Tuesday, March 25, 2014

The Shining: All work and no play


Completing The Shining, the film did an amazing job portraying the viewer as one of the characters in the movie not only by fearing for the characters being harmed, but also by the shots being taken to make the viewer feel as if a part in the movie. As Wendy approaches the typewriter, the camera is what seems to be placed on the ground and behind the typewriter to capture Wendy's reaction when she sees Jack's story and helping the viewer feel like they are sitting in the room and are not able to help her. In many films, when the camera is placed below a character it shows the audience of the power the character holds although in this scene the only power that can be figured is the power of discovery as Wendy completely realizes that Jack has gone mad.

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As Wendy continues to look through the box of hundreds of already typed pages and realizes it is the same sentence written repetitively, "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy", I thought the camera shot amplified the feeling of being in the movie or maybe even the feeling of being Wendy herself, sending chills down my back. This increases the fear the viewer has as Wendy scrambles through the papers and the music gets louder. The camera seams to be above her and just a little behind her as you see the shadow of her head along the bottom of the shot but has a nice effort of capturing the shot as if the camera was exactly the angle Wendy was viewing the papers.

1 comment:

  1. I agree with your opinion that that both the camera angle and the music used as Wendy is flipping through the hundreds of papers, helps instigate fear in the audience. As I was watching this scene, I personally began to feel anxious as to what Jack's writing meant and whether or not he was going to suddenly appear behind Wendy. I also liked how the camera was placed below Wendy when she first approaches and begins reading the type-writer, and I agree with your idea that this camera angle helped show the power of discovery. I think the use of camera angles overall, was a major contribution toward achieving the element of "scary" for this particular film.

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