2 genres 5 conventions 5 themes

Western Conventions
Hats/boots
Guns/Shoot outs
Desert/ranches/jails/saloons
Cow boys/ gunslingers/bounty hunters

Themes
Shoot outs/show downs
Justice
Rescuing damsels
Fighting crime
Conflict

Romance Conventions
Wedding
Couple
Love
red/pink
Hearts

Themes
Obstacles e.g. infidelity, illness
search for love
Marriage
Forbidden love/ love at first sight
Overcoming obstacles

The Shining Analysis

The Shining - Analysis

The Shining is a 1980s horror film directed by Stanley Kubrick and is based on the novel by Stephen King. The film shows conventions and themes of a number of genres, including psychological horror and thriller. It stars Jack Nicholson as the main character Jack, who gets a job as a caretaker at a hotel in the winter season. Him, his wife Wendy and his son Danny move into the hotel but because they are so isolated and there is nobody else around, Jack slowly becomes disturbed and tries to kill his family. In this essay I am going to analyse two scenes from the film, referring to camera, lighting and editing techniques, as well as the sound and genre conventions.

In the opening scene of The Shining we first see an establishing shot, in which we can see mountains and a vast lake, which is used to establish the location and setting for the film. The mountains and lake make it isolated and the shadows make it dark, which are all conventions of horror films. The non-diegetic music is played from the very beginning and sets the mood of the film. It is deep, slow and sounds like trumpets/trombones; which is unsettling and scary. At this point the camera movement is a crane shot, which also helps to establish the scene, which moves forward and then swoops to the right into a dissolve transition on to a car driving down a winding road. I think that the way the camera swoops into this scene is a metaphor for the camera being a bird that is swooping in on its prey, which is the person in the car. The camera movement at this part is an aerial shot and is at a bird’s eye view angle which follows the car driving down this twisting road. This victimizes the person driving the car and the fact that the road is twisted could be a foreshadowing of Jack’s mind becoming twisted. Also the car is the only car on the road and is surrounded by trees which further adds to the theme of isolation. The film then jump cuts to an extreme long shot of the car and we can see the mountains and surroundings as well. This makes the car look miniscule compared to the mountains even though they are in the back ground but we still focus on the car as the camera is following it. In this shot high key lighting is used which gives us a false sense of security as it makes everything look bright. This is when the non-diegetic music starts to include more high pitched noises and instruments are used that sound like ghostly whispers; these are conventions of horror films and make it sound more sinister. There is then another jump cut to move time forward quicker and it shows the car driving up a slope and in front of an ominous rock wall and because it is an extreme long shot the person is yet again victimized and made to look insignificantly small. The camera then moves quicker and pans forward towards the car into a long shot. This whole scene seems like a predator sneaking up on its prey at first and then running after it to capture it. However the camera then continues to move forwards and goes past the car which lulls the viewer into the sense that nothing bad is going to happen. Then there is another jump cut to an aerial shot, at a high angle, of the car which makes it look tiny and like it is being watched and the non-diegetic sound at this moment are high pitched and sound like war cries. This could represent that danger or death is coming. The car is then shown to be driving towards a tunnel which is very dark and you can’t see inside it. This is a sign of danger and implies that the person is driving towards their death. Be that as it may, the car does come out of the other side of the tunnel into bright day light, which again makes the audience feel safe and secure. There are then two jump cuts to speed it up as it must be a long drive to where they are going. It jumps to a scene with mountains and snow everywhere which shows the audience that the person is driving higher and higher into the mountains, where they will be even more isolated and even further away from the outside world. Then it cuts to an aerial shot of a large building that looks like a spooky castle, which we then later find out is the hotel that Jack will be taking care of. It is grey and dark in colour which has connotations of loss/death and it also blends into the background of the mountains, making it look ghostly which gives the viewer an unsettling feeling about the hotel. Also on the car park there are quite a few red cars and the colour red symbolises danger and blood. During this shot of the hotel the non-diegetic sounds begin to sound like crying and wailing which signifies to the viewer that something bad is going to happen or bad things have already happened at the hotel. The crying sounds could be of the people that bad things happened to previously and these noises have been used to build up the tension. It then fades out to a blank screen with the words ‘THE INTERVIEW’ written on there. This is done so that the audience is aware that it is about to change to a completely new scene and as it is so sudden, it adds to the drama of the film.

Another scene is when Wendy and Danny are playing outside the hotel in the maze. At the start of this scene there is an extreme close up on Jacks typewriter so that we focus on it and see that it is not in use and the page is blank. While close up on the typewriter there is diegetic sound of a banging noise and then the camera pans backwards and tilts upwards into a long shot of Jack throwing a ball at a wall. This is done to show that Jack is getting bored and that there is no one there to communicate with so he has to entertain himself. It highlights the fact that they are isolated and are the only ones in the hotel. It then cuts to Danny and Wendy outside the hotel where there is high key lighting used to make it seem like they are safe and secure. However they are both wearing red items of clothing which has connotations of danger. The camera uses a tracking shot to follow them into the maze and then it goes into a close up on the map of the maze. This is done to show that they could get trapped or lost in there easily and we also see the name of the maze is “The Overlook Maze”, which suggest that they are being watched. Then it cuts to a backwards tracking shot of Wendy and Danny in the maze and then cuts to a tracking shot of them from behind so it looks as though they are being followed. This victimizes Danny and Wendy and the High pitched non-diegetic music emphasises the creepiness of the situation. There is then a dissolve transition onto Jack which makes it look as though time has gone forward a bit. We see that Jack is still throwing the ball around the hotel, which could show that he is starting to become unstable. He then walks over to a small scale model version of the maze and the camera comes into a mid-shot so that we can see what Jack is doing. As this is happening the music gets quieter but still continues to be high pitched. It then cuts to a front view of Jack from the other side of the maze model and he is leaning over the maze. This makes Jack look like he is watching Danny and Wendy in the maze and this is further shown when it cuts to a birds eye view of the maze. It is made to look like a point of view shot for Jack, but Danny and Wendy are there. When this happens there is tinkering noises that sound mystical and spooky. The birds eye view shot makes them look small and like victims and the camera then zooms in like it is closing in on them, which is done to make it look like they are trapped and have no escape. There is a cut to a backwards tracking shot like they are still being followed. The music is faster and tense which adds suspense to the scene and makes the viewer sure that something bad is going to happen. However the screen then suddenly fades out to blank with the word ‘TUESDAY’ written on there and as this happens the music suddenly stops with a loud, high pitched bang noise, which made me jump.

Reflective Analysis

This week we were put into groups of three and were asked to create a short horror/thriller genre film using different camera angles and movements, as well as diegetic and non-diegetic sound. Our aim was to make a thriller film using all the camera angles we were given and add in sound after we had finished filming. We decided that a thriller film would be easier to create considering our limited resources and equipment. My role in the production of the film was filming, directing and acting as every person in our group wanted experience of all aspects of creating a film. I also had input in the decision of what music we would add to the film, as well as helping to edit it. We filmed our movie in a graveyard as we felt that this would make it creepy and added a theme of death, which could be seen as a foreshadowing of the death of the main character. In our film the main character is running away from a murderer and then trips over and gets killed. We wanted to fulfill the thriller genre so we made the film so that the audience never sees the murderers face. I think that this adds suspense to the film as you want to know who the murderer is. Near the beginning we did a close up shot on the victims face to show their emotions and to emphasise how scared they are. When the murderer walks away from the victim, we used a low angle to show that the mystery person is powerful and it makes the audience more fearful of that character. When the main character is running away we panned the camera to follow them and then cut to a Point of view shot where we see what the character sees. In the point of view shot we see the character fall over and then we cut to the camera pointing at the ground and we hear the main character scream. It then cuts to the low angle of the murderer walking away. We did this so that the audience can guess what happens without actually seeing it, which reinforces the thriller genre of the film. Overall I think that we have created a good thriller film but it may not have the same effect that we wanted it to as it is quite funny because we are not professional actors, and this is evident when you watch the film.