DECONSTRUCTION FOUND SCENE:

This ‘Stair Scene’ was covered through five shots, with three actors. Not one shot is the same or repeated, allowing the scene to be progressive. It is shot within a small space, in a stairwell, that hasn’t got very good lighting. The opening shot is of the two main characters, with their backs to the camera, walking up the stairs towards the door that the audience can see to the top of the frame. The girls walk halfway up the stairs and then turn to face each other. This shot starts from a close up, then ends up at a medium shot, capturing the intimacy between the two friends and articulating the small space they are in. When they turn towards each other the shot cuts into the next, allowing the character’s movements to determine when the shots change. The next shot is the camera looking down on to the girls, nearly seen as an over the shoulder shot of character 1, and there is an emphasis put on the space behind the actors, suggesting to the audience that something else is going to happen here. The conversation between character 1 and character 2 is a bit intense, which results in sharp cuts, and the response of character 2 is a close up, with her expression as the main focus. However, in the background, where the emphasised space is, character 3 is being introduced by walking up the other flight of stairs towards them. In this shot character 2 is in the left of frame to show that something is happening to the right of frame. As character 2 turns her head, the camera cuts to a medium long shot of character 2, from an over the shoulder perspective from character 3. This shot never shows character 3’s face, so the audience creates an expectation that they are creepy. The audience can only see character 2’s expressions, allowing us to create expectations about what we think of character 3, without even seeing them. The final shot is back to a wide shot with character 2 in the foreground of the frame, the stairs in the mid-ground, and character 1 in the background. The stairs have been a main feature throughout this scene, and it is shown through their repetitive appearance. The stairs also determine the spatial continuity, illustrating to the audience that this scene is shot all in the one space. This last scene shows character 2 walking back up to character 1 which is the same as the beginning. This is a motif that determines the start and the finish of the scene, as characters will be always walking up and down the stairs when new parts of the storyline is revealed, no-one is stationary.

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