6S Opening from Stephen Adams on Vimeo.
In this post I will be analysing ‘Sixth Sense’, which is a psychological thriller feature film brought out in 1999 by director M. Night Shyamalan. In this essay I will analyse the setting, characters, sound, titles, camera work and editing to examine it for thriller conventions.
This film opens with the studio logos of the film producers (Hollywood Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment) who are of great importance to the creation of the film.
We fade to full screen monochromatic titles in a serif font, which are binary oppositions (white text on black screen), a frequent occurrence in thrillers, immediately connoting the genre of this feature film. When the producer’s logos first appear, various eerie drones begin on the sound track. These titles are more classic than other titles, perhaps to display the intelligence needed to understand the slow pace psychological based movie. There are a series of slow full screen titles, listing many of the important contributors to the film, such as executive producers and the director of photography, this lasts for a period of 3 minutes, a long time for the audience to watch full screen titles, connoting that this is
not an action movie, and concentration is needed to understand and appreciate the detail within the film.
The titles also track forward slowly, with the individual letters bordering out away from the centre to imply to slow movement from 'normal life' to the disfunctionality yet to come.
After the last fade at the end of the title sequence, we start to see light, tinted orange situated in the hot spot of the lower most third to the left which applies to the 'rule of thirds' which makes the audience pay attention to these particular hot spots, and also makes terrific composition within cinematography. The slow light, brightening the darkness acts as a diegetic fade as we start with a extreme close-up to start the scene, this choice of shot is unusual as there is usually a long establishing shot, but this choice of shot has specially been edited as the opening shot to give a claustrophobic, uncomfortable feel, which sets the 'on edge' atmosphere to this opening nicely. This enclosed space creates a sense of mystery to the audience as we cannot see what may be lurking in the shadows, or indeed around the room in which the camera is situated. The bare light bulb itself is tinted orange to give the impression of an old, archaic setting. With this light taking a duration of 12 seconds to fully light up, the chiaroscuro (low key, high contrast) lighting creates tension which emphasised with the soundtrack which has been creating an eerie atmosphere throughout the opening with a series of sound bridges.
At the end of this twelve second period there is an echo of a door being open, evidently telling the audience that we're in a large room but we can only see a small fraction of the setting, creating mystery and tension.
We cut to a long shot of an attractive, sophisticated woman in high heels and a long dress coming down the stairs, the sound of her footsteps have been forwarded within the sound mix to enhance the atmosphere previously stated. As the lady walks towards the wine rack (towards the camera) the camera is being focus pulled so the depth of field changes, until the wine rack and her face is finally in focus, this enables us to stay on this shot for a long duration, connoting the slow pace of the psychological story. The camera tracks downwards enabling us to see many wines within the cellar but the wooden parallel panels in between the bottles reminds us of bars, such as the ones in jails, perhaps acting as an indicator for crime in future scenes, this idea is also common in other thrillers such as 'Face/Off' which again, reminds us of the genre of the movie.
The camera zooms in slightly to a close-up shot just as the non-verbal codes of the lady indicates that she's scared with the widened eyes and slight frown on her face as she turns away from the camera, when we immediately cut to a long shot of the room. The idea of bars and crime is also prominent here too as there are shadows of pillars being created through lighting techniques. There is also a shadow of the lady in between two of the pillars/bars, enclosing her, from a light situated on the left side of her, which creates a sense of unease as we see the lady being trapped. As she is on the left third of the screen it is impossible not to notice the large empty space ahead of her, and as her non-verbal codes of her arms around her body for comfort imply that she's scared, this space connotes isolation and loneliness.
We cut to the opposite side of the grey cellar in time to see her quickly run up the stairs, we get the impression that she's scared of something within the room, although we can't see what, creating mystery within the scene.
There is a small ellipsis edit used as we cut to the scenery which juxtaposes the previous scene. The many candles creating a warm and inviting glow invite the audience to feel 'at home' and comfortable, and within this close-up there are many 'Thank You' cards evidently made by children - made obvious through the bright choice of colours and the artistic skills commonly associated by young children. In the shot that follows, the close-up shows a man in an expensive looking suit holding a glass of wine which connotes wealth and that these two characters are well off in terms of their economic status. The lady brings them both a jacket each, even though there is a fire, emphasis to the audience that it's late at night as it's cold in the house. A series of 'shot-reverse-shots' are used between the two actors in the two-shot and the prestigious award sitting on an expensive chair in front of them. An innovative shot is created as the camera tracks froward slightly to show both the actor's faces in the mirror of the award whilst the female actress is reading out the detail of it, this narrative exposition gives the audience key information about the male character - that he's an established award winning child psychologist who has dedicated his life to his work.
This narrative exposition within the script writing makes the diologue seem naturalistic, giving the audience key information to digest before using it in future scenes to twist the plot to create a good thriller.
With every 'hero' within thrillers, they have their flaws, perhaps his overworking and obsession with his work is his flaw, and may have disastrous implications withing future scenes. Within a series of shot-reverse-shots we notice that the 'hero' of this movie is around 40 years old, male, with flaws and this is typically what we would expect from an opening of a thriller within characterisation of the actors. The intimate glimpses of behavour between the actors is disrupted by a dramatic change in angle - a long shot, which almost makes the audience think that they're being watched. The sound recording of the dialogue is still clearly heard as it's been edited in post production so we understand more key details within the script.
Another ellipsis edit is used to denote the change of scene - this time the bedroom, and the chiaroscuro lighting is present again, perhaps indicating that the 'equilibrium' is going to be dramatically over turned by an upcoming event, this theory into stories has been stated by Tzvetan Todorov who stated that all stories had an equilibrium, a disruption (crime) and then a revised equilibrium. It is common for thrillers to have a dramatic crime committed at the start of the film. The shadow appears again as the light at the back of the male actor is switched on, indicating that the pair may be being watched. Due to their drunken state, they do not immediately notice the open window and smashed telephone on the floor when they enter the room, but do so when undressing. A 'point of view' hand held camera shot is used to display the image of the broken telephone and tracks to the smashed window, telling the audience that someone has broken in through the window as much of the glass is in the inside of the bedroom. The 'point of view' tracking shot is used for the audience to understand the anxiety and confusion running through the heads of the two actors.
Immediately after we see this, a long two-shot is used to show a shadow moving on the screen, indicating that their is a body moving behind the camera. After effects such as SFX have been used to create a small gust of wind which moves a long with the moving image of the shadow, this makes the visual more effective, which is also aided by the short, panicked wimper by the lady in the dress who quickly puts her back towards the wall and raised her hands to her face indicting her distress.
The slow zooms and the hand held tracking shots which come next create a tentative and atmospheric atmosphere which keeps the audience gripped to the scene. As the tracking is slow, it makes the audience think wildly about what could be in the en suite bathroom. The non diegetic sound track builds up to create slight panic within the audience as we first see several items of clothing on the floor, then a pair of feet, and finally a body. We do not expect to see a semi-dressed, distressed, psychotic man in the bathroom looking anxious himself.
We immediately realise the distorted mental state the man is in, and relate this to the information acquired in the previous scene - that he's a child psychologist. The eerie, mysterious soundtrack continues as the confused Doctor stares at the man in disbelief, but is seen to be relatively calm about a stranger in his bathroom, which, we realise, is the reason why he has won an outstanding award. The series of close-up shot-reverse-shots and the increased editing speed gives a sense of urgency to the situation, relative to the action being shown. The intruder looks very distressed with his right arm wrapped around his stomach feeling his left arm for comfort before moving towards the Doctor who is forced to sit on the bed causing panic to his wife which is shown with close-up shots. As he approaches there is a slight sound spike to create a tense atmosphere. The Doctor is on the bed, which now places him in a vulnerable position as the camera angle is high looking down on him, as the intruder gets increasingly more over whelmed and upset about his personal life. As the patient describes his situation, of a single parent family, with a possible mood disorder, the camera tracks side ways for both male actors giving the sense of the psychologist in deep thought, creating the meaning that, he is trying hard to understand and remember the details of the patient, but his thinking may be disrupted by the influence of the alcohol he had previously drank. The Doctor tries his best to help the patient calm down by stating numerous good traits about the character, but in a moment of unpredictable psychotic behaviour, he gets shot. The gun was pointed directly at the camera and sparks were added to create dramatic effect and we quickly cut to the mid shot of the Doctor falling back onto the bed having been shot.
This image is accompanied by a diegetic scream of his wife in terror. We see another mid shot of the patient who is still pointing the camera forwards, who brings the gun to his head as the camera tracks side ways, so the audience cannot see the suicide of the ill patient, but we hear diegetic SFX of the splutter of blood and the bullet entering his skull.
