Dexter essay.

Dexter Essay, By Jade Large.

In this essay I am going to be Analysing the television drama title sequence of Dexter. I’ll be explaining how the meaning of the title sequences are created through Cinematography, Sound, Mise-en-scene and Editing.
In the title sequence there are a lot of jump cuts. Using quick jump cuts shows the pace of the show suggesting it will be fast with lots of different twists, it also adds tension and excitement to what is to follow in the show. This then creating the audience to be interested and hooked into the mystery of Dexter, capturing the audience’s attention.

Cinematography, meaning camera work is used here by at the start focusing on a mosquito that is then killed by Dexter or who we assume is Dexter, the camera then refocuses onto the mans face who then smiles adding a sick sense of humor of laughing at death. The next few scenes are extreme close ups of everyday normal things but how the camera moves around or zooms in and out adds a strange vibe and starts to add mystery with murderous connections. An example of this is when he shaves he cuts himself and you watch the blood drip and drop down, another example is when he makes him self breakfast and cuts the meat its like he’s cutting flesh, finally an another example is when he gets dressed he grips his shoe laces so tight its like a connation to strangulation.

There are two types of sound used in the title sequence they are digestic and non-digestic, digestic meaning the sound that is in the world of the show and non-digestic meaning sound only the audience can here. The digestic sound includes emphasized sound like you here the blood dripping and him flossing his teeth also the sound of him shaving and cooking all of these sounds add a intense element to the show making the sounds sound sinister whereas in any other circumstance they are naturally normal things in everyday life. The non-digestic sound use din the title sequence is the backing music which in itself is quite creepy however this only is suggested by the way it is fitted with the images. The backing music is quite jolly creating images of a fairground however the images in the title sequence add the creep to the creepy music. There is also ticking to the music which adds a time, like a bomb or a count to murder. Another twist that makes the music seem sinister is that it seems to be going on only in his house and fades away as he gets outside like a secret that only he knows.

Mise-en-scene used here is mainly to do with the props used, they are normal everyday things people use but the way they are used and the colour of them adds in creepy and murderous twists and conspiracies. Some of these are the shaver, shoelaces or the knife all possible murder weapons. Other this that all is not as its seems is the expressions the man uses are all sinister but occasionally he smiles making us think he is a psycho or had split personalities, all this fades or changes to the opposite when he leaves the house another clue telling us he has got secrets.

The editing used is this comes with the title Dexter, the Dexter is written in blood with the colour red but also the background looks dingy and yellowy suggest old skin or blood soak bandages keeping in the theme of murder. The jump cuts used here all add conspiracies of murder jumping from blood to possible murder weapons. Finally when he leaves he locks he door and the camera focus on this creating the idea of secrets and unknown murders.

To conclude all the techniques used create mystery of never knowing, the sequence is very dark with lost of reference to murder this is created with the jump cuts and reference to blood and death and helps the show capture and lure the audience.

By Jade Large.

Dexter Notes.

Cinematography:Start- focus on mosquito. kills it. camera refocuses on to dexters face (smile).Extreme close-ups - e.g. cleaning blood,cooking,cutting orange shows intimate detailClose up on face before leaving houseMysterious, only see his face clearly at enddark sideSound:Foley track (emphasises sound) digetic sound- blood dripping- flossing- pulling key out- cooking- slicing orange- killing the fly- eating- shavingNon-digetic sound- creepy music- jolly/fairground- ticking- casual/jaunty- click at the end- music fades away when he gets outside (matches his facial expression)Mise-en-sceneblood, fruit and other red liquids murdercloths white t-shirt (normality) suggest smutheringFacial expression creepy and seems like a syco, but is the opposite when he leaves his houseprops the way he shaves shows the first sign of blood.Normal morning- Breakfast, flossing, shaving etc.EditingDexter is written in bloodJump cuts : him waking up and him shaving, the blood drips in the sink and him wipeing the blood slithering down his neck, him wipeing his neck and him cutting open the meat, him putting the meat in the pan and him stabbin and twisting it, he then puts the meat into his mouth and begins chewing it, also the eggs he breaks the eggs and then stabs it it in the pn and twists it like painful stab wound.The part where he locks his apartment and walks away locking away.