An analysis of The shining.

The shining

The scene initially starts with a close up of the door and an open lock, the doors design is wooden, this could tell us or give meaning that the is something bad with in the room, because an upside down crucifix( the basic design of the door) signifies evil and satin making the room appear dangerous and evil. The unlocked door could be foreseeing that is going to happen later on in the film, that they will have to or need to lock this door, the use of mise-en-sen to me makes this scene seems negative and makes me think about what is going to happen throughout the scene. The use of close ups in generic in the horror genre not only to exaggerate a characters emotion but shown here to emphasize the importance of the lock and upside-down crossed style door.

As Danny enters the room there is a close up zoomed out into a mid-shot I think that this was done to emphasize the isolated nature of the film I think that with the use of this shot Danny appears to be in danger and seems to me to be almost trapped in that room this is also emphasised because of the low key lighting in the room, this makes the room seems smaller and I think that this was shot this way to almost drown the actor and the scene with the fact that the film progressively persists in showing the isolation that the family is in.

A quick camera pan to jack could show the shock of Danny that his father is still awake, and the fact that jack isn’t facing the camera he is glaring at the wall could indicate that he has been awake for some period of time, the mise-en-sen shows this because jack is wearing a dressing gown this backs up the idea of jack being awake for a period of time and hasn’t just been woken up. The camera has jack completely in the middle of the shot this could potentially indicate his level of sanity knowing later in the film that he shifts slightly out of centre shot this could have been done purposely to make the audience believe that jack, although staring at nothing, has some aspects of sanity.

After the initial sight you have of jack in the bed room you see him turn his head toward Danny (the camera) I thought that this gives the audience an insight of what is going to happen in the film, I found that the slow head turn as well as the non-diegetic high pitched strings that this action gave the scene a unsettling feeling to it, like something was about to happen. Instantly after this there is a jump cut to the other side of jack where you can see jack, jacks reflection in the mirror and Danny, I think that the director did this to maybe symbolise the split with in jack the line between sanity and insanity, the idea being that you aren’t the person in the mirror the reflection in the mirror is not you, I think that this was used well as you can see the lost expression on the actors face but can also see the reaction of Danny this to me gave the audience a clear insight of what either character was feeling therefore letting me interpret what is going to happen next, this is a convention of the horror genre; letting the audience imagine what is going to happen, depending on your imagination this scene could potentially scare you just with what you think is going to happen I think that this technique was used thoughtfully and very well.

The camera stays in the same position and then jump cuts to a mid-shot of jack looking at Danny, this shot doesn’t have the mirror reflection in it and also features jack gesturing Danny where to go, almost like he is reaching out to him and that his sanity is being restored because of the lack of the mirror in the shot. The music throughout this scene is no-diegetic and is repeated high pitched stings which is also a convention of the horror genre, the music indicates that there is still danger in the scene, to me this makes the scene still appear unnatural and creepy, the way that jack calls his son over is also very unnatural, its very nerving the way that things are said, it’s as if the character jack is using his words to taunt Danny or make Danny feel uncomfortable, this performance really adds to the effect of the scene and gives further meaning to the film, by the audience being able to detect abnormality’s within  a characters voice.

Danny walks into the shot slowly, like he is reluctant and is placed on jacks knee slowly with no change in the facial expression of the actors, this again could signify jacks insanity (repetitiveness is also a generic convention of the horror genre) or the unnaturalness of the situation, the way that both the characters are acting is almost like the character haven’t done this before, because of the awkwardness shown, however as the scene progresses jack seems to relax more and be more comfortable with what he is doing whereas Danny has no expression and is tense making you think that its Danny that’s awkward and doesn’t want to be in that situation, this makes you think that there could be bad history between them or jack did something that Danny didn’t like. As this progresses the camera jump cuts to face the front of the actors, the camera also gets closer this could have been done so that you can see the emotional barrier between the characters.

While the characters converse the non-diegetic music gets higher in pitch and more repetitive, the make tune played over and over again, this is a convention of the horror genre and I think that it was used to make the conversation more and more intense like something is about to happen that will make you jump but it doesn’t. within the conversation the character repeats the words forever and ever and ever, these words are said earlier in the film by two twin sister girls that were murdered in the hotel, this makes what he is saying seem almost spine chilling, the repetition of the words creates for me a tension because I know that Danny has heard what his dad is saying from two dead girls, to me this makes this scene one of the best scenes in the film because you can really start to depict the mentality of the character jack.

Molly Ryan.

Haywire group analysis

Group analysis

group analysis

'Haywire'

The sequence starts with an eyeline match, showing both the characters perspectives when they look at one another. There's no speech, just glances at one another; it could be implied that the two characters have had a dispute of some kind, we experience a little tension within the car. The shot is taken at eye level as though its through the car windows, thus the shot is slightly blurry, and the lighting is low key; this could be symbolic of the distance between the two characters, their relationship is blurry, not entirely in focus and the lack of distinguishable facial features due to the low key lighting reveals how the mood of the situation may be quite dark. This sequence makes me feel sympathetic to the two characters, I'm left guessing what could have happened and how the relationship could have became distant, as a result the mood of the whole situation is dark and a little daunting, if the characters feel distant, I start to feel distant.





Transitioning to the next shot, we are shown a pieces of a broken mirror, laying on the floor. This could imply how the characters we saw in the previous shot are themselves broken. The broken mirror is the main focus of the shot, in the background there is a body being dragged but it and its surroundings are blurry, the effect this has is that its establishing conflict, such as the dead body in the background shows a physical conflict, and the broken mirror revealing metaphorically the mental conflict. This makes me feel more sympathetic towards the characters, its almost as if the characters cannot see it themselves, instead we see it through their actions and surroundings; in turn this makes the characters more relatable, we all have our own conflicts.

In the next shot, we se the same body that was dragged trough the room, lay in a bath tub with the tap water running, the non-diegetic sound of the guitar cords and the diegetic sound of the water running create a strangely soothing, it seems calm and relaxed, which juxtapose's what the sequence shows entirely: there is a dead body yet i feel relaxed. This shot could show how the female character may also feel relaxed, she can certainly take a shower and do her makeup in a relaxed fashion, which leads me to believe that the killing was almost a relief, before we saw the conflicts both characters had with one another, now the conflicts have somewhat been resolved; the atmosphere is calm and collected, and we are at a peace of mind.

The next sequence shows a low angle tilt showing the character looking in a coat on the floor, to which she finds a mobile phone, transitioning to her POV: a close up of the phones screen as she rings the last number called on the phone. Parallel editing reveals the character on the receiving end of the phone call is sat at a dinner party in a high key lighted area, he then determines who the caller is and moves onto a low key lighted area. This as a result looks rather secretive, he leaves the table to go and speak to the caller in a dark area where he cannot be seen; this makes gives a rather sinister atmosphere and in turn i fell a little intimidated.




The receivers actions in the next shot to me suggests he knows the caller and is probably fully aware of the situation she is in. The conversation reveals that the female character and the male character were in a relationship, the receiver asks "is the divorce final" *pause* " where are you?", to me this looks as though the receiver has concluded that the female character has murdered her partner; to which the female hangs up the call, and for the first time we see the female panic. Again we are introduced to yet more conflict: now the receiver knows about the murder, naturally he is opposed to it making him a threat to the female character which in turn creates physical conflict; and in hanging up the call in what seems to be a panic to me could suggest that she for a brief second contemplated whether it was a right move of a bad one, thus creating  mental conflict



Eyeline match is used as the female character leaves the building she is in to reveal an man across the street, we are unsure of the identity of the man, but its possible that even the character wonders the same. We can see the conflict of her guilty conscience as she follows the man down the street, she even tilts her hat slightly to hide her own identity from the man. Further down the street as she comes to traffic lights, she ignores the red light telling her to stop by crossing the street; this highlights the conflict that the character faces and could also forecast later happenings. If indeed she is suspicious to the man its possible the truth get revealed and she is taken to prison, in which case the red light indicates caution.