Sunday, 4 January 2015

The Hole Deconstruction

The Hole
The Hole is an action, fantasy, horror/thriller that was released in 2009 for a younger audience compared to other horror/ thriller films. The film follows three protagonists with their discovery of the hole in their basement.


Camera
In this scene the youngest brother is curious about the hole and wants to see it for himself however his worst fear appears when he opens it and looks in to the black void. The scene opens with a tilting shot that shows the boys feet walking down in to the basement, while he is walking down there is both diegetic and non-diegetic sound as you are able to hear a high pitched sound which is most likely violins and the sound of him walking down the stairs. While the child is walking down the stairs the camera changes to a point of view shot looking towards the hole. This is common in horror films as it makes the audience feel more involved, the camera switches to a tracking shot then returns to a point of view shot again. A high angle is used to show the child walking closer towards the hole and while he opens the hatch, however the camera quickly moves to inside the hole at a low angle looking up towards the boy as he opens the hatch. The camera stays in the hole for a large period of time before having a close up of the boy’s face, there is also some tracking during this shot.
When the boy turns to have a look around the room the camera pans across the room slowly keeping the torch light in the frame before panning back to the boy to show a reaction shot of the sound coming from another location. Once the boy has located the clown the camera moves in to a mid-shot then quickly in to a close up of the clowns face before returning and zooming in on the boy’s face. As the boy escapes there is mainly use of tracking shots following him to his freedom.

Sound
The sound of the non-diegetic violins plays continuously until it is broken by the opening of the hatch that leads to the hole, the lack of sound creates suspense as the audience knows something is going to happen. After a short while the sound of the violins fades back in however this time much louder yet fades again at 0:53. There is only diegetic sound of the boy moving his torch around and the sound of bells from the clown puppet, this once again helps to create suspense as non-diegetic sound is again introduced when the light is on the puppets face. However the sound of the non-diegetic becomes more frantic and warped as the child becomes afraid of the puppet, this is also shown when the puppet winks at the boy as a louder sound is played. This sound also adds to the use of a minor jump scare as it was not expected, the music stays louder and changes to a faster pace as the child tries to escape the clown. Diegetic sound is also paired with the non-diegetic to show that the child is in a rush as he struggles over objects and pushes things to the side.

Mise-en-scene

Within the basement there are many shelves and it is full of old house hold objects that no one uses anymore such as a toy doll, tools and an old barbeque. The basement has many items covering the area and makes it feel more like a confined and isolated place. Dusk covers most of the area to show that no one visits the basement. The child wears simple clothing and carries a torch as there is very little lighting in the basement. 

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