short film and analysis

Our group did a short horror/ thriller sequence of a man stalking a woman and eventually bringing her to her doom. The lighting for the casual parts where highly but as the clips sped up and the drums became more vivant the lighting shifts to low-key. As the victim in this sequence becomes more trapped the video becomes more blurry. We decided to do this as it seems as if you are in the same situation as the character and it shows how panicky she is how everything is a blur. We used many different types of hots form long shots to close ups, to high shots to low shots. We used a key hole shot which is intertextuality of the film 'The Devils Backbone' to create more tension within the shot.

2 scenes on the shining

This scene starts of with a tracking shot going backwards of Jack walking up the stairs at the same speed as the character. This is done as it makes it seem more eery if you are following him, knowing that he is up to do something bad, creating tension between the viewer and the scene. The colour yellow is most prominent here. Yellow is known for spontaneousness and unstableness so this scene could be relating to what is going on in her mind. The part where Jack is hacking down the door with an axe is where you see him take up the power position, where he decides whether or no his wife lives. The part where he is axing down the door shows the woman screaming for her life showing how deranged jack had become as it is almost as if he enjoyed hearing this. The scene where he pokes his head through the gap of the axe broken door and says "here's Johnny" is a referance to a famous tv show host Johnny Carson. The close-up of Jacks face allows you to see all of his emotions and almost allows you to stare directly into his eyes to see his madness.

The next scene is of jack following Wendy up the stairs very slowly. Although Jack seems to be the more dominant character throughout the movie, in this scene Wendy is higher up the stairs than Jack showing that she has the power in this situation, coupled by her holding the weapon over jack showing her dominance. The shot initially begins with a tracking shot at the same time as the two characters walking up the stairs it is shot using a hand held camera to make to make the scene seem a lot more interactive with the audience and to allow the person watching to feel what it is like to be in the situation. It goes from a point of view from jack to and overhead shoulder shot. The shot could have been changed to make it so that you see how jack is looking up to Wendy and how Wendy is looking down at Jack. When someone looks down it can be because they are intimidated or they simply do not want to look someone in the face. This could symbolise that Wendy feels Jack is being aggressive and assertive which is backed up by the facial expression of grunting teeth. The rule of thirds is prominent as it switches to Wendy being in the middle to Jack being in the middle of the shot indication how Jack has taken over, perhaps a metaphor for the way that Jack took over Wendy's life and sent her to a hotel in the middle of nowhere.