"The Shining" Essay: Scene 2

2: In this clip we see Danny driving round the hotel on his trike. This clip starts with a tracking show of Danny riding his trike, with only the sound of his wheels, this makes the audience relax and feel as though everything is normal. It slows down to a long shot that seems to be still slowly tracking Danny from a distance, making the viewer feel as though they themselves are distant, or maybe suggesting the distance between the family and civilization. 

 

As Danny reaches the end of the hall, there is the famous high pitch scratching, this slowly gets louder until just before Danny turns the corner, this is when the sound gets lower and stops, and then sounds again maybe making some viewers jump. The high pitch sound is non diegetic and is used to create tension which slowly rises, along with the volume. 

 

It then cuts to the hallway Danny turned into and a lower screeching sound is heard, as though something is about to happen. The camera tracks Danny around the corner to reveal the two twins, seen several times before in the film. As the twins are revealed there is a low pitched, non diegetic gong sound, followed by another low pitched thud when it cuts to a close up of Danny, showing his shock and horror at these mysterious twins.

It then cuts again back to the initial shot of the twins in front of Danny. This shot showcases a regularly used show by the director (Stanley Kubrick) named the one point perspective shot. This show is almost perfectly symmetrical, emphasising the twins and maybe suggesting that they are one as there is a use of mirrors and symmetry throughout the film. 

 

This twins then begin to talk, followed by a low pitch drone. As the twins talk, there are constant cuts from Danny, to the twins, and to Danny again. It then cuts one last time to the twins, but this time they have been murdered with an axe and there is blood everywhere. When this shot is revealed, there is a high pitched piano noise, as though someone has just hit some keys randomly.

The shot of the two dead girls is interesting, at a first glance it looks like they have just been killed and have fell randomly, but at closer inspection the twins again are symmetrical but not down the centre of the shot. The girl in front is laying face up with her head on the far right, where as girl 2 is face down, head to the left, but both of them are in the same body positions. This again may suggest that they are one person as it almost again, looks as though they have been mirrored.

When the twins are initially shown, it is a long shot, but after the shot of their corpses is show, the shot of the twins goes from a long shot, to a closer shot, and then to a mid shot. This may make the viewer feel as though they are getting closer to the danger. As this is happening though, you see Danny’s growing horror in the for of a close up, until he eventually covers his face. This is when the low pitched noise goes from low to high until Danny moves his hands to see again then the sound stop and it cuts to an empty hall, showing that the twins are no longer there.

This scene for me is one of the best in the film, it is unexpected at that point and then even more unexpected when it shows the two twins deaths, the sound matches the clip very well as it really builds the tension, and retains this throughout the scene. The first time I watched it it was a little scary and a shock to me and most other viewers.

 

“The Shining” Essay: Scene 1

1: This scene is the climax of Jacks insanity. At the start of the clip Jack is talking about what Wendy wants to do with Danny. There is a lot of red present through out the scene, at the start of the clip you can see a red door behind jack, who is wearing a red jacket, this is shown through out the film as most of the doors and other props are red. A connotation of red is normally danger and this defiantly applies to this film. This contrast with Wendy as she is predominantly wearing green, a connotation of green is sometimes safety, this could apply as Wendy is holding a baseball bat to protect herself. 

 

As jack walks toward Wendy and Wendy walks away there is a constant high pitch crawling non diegetic sound in the background, this is a typical convention that is feature in other horror films as it successfully proves to make the viewer tense. However when Wendy is asked for her input the sound stops, this could mean that her answer is important and key to the plot, which it proves to be as what she says sparks the rage fuelled response she receives from Jack. There is then a similar low pitched drone noise after Wendy finished and jack starts talking again, maybe to show Jacks growing anger and insanity towards Wendy. This noise proceeds to get louder and quieter when jack speaks making the viewer tense again as though something significant is about to happen.

As jack continues to follow Wendy, he walks round the table and some windows come into show, because of the sun coming through the curtains, it make it look like there are crosses in the windows. The film does this several times throughout relating to religious themes and other themes such as sacrifice and betrayal. 

 

Between the windows there are again some red books. It then cuts back to Wendy who has a different colour scheme behind her, the colours shown are warm calm colours like brown and orange, maybe suggesting that she is the only same one left in the hotel. Or even foreshadowing later evens when Jack freezes to death. It then cuts back to Jack still talking but when it cuts back to Wendy, for a split second you can see a red door in the background to the far left and Wendy looks at the bat, suggesting that she is having thoughts about using the back, or even killing Jack.

Wendy the proceeds to walk up the stairs and starts swinging the bat at Jack and the crosses in the window come into shot again but this time with a light shining through and on Wendy's side, as she is higher up than jack on the stairs as well, this may imply that god is on Wendy's side.

The Scratching high pitch noise then comes back as jack walks up the stairs and starts threatening Wendy and when jack talk about “bashing your brains in”, the drone also stops, only leaving the high pitch noise. When jack stops smiling, Both noises come back but far more intense this time, as though this is the climax, it then lets out a loud shriek when when jack is hit and one more when he starts rolling, then one more low pitch thud when he his the bottom and stops rolling.

For me, this scene is a good piece of cinematography, but not entirely scary due to its age, I'm sure 20 years ago it was terrifying, but in today’s day and age with the advances in technology, the whole film is pretty out of date, but a great film none the less.

Why was The Lone Ranger a box office failure?

At the start of the year, The lone ranger was thought to be a success as it was developed by the same team who made Pirates Of The Caribbean and also stared the family favorite actor Jonny Depp. The Lone Ranger (2013) is based on the comic book by the same name that started in 1936 about a law man (Armie Hammer) who has turned into a masked vigilante, and his spirit warrior Tonto (Jonny Depp) on a quest, but as we can tell from past films staring the actor such as The Rum Diary and Dark Shadows, Depp is not a guaranteed hit maker.

Budgeted at $225 Million, the film suffered nearly being scrapped over the thought of going over budget, but it was the critics that doomed the film to fail, after poor reviews in the US transferring to the EU.

Most of the films problems were in production, the date of the films release was changed to be months apart and the script went through several re-writes to at some point include werewolves (never seen in the comic book) and die hard fans were out raged. Also the film was release not long before such films as the reboot of superman named The Man Of Steel, The long awaited Monsters University and Kick Ass 2, The lone ranger had an awful lot of competition.

My Favourite Summer Film

This summer I tried to watch a lot of films from IMBd's 250 greatest films list. One of the films I thoroughly enjoyed was Dawn Of The Dead (2004). The 2004 remake of George A Romero's 1978 classic zombie film focuses on a nurse trying to escape the zombie apocalypse with a group of survivors. In the 1978 version (sequel to "Night of the Living Dead,") four people take up residence in a deserted mall while trying to stay alive amid the armies of the dead and a vicious gang of militant bikers, where as in the 2004 remake, it has a lot more people, and a lot more conflict, what you'd expect from a film made 20 years later.

I enjoyed this film because of all the characters, although some of the acting was a bit flimsy, there are no two characters that are similar, they are all individual and completely different, the makers seemed to have covered every minority to achieve this and also create tension between them. There is the main focus, the female hero who has lost all family and has nothing left, the bad ass good guy, a ditsy blonde, a caring grandmother figure, etc. One of my favourite is CJ. You meet CJ when the group first get to the mall (the setting for most of the film) at first CJ comes across as a typical American red-neck, homophobic, racist, and a good shot and when you do meet him, you cant help but dislike him and you know he will eventually bite the dust. But as the film progresses you start to like him more and by the end, he is the character you most want to see through the end of the world.

Another reason I enjoyed it is what you’d expect to be in a zombie film, the gore. The film (although addressing serious issues that could happen in this situation) doesn’t take the flesh eating undead too serious when it comes to the blood and violence, to just be straight, the gore is cheesy, the heads exploding, making the audience cringe and the blood squirting out when the zombies bite, and a chainsaw through the torso, but that’s what makes it good, it makes the film shocking and makes people want to watch it.

The film also keeps you guessing, as a zombie film you'd expect plot twists, but you don’t see it coming in this film. The group seems to get into these situations that you think you can guess what’s going to happen, but then you find out your wrong. This film does this well just by keeping to shock factor high, whether I will be someone you didn’t expect to die getting shot by another group member, a surprise zombie attack or even just someone sacrificing themselves, it always keeps you guessing.

Overall, I really enjoyed this film and there isn’t much wrong with it, aside from the “B list” cast, the plot to it is fantastic and doesn’t slow down. This is a fast pace, gripping, gorey, classic zombie film and is now one of my favourites.