American Horror Story Opening Credits - Coven

Media Coursework - Deconstruction of Opening Credits in AHS Coven
American Horror Story Coven was premiered on October 9th 2013

Mise-en-scene

• The re-occurring images to start with of conically black hooded figures processing suggest religious practices which is commonly seen in horror movies
• The figure of a woman raising her arms promotes the idea of mystery as you cannot see her face
• The idea of mystery is also created by a short clip of a woven bag being sewn up as we do not know what it is for
• Blood and gashes are shown, blood is commonly seen in horror
• The sewing reappears now with a face being shown of the creature sewing. It is not human however low lighting means the face is unable to be fully made out
• A creature that looks like a mixture of a butterfly, human and twig stands in the middle of the forest, creatures are often seen in horror
• Forest's are often seen in horror and most of what is seen occurs in one
• The creature that was sewing come into view and it is seen as being a voodoo doll. These are commonly seen in horror
  
• A figure of a person is seen with lighting that makes their eyes appear very bright and contrasting to their eyes, making them appear possessed, a common convention in horror
• Finally returning to the idea of religion, people are seen dancing around a fire, possibly like a ritual, commonly seen in horror

Sound

• The majority of the soundtrack is a few seconds repeated
• These few seconds include a low percussion noise which is left to fade out and three notes that repeat in a pattern of ABABC
• There is also a sound similar to white noise on a radio when the credits appear on screen, suggesting mystery and take over from other creatures
• As the credits carry on the music slowly accelerates adding the idea of tension
• At the end there is also a sudden quietening of dynamics which suggests that something is not quite right with in the setting
• This then increases again suddenly, giving the idea of disequilibrium 
• Just before the credits finish a heavy grinding noise is layered over the top, again increasing the uneasiness felt when listening

Editing

• The editing between clips and credits is very quick with credit titles lasting approximately 2 seconds and up to three footage clips in 1 second, giving the impression of confusion and this gives an atmosphere of uneasiness

Credit Titles

• The credit titles last approximately 2 seconds each
• They are shown in a white font that is not uniformed in its style. This has connotations of not everything always being as it may seem and events that may occur in the show not being controllable
  
• The background to the titles is black, which allows the text to stand out but also suggests mystery
• Different titles have different creatures on the black background in white ink like the text. The creatures are not human however are not typical animals which portrays that not everything is as it seems within the show, a common convention of horror

To evaluate I believe that the repetition of ideas and consistency is commonly represented in these credits and is something we could look into doing with our credits, possibly through an idea of a piece of mise-en-scene or re-occurring actor.