Jurassic park scene analysis.

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.