Home Analasyis – Eyes Wide Shut

Eyes Wide Shut – Scene Analysis

The scene I chose to analyse was a scene out of Stanley Kubrick’s drama, Eyes Wide Shut. Tom Cruise plays the main character as a New York city doctor (Dr. William Harford)  and Nicole Kidman plays as Williams’s wife (Alice Harford).

The scene i chose to analyse is the scene where Dr. Williams walks into an establishment shown as “Sonata Cafe/Jazz”, he proceeds in and exchanges dialogue with a waiter before he sits down and watches Nick Nightingale (Played by Todd Field) signing off a performance. Once the performance concludes, Nick joins Bill (Dr. Williams) and starts to press Nick for details, this is where Bill learns more information from Nick about the quasi-religious event happening that night. The scene concludes with Nick confronting Bill with the small possibility of getting a fully covered, masked outfit a such a late time, as Bill learns that he needs such an outfit to be let into the event.

Diegetic Sound:

Jazz Band

Multiple Instruments (Piano, Cello, Saxophone)

Dialogue with Nick and Waiter

Paper Rustling

Telephone Ringing

Pen Clicking

Ambient Piano Music

Non-Diegetic Sound:

Camera:

Tracking Shot

Medium Close-Up

Close-Up

Editing:

No Cuts/One Long Scene

Mise En Scene:

City Street

Doorman/Waiter/Bar

Jazz Band/Nick

Table/Table Light/Drinks

Lighting:

Dark Setting

Key Lighting (Sets the mood as it just highlights both their faces)

 

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12th September 2012 – Scream Opening Scene

What I analysed from the opening scene to Scream consisted of:

Starting Scene – A State Of Equilibrum

Diegetic Sound:

Dialouge between between character and murderer

Gas Hub

Popcorn

Knife Being Unsheathed

Phone Ringing

Non-Diegetic Sound:

Tense music in key spots where it matches the Mise En Scene

Camera:

Medium Close Up

Close Ups Of Key Items (Popcorn, Gas Hob Etc)

Editing:

Quick, Choppy cuts near more tense parts of the scene

The pace of the scene quickens during tense parts of the scene

Mise En Scene:

Main Character – Kitchen – Telephone

Popcorn – Blonde Wig – Knifes

Lighting:

Low key lighting – Artificial lighting to match the scenes setting

12th September 2012 – Sex and The City Analasyis

Today’s lesson consisted of learning about key elements that a director or producer would try to include in their production, this involved using key terms like Dismemberment, Camera angles, Stereotyping and Representation. We also looked at Freud & Lacan’s theory of Scopophilia and Laura Mulvey’s theory of The Male Gaze –

We also wrote a 400 – 500 word analysis about the opening scene of Sex and The City where in you had to include some of the key terms that you would have to include in an essay or exam question in order to reach the higher bands of marking. The following was written in about 20 minutes:

Sex and The City Opening Scene Analysis

Analyzing the opening scene of “Sex and The City”, The main character “Carrie” is represented as a “fish out of water”.
The first initial shots cut to close-ups of the main characters face and iconic sky scrapers, this could be seen as Darren Star trying to covertly trying to  “empower” the main character as the quick cuts almost compare her to the huge structures. The choppy cuts could also represent the fast paced urban life of New York, or even show how fast things can go wrong in life, as the speed of the opening scene gradually slows down near the end of the opening scene.

Dismemberment is also used in most of the opening scene, as right up to the end, where the camera pans out to a medium-longshot to show the full length of the main character’s body. The rest of the shots where the main character is shot in, only the top half of her body is shown, this could show slight factors of male gaze, but also appeals to women in a different way, as “Carrie” is shown in a certain fashion where she is desirable to women. This creates a situation where the female viewer want to BE the main character in many ways, wether it be her fashion sense, or what she represents as a female character, i would even go as far to say some key viewers aspire to be the main character. This is the way that “Carrie” is represented, the character that can viewers can relate to, this was probably a major key in the shows success through out its broadcast and box office releases

At the start of the opening scene, there are multiple shots of high buildings, this ould also represent her ego as when she get’s “splashed”, the camera angle seems to pan down to her level, I think that this shows a contrast to the start of the opening scene, where she is almost presented as “untouchable” but then is brought down to everyone’s level as even the amount of people increase’s closer to the end where everything goes wrong.

In the earlier shots of the opening scene, where the close up “dismembered” shots of her upper body/face can suggest that she’s in her own fairy-tale life, and is oblivious to the real world, subtle things like her outfit and her facial gestures/body language throughout the opening scene can suggest this.