holiday homework

Apollo 18 is a thriller released in 2011 by dimension films and Bazelevs about NASA’s Apollo missions. The reason why they choose to make a horror/thriller based on the Apollo missions is because they were great expeditions to the moon in which there where 17 mission’s altogether before they ran out of funds and stopped but some believe otherwise. There are many rumours and conspiracies about NASA having an 18^th mission which was classified and covered up as a result which already makes the film have a mysterious nature to it.

This film is on secret footage which are decades old from NASA's abandoned Apollo 18 mission, it was a filmed in a paranormal activity style in which hand held and CCTV cameras where used to film the story.  In the story Two American astronauts were sent on a secret expedition, and it tells the story of why NASA’s have never returned to the moon. In my opinion this is a great plot because a lot of conspiracy theorist and people who have knowledge on the Apollo missions will be attracted to watch this film and also the sci-fi audience who may like the idea of this plot.

 In the course of the film the two astronauts discover many unexplained incidences such as camera on the moon being knocked over and flag being taken and ripped apart, they also discover a Russian base which they were not told about and also the corpse of these Russians. Towards the ending of the film they discover an alien parasitic species which takes the shape of a moon rock and infects one of the astronauts causing his to go mad. In the end they are left on the moon to die by NASA’s due to fear of them bringing the organism to earth.

I have analysed the film opening until the point they show the title which is at the point 3.30. Its starts of as the sound of a film being started on the olden time projectors with a film reel that has some disturbance on it with the fluttering of the tape being heard. Then the noise just stops as the screen changes to a solid black background as small typewriter style text comes up.

The reason why this is put here is to show the background of whats going on and some fact to people who may not know but it also gives out the feeling of secrets and governments seriousness. So far it has been facts that the public know already about.

When this is shown the attention of the viewers is caught and the story begins. Another point is that the website is a real website, the film is helping advertise this website. During all this there is some very quite high pitched music leading onto the actual footage.

After all this it goes to introduce the characters and events leading into how the 18^th mission came to be but more importantly they point out the suspicions they have and why its so secretive, they also point out key events at those times such as the space race against Russia and the anti-soviet machines they put up there which link in with the story. As the interview is going on many clips of the shuttle being prepared and other things are put in to make the viewer feel they atmosphere at this time.

At the point 1.42 the character speaks of why he has suspicions about getting moon rocks back when there are plenty already here, this is hinting future events in the story. He then goes on to talk about the motion cameras which are also a massive part of the story due to the way the movie had been filmed.

At the point 3.26 it shows the badge which is on their space suits but what is intresting about it is that it acts as the title showing the film name on the top of it and the characters names below. The reason why they did this is too keep the feeling and the preserve the atmosphere of what we have just watched.

youtube trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F6DU6gx7-w