the shining scene analysis

Stanley kubricks film, the shining has now become one of the most analysised pieces of cinema to date, with Kubrick having a meaning for every shot, Line of dialogue, piece of furniture and every source of light. From here I'll be talking about the mise en scene and meanings behind one particular scene. The bathroom scene in room 237.

The bathroom scene in the shining is one of the most well known scenes in the film. With it symbolising not only the houses use of psychological torture, but also jacks mental decline. 

Wendy finds Jack  in the Colorado Lounge and tells him that Danny told her that some "crazy woman" in one of the rooms tried to strangle Danny. Jack asks her which room, intending to investigate..Jack by this time is seriously unstable, and the hotel has nearly possessed him entirely. The next scene we see is Halloran laying on his bed in Miami, watching tv...At first nothing seems amiss.But soon, he enters what can only be called a trance, his eyes open wide with an expression of sheer terror, and he starts trembling. We again hear the dreaded music and also, this time, a strange heartbeat on the soundtrack. As Halloran is "shining", we also see that Danny is in the same state, drooling and trembling, in a trance. Then, the camera cuts to the open door of room 237, and the camera leads us inside, the music and heartbeat sound very consistent. The room appears fairly unremarkable, with a garish 1970s decor, and a living room, and to the left, up a stair, a bedroom, We see at the back of the bedroom a door slightly ajar, the camera continues moving us closer to this door. The heartbeat and dreadful music continue,We see a hand come from behind the camera, pushing the door open, revealing a large bathroom, in green and yellow. Then, we see that in fact Jack has entered room 237 to investigate what Wendy had told him about Danny seeing a woman in there.Jack looks to the back of the bathroom, and there is clearly someone or something behind the shower curtain in the tub. Jack initially looks scared, but then a hand draws the curtain back, revealing an attractive, nude, blonde woman. Jack appears to relax, and smiles a devilish smile.. But we know instinctively that this is very wrong and that something evil is in this room. The woman slowly stands up, and steps out of the bathtub, walking to center of the bathroom. She then pauses, as if to beckon Jack closer, Jack walks to her, and she caresses him. During all this, the dreadful music and heartbeat (which began when we saw Halloran enter his trance) continues. The woman in room 237 embraces Jack and they kiss. But then, we see a closeup of Jack's face as he sees an adjacent mirror, and a terrible sight appears. What was a beautiful young woman is now a rotten, ugly old hag, who begins laughing at Jack, and Jack, appalled, backs out of the room, as she follows him out, laughing all the while...As she does this, the camera pans to the bath, and we see another rotten, toothless old woman rise out of the tub, even as the other figure chases Jack out .Then, the camera cuts to Danny briefly, still in a trance, trembling, and salivating, perhaps recalling his experience in room 237 earlier. Jack makes it out of the room, closing the door and locking the door, we still hear the woman cackling from inside.

This in my opinion, we can't take it too literally....A popular theory is that the woman in room 237 was the ghost of the former caretaker, Grady, who had murdered his wife and daughters at the hotel during the winter of 1970. However, I think Kubrick means for the answer to be more complex than this. I think the woman in room 237 is actually the physical manifestation of the evil presence which lives inside the Overlook Hotel. If we look at the heartbeat on the soundtrack. we never hear it early in the film, only about halfway through, after the Torrances have already been at the hotel for some time, and the hotel has had time to tap into their minds.The moment when Jack enters room 237 is truly when the evil presence in the hotel is awakened. The "woman" in the tub was simply a manifestation to lure or appeal to Jack. Danny might have seen something different when he entered room 237 .In short, the hotel's presence is able to adopt whatever physical form it needs to to achieve its aim, which is to possess and to cause more death, which would therefore add to it's strength. After Jack has entered room 237 and had his encounter there, the old "hag" who we see in there is basically laughing and taunting him, showing that Jack has basically surrendered to the hotel and that now the hotel is in charge, as it were. I think this is why Halloran was so worried about room 237 when he was talking to Danny early in the film, because Halloran sensed that room 237 was in fact the place in the hotel where the evil lived. Once Jack entered room 237, and kissed the "woman" in there, the hotel basically was in charge, and that is why we hear the heartbeat on the soundtrack for basically the rest of the film. The heartbeat is I believe Kubrick's way of showing that the hotel has "awakened" as it were, and is now breathing and has a beating heat, thanks to Jack, Jack's entry into room 237 and his embrace of the evil in there acted like a "cpr" to jumpstart the hotel's evil presence from it's sleep. These are my interpretations of this particular aspect of the film. So to sum up, I feel Kubrick intended room 237 to be far more than just a scary room, but actually the key to the entire film and the things that the Overlook Hotel causes to  happen. Yet another sign of the man's brilliance as a director.

Joe runs, film studies horror scene

For our scene we wanted to recreate a scenario that was reminiscent of chase scenes in slasher horror films. We wanted to create tension and fear in the viewer, which we eventually did by our camera techniques, non diagetic sounds and attention to location and mise em scene. To portray the coldness of these slasher films we had to think about the colour palette within the scene, bright bloc colours would have clashed with the overall theme we were going for, so we settled for using dark, Almost bland colours for the clothing. If we look at the setting of the church and graveyard, we can tell that this  is a common convention of horror films, with graves always symbolising death, terror and usually foreshadowing what'll happen in the later sections of the scene. we used a wide angled pan during the opening shot, this was used to not only create some form of establishing shot but to also to portray the severity and magnitude of the situation, which is shown in the width of the shot.following this we used a stationery shot with camera looking up, this was to show that the the person running away from the entity chasing him was in fact the protagonist of the scene.

 Directly after this shot we use a 360 handheld pan of the protagonists face. This was used to portray the fear that the protagonist was dealing with, illustrating that that the entity could be anywhere around him. By focussing on the protagonist, everything behind him is blurred and out of focus, this was used to show that everything around him ceased to be real to him, with only himself and the entity following him mattering. 

Jurassic worlds success

Jurassic worlds success

Jurassic world is the direct sequel to Steven spielbergs original "Jurassic park" with the film completely neglecting "Jurassic park 2 and 3". The film was estimated to make millions In its opening release, but no one could predict the box office monster that it came to be. Resulting in the film becoming one of the best seeking movies of all time. If we were to look at the film from a critical point of view, whilst still an expertly executed film, it doesn't quite live up to the standards of similar films that have aquired similar recognition. There are many reasons for this however, including the original films fan base and the nostalgia around the franchise and the marketing that led up to the release. 

One major contributor of the success of Jurassic world is the fact that the original film aquired such a dedicated and loyal fan base. Following "Jurassic park" the sequels which followed were universally panned, saying that they didn't have the same suspense and characterisation that the original did. The fan base has been dying for a sequel that captures and improves upon the original movie (which Jurassic world promised) this mixed with the star power of Chris Pratt and similar stars would not only attract a younger fan base who haven't grown up with the original, and long term die hard fans of the franchise. We can also look at the time that the film was released, summer has become a time of huge, multi ,million dollar blockbusters such as the avengers and interstellar, by releasing Jurassic world in this time period we already know that the director, and the marketers are confident in the fact that it can compete with these films. 

The marketing for Jurassic world was also a crucial reason why the film did so well. Trailers leading up to the film showed a film that was almost eerily reminiscent of the predator, with the monster stalking and chasing down its pray. This combined with shots of the park packed with visitors and tourists, creates an atmosphere of tension and intensity, which the film some what recreates. 

Movie of the summer

fight club

fight club is based on chuck palahniuks original novel of the same name. at the launch the book was met with mixed reviews with critics worldwide agreeing in unison that fight club was lacking in story and charm. much like the book it is based on, the movie adaptation received similar criticism.
fight club is about violence, testosterone and rebellion but also about self acceptance, love and what it means to be an individual. a movie of this nature is special in its own way, it wasn't searching for critical acclaim, or to spawn sequels or even to make a gargantuan amount of money. the sole reason that this movie was made was to make a statment. this can be seen in brad pitts, helen bonan carter and edward nortons performances along with tiny edited frames added in post production.

if we look at the opening credits, the majority of viewers glance over the warnings shown. We except privacy warnings and a still image of text regarding the unlicensed selling of dvd's or movie reeks. However, fight club does something so unexpected and so subtle in this opening section that it had never to my knowledge been recreated. I am talking of course of one of the most infamous cases of 4th wall breaking in all of cinema history, the message from Tyler . It is very difficult to discuss the message  without spoiling the majority of the film, but put simply, it reinforces some of the more shocking and powerful revelations in the movie. The particularly interesting thing about this message is that it is only shown on the screen for one or two frames making it near impossible to read on the first showing. This (for me personally) led to one of the only times I had to physically interact with a movie to fully understand it, namely pausing the movie to read the message.

It is almost impossible to discuss the story of fight club without spoiling the entirety of the film. But what I can say is that every location, scene, and line of dialogue serves a purpose. for instance, in a particular scene a devastating explosion blasts out protagonists personal effects out of his apartment and onto the street bellow. if you pay attention to where certain pieces of furniture land you can begin to see a pattern emerging. for example a ying and yang style table sets on fire as it tumbles to the ground, this can be interpreted as his balance in life finally beginning to crack and break,  further interpretation could be his mental instability finally catching up to him. we also watch as his fridge tumbles out of his apartment and shatters on the side walk, showing no food but only condiments and sauces. which shows us that he has no substance in his life, no meat, only luxuries like expensive furniture and fancy clothes, much like condiments on a meal.
fight club on reflection is a very pretentious film with one frame long sections being inter spliced with the full movie reel. however, at no point in its 110 minute run time do you feel bored or confused. every scene in the movie is expertly directed with beautful cinematography.
fight club has became one of my most loved films, this is one of the only movies that has generally stayed with me weeks and months after i originally saw it. its messages about life, love and violence have far more of an impact then any of the mainstream, big budget action sequeals of this summer.
fight club is without a doubt a master class in cinema 

The Horror Genre

the horror genre

the horror genre in recent years has become a stale place place in recent cinema history, full of over used techniques and cliche scripted events. its easy to overlook genuinely interesting and unique horror films as the genre as a whole has had such negative media. from here ill be talking about horror films both critically aclaimed and internationally panned and how certain techniques for mise en scene, lighting, sounds and camera usage have now become staples for the genre.

stanley kubricks "the shining" has become a symbol of classic horror films. right from the opening shot we know that this film will be an eerie, psychological horror from its use of birds eye views of the snowy and desolate mountains in which the film is set, most likely to have been suspended from a helicopter and with a wide lens. this accompanied with the use of total silence creates a foreboding atmosphere, which foreshadows certain scenes in the play later on. Kubrick was a master of suspense, steering away from jump scares and loud obnoxious musical scores, he preferred slow building tension, highlighted in dialogue and eerie camera angles.

another film that features a unique approach to the horror genre was mid 2015's "unfriended", the entire movie is set within a skype call, with there being no footage of anything other then the computer screen. this movie isn't necessarily scary, but rather another psychological horror. what makes this movie particularly unnerving is the fact that everything in the film is identical to our lives, especially our computer usage. cluttered desktops, spotify tabs and applications litter the screen behind the Skype call. we relate to the characters in the movie as we can easily put ourselves in there shoes as this is how we live our lives, on the computer.
another horror movie cliché is the found footage movie. a type of film that can be shot on a tiny budget. these movies will usually feature very shaky uneven camera techniques, zero non diegetic sound and natural lighting. a particuraly good example of this is 2007's grave encounters, where a group of amateur film makers film strange going ons inside an abandoned estate. whats interesting about the mise en scene in this film is that throughout every shot, items and furniture will move around, sometimes subtlety and sometimes dramatically. this adds to the tension of the movie, where everything changes, and nothing stays the same

The Quick And The Dead

The Quick And The Dead

being a western film, the quick and the dead features may specific techniques in the mise en scene, editing, sound and camera directions that are used solely for the western genre, from the very first shot (straight after the opening credits) we know that the film will be set in a hostile, vicious world as the director uses a sweeping pan with a wide angle to capture the sun baked sand of the desert. by using this specific type of shot the audience will not only get a basic understanding of where the film will be set, but also that the film will feature dark, grimy coflicts.



directly following this scene is a track right, along a path of tools and clothes that a treasure hunter has discarded, the shot has obviously been filmed with a handheld camera, with there being dips in shot due to the dips and cracks on the uneven floor, by using a handheld camera a much more detailed view of the path and treasure hunter can be shown, if a dolly or a stationary camera the visual would still be of high definition, but a handheld camera is able to get a lot closer to a subject, with the dips camera resulting in a much more realistic feel to the scenario



every colour in this shot is tinted orange and covered in sand and dust, this use of colour makes me(as the viewer) belive that this is an accurate representation of how colour would be in this time era.the wood is worn and stained much like the treasure hunters face and clothes. when focus shifts to the treasure hunter, rather then cutting to the shot, it zooms in on the subjects face slowly, this results in the scene looking like a continuous shot rather then a choppily cut stereotypical western, the colour orange is often referred to as a determined colour, which could potentially represent the treasure hunters emotions during this specific shot, a further interpretation for this choice in colour would be that the colour orange (to the human eye) is a colour that resembles heat, which could  again be a
representation of the setting of the desert, and its obvious heat.


what follows this is an interesting shot, that is very rarely used in cinema. an extreams close up, point of view shot following the gun barrels fire path. the closest thing this type of shot can be linked to is video games, specifically more violent, brutal video games, which only serves to show the movies violent nature. this shot was probably filmed using a small stationary camera tied to the barrel of the gun, most likely a go-pro or other variant. by using this extreme close up of the gun, we can see every imperfection, blemish and scratch, which helps to add realsim to the scene.