Dracula

- Characters

Gary Oldman as Dracula

Winona Ryder as Mina Murray/Elisabeta

Anthony Hopkins as Professor Abraham Van Helsing

Keanu Reeves as Jonathan Harker

- Sound

Voice over – telling history of a battle

Creepy eerie music

Music becomes dramatic and dark

- Mise en scene

The opening uses a lot of shots of religious artefacts, e.g. the cross.

There is a lot of darkness in it, which connotes horror and helps to set a tone for the film. They are wearing clothes which are quite old, which helps the audience to see the difference in times. This gives us an idea that he is old, while at the same time the clothes he is wearing helps us get the idea that he is also to be feared, wearing battle armour. During the fight, we can’t see anyone as they are darkened. This helps to create mystery, and allows the viewers to make their decision the person.

- Camera movements/shots

The shots are mainly handheld, and they are all fairly close to the two characters obvious in the shots. This is most certainly because they want the audience to really feel close to the scene, so that the nature of “Dracula” is seen. As well as this, the camera follows them, keeping it simple so that we can see exactly what is happening, and get a feel for the characters. During the fight, it is a simple tracking shot, showing the battle, and it is used to simple effect, again meaning that we can see what is happening and glean what information we need too. Couple this with the lighting, and we are allowing the audience to make their decisions on just what to think of Dracula.

-Edits

There are normal edits used, with straight cuts for verisimilitude, and to help us get the rhythm, which is slow to create tension up until later in the film. As well as this however, a few fade through black cuts are used at the beginning through the opening titles, and then it fades through black to the first scene, which helps us to get the idea that it is almost like a memory, with parts of it blacked out because they can’t be remembered.