Textual Analysis The Shining

Textual Analysis

The Shining is a 1980 British-American psychological horror film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick.
Why am I choosing the Shining? I am choosing the Shining because its a great classic film, it also has many different aspects during the film that I can take and use in my film. Like the different usage of sound, lighting, different camera angles, different camera techniques. 
Stanley Kurbick from the start of the film uses a lot of symmetry within each shot. By using symmetry in the Shining it gives it this weird feeling when watching. 





Here is the original shot of the 2 little girls. As you can see just this scene alone is weird and has a weird feeling because the use of symmetry.







I added a line in to act like a mirror line so that you can see that the hall way is identical on both sides apart from the exit sign and fire alarm.  But with using this technique I found it made the film a lot more eerie and made the scene have a weird  because nothing is symmetrical in real life. The use of this is really good within the film. 







Another good example of this is when jack is at the type writer. Kurbick uses and extreme long shot and  symmetry within the scene. 

As you can see a lot of the scene the symmetry within the shot isn't as notice able but I see the back ground is very similar just like the girl shot it makes the shot just feel weird and eerie. It is a very unusual technique to use but it works. Looking closely into the shot the furniture isn't identical on both sides but the structure is with the Stairs, balcony and chandelier. From this angle in my opinion it makes the shot look edgy and weird with just jack sat right in the middle. 

I am showing this footage because during the start of the film Kurbick uses a dolly to create this feeling that you are following Danny when hes on the kart. The shot lasts 36 seconds and I just feel that it would be really hard to recreate something like that but it would be absolutely amazing. 

The score during the film has been written and produced by an orchestra and is in minor key. When something bad is about to happens there is a massive build up within the score to create tension then when the scary moment happens the whole score becomes loud and is played at a high pitch to create the feeling that something bad has happened. Within the title sequence they elongate the notes and make it scary and like you know something is going to happen. From the soundtrack you can instantly tell that something is wrong because all of the notes being played are elongated/they drag on for a little bit. The soundtrack is also played in a minor key which when ever a song is played in a minor key its usually a sad song. At 1 minute 40 seconds it sounds like some strings are being played but in an awful way, it made me feel like i was being watched and i didn't feel right. At the 3 minute mark it sounds like someone is crying this also makes me feel a little bit wherry of my surroundings. This will also build tension within the views minds. 












During this short 2 minute clip from the film. Danny is suffering with some sort of night terrors and keeps on saying "Redrum". Redrum back wards is Murder as we find out towards the end of the clip. Just a kid stood next to his mums bed saying Redrum over and over is really strange. 

Shining is set in a massive hotel which is located in the mountains and during the winter it snows massively. Meaning the hotel is unusable to customers. So this massive hotel is unoccupied apart from Jack and his family. This is the perfect place for someone to go a little bit crazy and to kill people because no one would know about it. It would be really hard to find a place like this but it would be amazing if i could. 

Inside the hotel, the bar scene, the bar is very lite up with light. In my opinion compared to the rest of the hotel the bar is very modern and is like Jacks safe heaven from the rest of the hotel. During the film Jack imagines people at the bar. This could lead to people thinking that jack has started to go a little bit crazy. within my film i could use this but adapt it to my film. I could use voices instead of people. 



In conclusion the shining has helped me discover different techniques to use in a thriller film. Even though the shining is a old film some of the techniques used during my film. The Shining is a very iconic film. From watching the film and going through and anaylising some of the shots i have learnt many different ways to make my film have a weird feeling to it. In my film i will be using my main character hear voices and telling him what to do basically schizophrenia.