Jurassic park film analysis
The scene starts with an establishing shot of a kitchen,
this shows the mise-en-scene and allowed me to know the setting of witch the
scene was going to take place, I think that the director did an establishing
shot so that the audience could see how small and compact the kitchen area was,
perhaps to add emphasis on the enclosed room, the low key lighting also makes
the area appear smaller making the characters look trapped, this is a generic
convention of sci-fi horrors witch gives you an instant insight of what the
film genre is. After the characters entre the room they switch of the lights which
makes the lighting even more low key, to me this made me think that they were hiding
or running from something, this added tension and made the atmosphere more
known to the audience, once the lights are turned off the camera tracks them as
they more lower down and hide, while this happens the footsteps that area heard
on the ground as they run are really loud, this adds to the intensity because
the room they are in is so quiet and the footprint are immensely loud in the silence,
the use of extremes is generic in the sci-fi horror genre().
In the initial view
of the scene everything is low key lighting other than the exit signs which are
red, red is also a generic convention of the horror genre and is shown in the mise-en-scene
of many other films; the shining uses red to signify danger for example the
words “red rum” are written in red this shows the danger behind the words, in
this situation the red indicates danger, this also gives you an insight into what’s
going to happen in the scene because the only way out for the characters is
danger, this made me feel uncomfortable because I knew that there was no escape
form what the children were hiding form.
The scene continues with a two shot mid-shot of the characters
with the lens focused in the two characters and the door, I think the director did
this so that people saw the relationship between the characters and the door,
the door being there salvation but also their fear, I think that the director
also did this to establish the importance of the door and the characters, I instantly
thought that because the door was in focus that something significant was going
to happen through that door because of this the scene made me feel suspenseful,
like I was waiting for something to happen.
There is a jump cut to the door which makes you know that something
is defiantly about to happen, there is a low thumping noise that begins as the
camera zooms closer into the door little window, there is low key lighting all
around the door however there is a strong light shining through the doors window,
this could signify hope or freedom, by this I mean the window could represent light
at the end of the tunnel, however the noise in the background of the zoom is
repetitive which genetically, according to horror conventions means that something
is about to happen, even though you have that feeling of hop coming through the
doors lit window. Suddenly with only a small quite sound a dinosaur appears, to
me this doesn’t scare me I think that perhaps it didn’t because conventionally
there would be a loud sound to shock the audience however there wasn’t one, I think
that the director did this maybe to make the audience feel like they were
there, I think that if there were loud noises it would have taken away the
realism, if there was a monster outside my kitchen I would be quiet too and I think
that this was done purposely so that the idea of you having to be quiet scared
you more than a loud noise would have, because to me I felt that I was experiencing
what the characters were feeling.
The dinosaur breathing heavily on the glass blocked out the
clearness and light almost like the dinosaur was crushing all the hope that the
characters may have had, the camera then zooms toward the male character who
then sees the monster for the first time, there is a lot of reflection in the cabinets
and surfaces in the room which makes the room look unused and very cold I think
that the director did this to show that the characters are completely
uncomfortable and scared because the room is obviously not an environment that
they are used to because it is so clean and desolate. The boy has a bandage on
his hand witch shows that he has been hurt, maybe from this dinosaur, this
gives you an indication that they might be hiding from the dinosaur, once the
camera show the boy it jump cuts back to the window on the door, the dinosaur turns
its head and squints its eye as if it has spotted the boy, almost like it was
looking for him the first place, this made me feel tense as I was wondering
what was going to happen to the boy and unnerving because the eye was directly
in the centre if the camera which made the dinosaur look like it was looking at
me, this again seemed to involve the audience to almost make it feel like you
are there watching it.
All the way through there has been low and quiet repetitive sound,
however this is then broken by the dinosaur making its diegetic sound, it also
steams the glass and its face is dead centre, this shocked me slightly as I wasn’t
expecting the music to break its repetitiveness, I think that this was done so
that audience would be shocked and surprised because you were expecting something
to scare you and it didn’t you forget that you were supposed to be waiting for
a scare and then this unanticipated noise frightens you even more. The dinosaur
completely blocks out the window so there is no clear light at all anymore,
which makes you think that the characters have no hope left.
There us parallel editing after a jump cut from the dinosaur
to the children characters, its jumps straight to a different character in a
different place where there is high key lighting and the sound is less extreme
and much more relaxed because there is no repetition in the music, I think that
the director did this to emphasis the different situations and show the intense
and the calm, this could show how the characters are feeling and also show but
you know that its happening at the same time because once the other female character
says “unless they learn how to open doors” it jump cuts back to the handle of
the door in the kitchen, this means that what she said foreshadowed what was
going to happen.
Low key lighting surrounds the handle of the door and shows
reflection onto the door as the handle is moved up and down by the dinosaur, because
the only thing that I can see is the door handle I can only concentrate on,
this to me makes me feel on edge, because I know what’s going to happen and because
all I can see is the door handle that’s the only thing that the director has
allowed us to think about at that point, I think that this is because the
concept of a dinosaur opening a door is extremely surreal the idea is terrifying
and to me that’s the reasoning for why the camera was static on the door handle
was so people could get the opportunity to be scared of the concept as well as
the fear for the safety of the characters, this made the handle extremely
significant to me because it gives you the opportunity to be scared for more
than one reason.
The camera remains static while the dinosaur opens the door
and you see the claw, then there is a jump shot, I think that the jump shots
wear used to make the sequences pace significantly quicker so that the scene
gave the impression of because dangerous and nerving because the action is
constant, there is constantly something happen which gave me lots of things to
think about in scene all at once, to the head, the camera then goes static. The
dinosaur then breaks through the door by opening it and then blocks the door
way, or the exit way, because the sign is red which is a convention of the
genre the dinosaur being the danger and the evil consumes the door frame, this
really emphasises the importance of the red in this scene because It shows the
shear danger that thee characters feel about the dinosaurs
Molly Ryan.