Sunday, October 17, 2010

Blog Prompt #6

The film I decided to take a scene from is the 2005 remake of Vincent Price's House of Wax. This updated remake is directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and produced by Warner Bros. One of my favorite scenes takes place when Carly's (Elisha Cuthbert) twin brother Nick (Chad Michael Murray) is searching the town of Ambrose for her and her boyfriend Wade (Jared Padalecki). When this scene begins, the gas attendent Bo (Brian Van Holt) has taken Carly and tied her up in the basement of his gas station. Bo goes to see how his conjoined twin brother Vincent (also played by Brian Van Holt) has taken care of Carly's boyfriend Wade. While Bo is locking up the gas station, he is confronted by Nick. Here is the scene as follows...


The best example of a Close Up in this scene takes place at 00:04 seconds. This is when you see Carly's tear stained face and bloody hands and lips for a mere second, however, that one second is so powerful. It tells a whole story with one look and cry for help. It immediately tells the viewers what her situation is and her state of being. This close up is used to display Carly's feeling and emotions, like Dr. Ramirez-Berg explained that it would. This flicker of a one-second shot is also filmed at eye level which portrays an identification and power neutral shot. This shot is power neutral because at that moment, she has the chance to be saved, but also the chance of being killed. Her brother could hear her cry for help and save her, or her assailant could have the upper hand and kill her brother, leaving her there at his mercy as well.


The purpose of the Long Shots used in this scene are to emphasize the isolation that these characters are experiencing. At 00:21 seconds, when Nick looks back into the gas station, we see a long shot of him standing there before he runs to the other door. For this split second, we see him as alone in a typically busy place. In everyday life, we see gas stations as a place where there is always movement and interaction with others, however in this town of Ambrose, it is quite the opposite. The other Long Shot used in this scene takes place at 00:41 seconds. After Nick has kept Bo from getting into the gas station, he runs back to the front door to see if there happens to be a door he missed earlier or if Bo is still outside. This shot shows the completely quiet, barren town of Ambrose with not a soul out on the streets. This shot not only shares the thought of isolation, but also the loneliness and sadness that come from knowing that there is no help out there for him or his sister. All in all, the long shot gives us the aspect of isolation, sadness and loneliness.

Finally, the entire fight, save for a few close ups on Nick's movements, use the Medium Shot and also the Tracking Shot. We see the fight between Nick and Bo as it happens, the camera moves with them instead of staying stationary, so this is an example of the Tracking Shot. The Tracking Shot works really well in this scene for building suspense and making the viewer feel almost as if they are part of the fight. When Jaume Collet-Serra chose against staying stationary, he knew that he would get more of a reaction from the viewers than if he had stayed in one place. The Medium Shots in this scene helped move it along as smooth as possible for a fight and gave the viewers valuable information on the two characters. It showed their relationship as it went through its various stages, rather quickly too. It also functioned as an information shot on many levels. It told the viewer that Bo was furious and that Nick wasn't going to give up the fight. It told the viewer that Bo was pissed that Nick kept him from getting in the gas station and it shared that Nick realized how alone they were in this town of wax.





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