the setting of the film?

The film was set in the old bathroom. So it was not a film studio. There are no special effects like 3D.
The setting of the film is important and my opinion is that they are quite successful to set the film, to
use the location perfectly. Because, they used many specific places for Jigsaw’s games that was for
punishing the victims during the film.

The location is important for the setting of the film that makes the film veridical but, if that was
managed to combine with the story and the situation. The director has to keep balancing with narrative
and location. So, the audience can focus on the whole narrative and the director can keep the attention
from audience during the film.

D. Why has the director chosen specific actor/s or actress/s, what are the character functions in the
film i.e. Villain/Hero etc?

There is no point for this question because of that, the director had chosen actor and actress who are
not well-known stars. In my opinion is that he just choosed them because of to make it cheap. It is the
first film of the director so, he tried to spend small budget.

E. Identify 5 camera angles/shots and explain why you think they were used (class observation
included)

Point-of-view shot

Reflected angle

Close-up Canted angle

Close-

During the film they used lots of close-up camera angle techniques. These are some shots from the
saw. As I mentioned the director used many close-up and long shot for to give emotions and feeling
from their situation. [5. Shot] Also there was used point-of-view shot in many scene that gave us the
situation were the film setting. For example, they are dealing with the chain for to escape from this
situation. [1. Shot]

In the last shot we could see the Canted angle that shows us the distance between mobile phone and
the man.

Media Foundation Course – End of term assignment

If we talked about movement, they generally used zoom in and zoom out during the film. When the
victims released the dead man (in this time we could see the close up), we could see the movement
from the victims face to dead body and suddenly the zoom out was applied from closer shot to
distance shot.

F. Identify how the director has shown Time Sequences in the film.

When we watched the bathroom scene also this film is running in the old bathroom and there is
surviving between two people. Initial of the film, Jigsaw told the victim who is a doctor to kill the other
victim in 6 hours. So, we could understand that the whole story is being run in 6 hours. We constantly
came across the action codes about the time during these 6 hours. A lot of sound effects were used for
show the time. (When the director showed us the clock we could realize this action codes)

G. What type of narrative has been used i.e. objective/subjective/open close and explain why you
think this was used.

The director was used open narrative during the film. For the mystery, the director kept the story and
gave us many clues. End of the film we could understand some part of story but not whole story. Also
this story is still continuing. The Saw 6 was launched last year in March.

H. Music - what type of music is played and which age group or audience do you think this appeal
to? Is there an overall theme tune or different music used to show emotions etc in the film.

Soundtrack
Main article: Saw (soundtrack)

Megadeth's song "Die Dead Enough" was originally set to be featured in the movie, but was not used
for undisclosed reasons.

Also during the film, they showed us how to use action codes (sound effects). I could understand that
this is really difficult to editing part of the sound effects and now I can say they are really good at to do
this job well. We could feel everything what they would like to give us.

I. Identify an Enigma code and action code that is used within the film.

First of all; in the beginning of the film I run across to an enigma code that scene was about the
bathtub. When Adam was in a water-filled bathtub, he woke up suddenly and at the same time we
could catch the scene of the key was going off from the bathtub.

Another enigma code is about dead body that was lying between the victims. End of the film we
understood that point in fact this man was not died.

Actually whole film was generated by the many enigma codes and those clues were combined very
successful action codes. So, this point made the film active and deeply feeling by audience.

Media Foundation Course – End of term assignment

J. List 10 different job titles that were listed in the credits.

Directed by - James Wan

Produced by - Gregg Hoffman, Mark Burg, Oren Koules

Written by - Leigh Whannell (Screenplay and Story), James Wan (Story)

Starring - Leigh Whannell, Cary Elwes, Danny Glover, Monica Potter, Michael Emerson,
Shawnee, Smith, Tobin Bell, Dina Meyer

Music by - Charlie Clouser

Executive Producers - Stacey Testro, Peter Block, Jason Constantine

Production Designer - Julie Berghoff

Editor - Kevin Greutert

Costume Designer - Jennifer Soulages

Casting - AMY LIPPENS, C.S.A

Production Manager - Richard H. Prince

First Assistant Director - Daniel Jason Heffner. Second Assistant Director Alexa Motley

Script Supervisor - Jillian Gİacomini

First & Second Assistants Camera - Josh, Aaron, Todd

Loader - Lisa Villaire

Video Assist - Martin Glover

Art Director - Nanet Harty

Costumer - Christina Demasi

I would like to say this option, they really did good job about make-up and costume design. Especially
in the bathroom scene there was a man who was lying on the floor, his make-up was amazing it was
really looking like real. I could not understand that he was not dead.

K. Your overall summary of the film, how did the film make you feel/think?

This film the best horror film that I ever seen. As I said before, this film is not the stereotype horror
film. I did not scared too much but I really felt uncomfortable myself, something was really disturbed
me. But these feelings are good for me because I liked the horror films if they make me uncomfortable.

Also you can see the plot story of film;

Plot Summary for SAW I

Adam Stanheight (Leigh Whannell), a photographer, and Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes), an oncologist,
awaken at opposite ends of a grimy, disused bathroom, Adam in a water-filled bathtub. Both men are
chained at the ankle to the pipes. Between them lies a corpse holding a revolver and a microcassette
recorder. Adam and Lawrence discover tapes in their pockets; the men learn from both tapes that
Adam must escape the bathroom, while Lawrence must kill Adam before six o'clock, or he'll lose his

Media Foundation Course – End of term assignment

wife and daughter and be left to die. They find a bag containing two hacksaws, though neither is able to
cut through the chains. Adam breaks his and throws it at a mirror in frustration; Lawrence realizes that
they are meant to be used on their feet.

Lawrence tells Adam that their captor is the Jigsaw Killer, whose name is a misnomer; he never directly
kills anyone, instead putting victims in situations where they must go through physical and/or
psychological torture to survive and escape with better appreciation for life. Flashbacks show that
while Lawrence was talking with some students and an orderly named Zep Hindle (Michael Emerson)
about the terminal brain cancer of a man named John Kramer (Tobin Bell), he was approached by
Detectives David Tapp (Danny Glover) and Steven Sing (Ken Leung) about his penlight being found at
the scene of a Jigsaw "game". He viewed the testimony of Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith), a heroin
addict, who is the only known survivor of Jigsaw's games; she barely escaped having her jaws ripped
open during her game by a "reverse bear trap" and believes that her experience made her a better
person.

Meanwhile, Lawrence's wife and daughter, Alison (Monica Potter) and Diana (Makenzie Vega), are
being held captive in their home by a man who is watching Adam and Lawrence through a camera
behind the bathroom's mirror, while tormenting Alison and Diana. Their house is simultaneously being
watched by Tapp, who was discharged from the force. Flashbacks show that he became obsessed with
the Jigsaw case after viewing Amanda's testimony, and that he and Sing illegally entered a warehouse
they knew to be Jigsaw's lair and saved a man from being killed by drills aimed at his neck. Jigsaw
managed to make a run for it after slashing Tapp's throat, and Sing was killed by a shotgun booby trap
while pursuing him. After being discharged, Tapp began stalking Lawrence.

In the bathroom, Lawrence finds a mobile phone that can only receive calls and a cigarette and lighter;
he and Adam use the latter two items to try to stage Adam's death, but an electric shock through
Adam's ankle chain foils this plan. Following these events, Adam and Lawrence recall their abductions;
they were both ambushed and knocked unconscious by a stranger wearing a gruesome pig mask.
Lawrence receives a call from Alison, who warns him that Adam knows more than he is telling. Adam
explains that he was paid to take pictures of Lawrence for the past few days by Tapp, and shows
Lawrence a pile of pictures of him from the bag containing the hacksaws. Lawrence berates Adam for
invading his privacy, while Adam shows Lawrence evidence that he was cheating on Alison. Adam then
notices a picture of a man in Lawrence's house; Lawrence identifies the man as Zep the orderly, and the
two deduce that Zep is their abductor. Adam then points out that it is six o'clock, the deadline. Zep
moves to kill Alison, but she frees herself and manages to overpower Zep, gaining Tapp's attention in
the process. He arrives in time to save Alison and Diana from Zep, allowing them to escape, and chases
Zep to the sewers.

Lawrence, who is only aware of gunshots and screaming, is zapped by the ankle chain as well and loses
reach of the phone; in desperation, he saws off his foot and shoots Adam with the revolver non-fatally
in the shoulder. Zep, who shot Tapp during the chase, enters the bathroom intent on killing Lawrence,
only to be blindsided by Adam and beaten to death with a toilet tank cover. As Lawrence crawls away
with the promise that he'll return with help, Adam searches Zep's body for a key and finds another
microcassette recorder. He learns that Zep was another victim of the game, following rules to obtain an
antidote for the slow poison within his body. He looks around, as if looking for an answer. The corpse
then rises to its feet and reveals itself as John Kramer, the real Jigsaw Killer. He tells Adam that the
chain's key is in the bathtub, which was drained when Adam accidentally kicked the plug out. Adam
then grabs Zep's pistol and tries to shoot Jigsaw and is zapped by his hidden remote control. Jigsaw
then turns off the lights and leaves the bathroom, sealing Adam inside.

Thank You

Ceren GULLU

Media Foundation Course – End of term assignment

Bibliography
1. http://en.wikipedia.org
2. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387564/
3. http://www.mediacollege.com/video/camera/angles/
4. http://www.mediaknowall.com/camangles.html
5. http://www.scribd.com/doc/8332770/Open-Closed-Narrative

Media Foundation Course – End of term assignment