The opening of Shutter Island begins with a large boat
emerging from a mist. The boat is in an extreme long shot and shows no sight of
land as it’s an isolated area. This focus’ the attention on the boat and
creates mystery as to why it is there. There is also a silhouetted figure by
the stern of the boat which gives no information away to audience and entices
them in to want to know more. The lighting used is high key as it produces a
high contrast. There is also a slight mono-chromed/blue tinted saturation which
gives a dark, eerie, serious natured effect and confirms the genre of the film
straight away. The sound of a creaking
boat and faint sound of waves increases as you see the boat which builds up
more and more tension as it emerges to show boat is important to this scene.
The narrative is then taken into the bathroom of the ship
where the character ‘Teddy’ is shot vomiting due to seasickness. One of the
main shots is a close up and over the shoulder shot of him looking into the
mirror. This uses low key lighting as it shows an unnerving setting and only focuses
the light is on his face. This draws attention to facial expression and highlights
sweat on face which shows he is panicking. He’s also shaking and combined with
the sound of his harsh whisper voice it could convey suffering which makes the
audience feel sympathy for the character early on. This gets the audience on
his side so when the eventual outcome at the end of the film is shown, there is
an even larger plot twist.
As Teddy walks out from the bathroom, there is an extreme
long shot with shallow depth of field focusing on the hanging chains and hooks
connected to the ship ceiling. The audience is left unsure as to the reason for
their use. The lighting is led from the bottom right of the screen which picks
up the way the hooks are placed and helps focus the attention to this. The same
saturation continues to show that the same atmosphere as outside is continued
inside the ship, which creates an idea that there is no escape from this. The
camera quickly zooms in to the character to highlight his shocked face and pans
a close up as he walks out the room. The combined sound of the chains swinging,
ship horn repeatedly sounding in a rhythmic way plus heavy breathing creates an
unsettling atmosphere.
As the character walks out onto the decks, there is a close
up of his face. In this you can tell more about him from mise en scene aspects
such as his costume which counteracts with the saturation. The key light is
coming from the right as this highlights the bags under his eyes which gives
more personality to the character. This makes him appear not only ill but also
anxious and suspicious.
The opening scene pans down from high angle to low angle
which gives the impression of watching and searching for someone. The light is
a high contrast between light mist and dark shadows which creates the effect of
mystery. The strong slow piano sound creates tension and is unnerving as the
audience is being led but is unsure where to.
A young woman character is the introduced and in a medium
shot the camera tracks her from behind. She is running which instantly produces
thoughts of panic as someone could be watching her. The use of mist creates the
effect of blindness to the surroundings and also provides mystery. The
soundtrack continues with the sound of her heavy breathing which could insinuate
that she is running from someone.
The opening also uses an extreme close-up of her feet
running which is slightly blurred. This conveys speed and action which the
audience need to keep up with. The sound of her footsteps running increases
here. As you can only see her feet the audience is unsure of what else is
happening in her surroundings so creates tension as it’s the fear of the
unknown.
As the girl reaches a rope climbing frame is reassures the
audience that she’s running for a fitness purpose. The camera catches a light
which appears to be the sun as it tracks and pans round the rope frame. The music intensifies by tempo and increases
the instruments used, this increases tension and gives the impression she could
still be being followed. There is a
slight monochrome toned saturation throughout this opening as well which
indicates it is a convention of all thriller films.
The film begins in a non-chronological narrative where two Asian
men are the top of a building and there is an intense action shot where one is
almost about to fall to his death off the building and one is holding his tie
with the power to let him fall. This creates immediate and sudden mystery and
restricted narration. The first shot is a low angle shot using high ratio
lighting where the background is bright white and man is almost silhouetted;
almost as a negative. The fast pace music and beating of electronic sound gives
an impression of tension and build up even when there is no movement. There
is also a whimpering from the man about to die which conveys he is confused and
vulnerable. The extreme close up of the ‘bad guy’s face shows a very dark, serious
expression; he slightly tilts his head which could suggest danger and mild insanity.
The scene then changes to a man in a police station. The
first shot is an extreme close up in high key lighting which contrasts majorly
with the scene before. To link these two scenes the end of the first scene ends
with ‘My name is…’ and the beginning of the second scene opens with ‘Oh Dae-su’.
The sound then comes to an abrupt halt so indicating a change in time and
place. The sound then becomes just quiet average daily background noise and the
man’s dialogue. The characters lexis then indicates that he is drunk and the
audience begin to receive more and more information on the scene as you find
out his name and who the other people are around him.
As this scene progresses, the drunken man begins to try to
show the police officers a photo of his daughter. These shots are close-ups and
the photograph he is trying to show is blurred which indicates a slight depth
of field in the point of view of the officer, that the man is shoving the photo
so close to his face he can’t see it. The close-ups are used to show the man’s
facial expression and highlight him as the main focus of the shot. The sound
consists of the characters slurred speech and with the lack of music this shows
more about the characters personality to the audience and his possible lack of
control. The character looks straight into the camera which also shows more
evidence that we are in the position of the police officer. This scene
incorporates jump cuts to show the passing of time and keeps the audience
engaged.
The third scene is set by a telephone box in a medium close
up showing the drunken character on the phone in the foreground and his friend
in the background. The rain conveys a heavy mood of gloom and mystery as you can’t
always see through in the rain and acts as a alternative medium to mist. This
film continues to use the convention of a dull saturation.
The scene opens with an extreme close-up of a snow globe
which in a very slow pace zooms out into a close up. The light and colour
changes from a dull saturation and darker lighting to a warm yellow toned
colour and brighter lighting. This indicates the passing of time and
significance of the snow globe. The globe shot is then repeated in every other
shot which shows importance and so the audience remembers this. The use of a child’s
toy is also quite sinister and creates mystery. The snow inside the globe adds
mystery in the same way other directors have used fog to create an feeling of
the unseen.
An innocent 3 year old girl is then shown in the next shot
investigating small toy carousel accompanied by nursery music box sound, which
reinforces the idea of innocence. The use of high key lighting and bright
primary colours means the audience associates this with childhood, which makes
the audience start to relate to this scene.
There is then a jump cut into an extreme long shot to introduce other
character into the scene. Then looking
at the mise en scene of this shot, the use of blonde hair, red dungarees and
light blue eyes conveys an angelic like cherub stereotype. This makes the
audience feel protective over this character. The voice over then begins of an
older girl who is revisiting her memories. The audience then witnesses this
visual memory. The use of the voice over means that the audience is aware of
distance and time from when the memory is happening in the past and the present
of her talking. It also portrays the importance of taking note of what has
happened in the past.
The girl is shot on her own before the voice over begins
which makes the audience uncomfortable and suspicious; when the male character
is then introduced it relaxes the audiences mind and releases the tension again
so it can be rebuilt.
The title of ‘THE LOVELY BONES’ is placed over the shot of
the snow globe which links the story title and significance of the object together
before the film even properly begun.
The scene after this completely changes to a bedroom and the
sound of upbeat tempo and happy music fills the scene. The sepia type colour
tone of the shot shows that it could be set in the 1960’s. The camera then pans
across to show a picture of the 3 year old girl on the bedside table. This indicates
the audience the identity of these characters as the girls’ parents. The text ’12
years later’ then comes across the shot to show the passing of time and changes
within the characters relationship. The lighting then becomes brighter and
colours become more vivid. The camera then does the same pan across to the
picture and shows the girl grown up to be around 14/15 years old. This is compulsory
for the next scene so the audience realise who the girl is and the voice over
continues to reinforce this.
Sarah - this is not a blog post - it is 4 essays. These are supposed to be multi media texts - sort this out ASAP.
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