Monday 5 November 2018

pans lab


The scene where she gives the faun the key
as the little girl walks down the stairs the music is quite faint and delicate but as her foot reaches the floor of this mysterious place the music intensifies and becomes more prominent and deeper which could suggest that she’s in danger  the low key lighting and the fact that its at night time also suggests danger and mystery mainly because these are stereotypical conventions use in horror films during the end of the scene as she starts to walk back up the stairs the music lightens and becomes more delicate and magical then inferring that she’s possibly walking away from danger back in to safety.
When the little girl is talking to the faun there is no music at all, all we can hear is diegetic sounds of the faun creaking when he moves and the fairy’s wings fluttering apart from when she hands the key to him we hear a non diegetic twinkle noise which is a typical convention in fantasy films as it gives the key a sense of importance.
The key is given a sense of importance as during the time it set (1944) Spain was under the control of general Franco who attempted to topple the Republican Government and control the people of Spain in a similar way to Hitler and Mussolini. the key shows this as keys are used to lock things and open things , and Franco had the power of the key he unlocked what he wanted people to see and he locked what he didn't want people to see. Straight after this scene it cuts to a man locking a lock, this takes us back to the idea of locking away what shouldn't be seen and the fact that we see a mans hands do this also shows the representation of men and women of that time, men being controlling and powerful and women being obedient and controlled, Ofelia breaks these stereotypes as she misbehaves and sneaks off in the middle of the night to the labyrinth, this is a prime example of being disobedient.
in this scene the surroundings are very dark due to the low key lighting , this technique makes Ofelia stand out as she is wearing a costume that is predominantly light colors which show that she is young and pure and that she is the key part of this story, it also seems as if a light is shining on her and at the time it is shown it is night so the light shining on her would be the moon and previously the faun says that her father is the moon so now we see that her father could be protecting her by shining down on her, the faun also has light shining on him as he steps out of the dark shadows to talk to Ofelia, this shows that he is safe and that he also links with the father who is also the moon.
the second scene I chose to analyze is the first time she steps in to the fantasy world through the chalk door , we immediately see a change between real life and fantasy due to the color pallet , when she is drawing the door the colours are very cold and blue and green tones which shows that real life is pretty undesirable and harsh , but as she opens the door and the camera shows an establishing shot of the hallway Ofelia had just discovered and we immediately see a change in color as the tones are warmer using colors such as reds yellows oranges and golds , this creates a more desirable feeling and even makes the audience feel safer and comforted than when seeing the cold real world. though the colours of the fantasy world are quite warm and humble a lot of red is used which is also a colour that signifies death and evil as its the colour of blood so already this has foreshadowed the encounter with the pale man later in the scene as he is evil and murders children , his eyes are also red like blood and his eyes represent what people could see and couldn't see in the time Franco was in control.
even though the fantasy world looks desirable the diegetic sound used creates this tense emotion as they use sounds that sound like breathing which is a common convention used in horror films to make the audience feel on edge , also when we see the paintings of the pale man killing children there is a diegetic sound of children screaming and crying which in a way brings the pictures to life and makes the audience fear for Ofelia as she is a child and the is alone with this pale man.
the first shot we see of the pale man is a depth of field shot , this shows that he is nothing to worry about  as he isn't in focus though when Ofelia takes some food from the table and the pale man starts to come alive when the camera goes back to Ofelia and shows again another depth of field shot of the pale man being out of focus even though now he is something to worry about this shows that she isn't scared and she hasn't even given it a thought that this creature could be dangerous because she doesn't realize he has awoken till she turns around .
I also picked up that in this first shot of the pale man we see the long table and just him sitting at the top of it, this is also seen when the captain is at the dinner table in the house so the pale man is also the captain in this fantasy life as the captain hates Ofelia who is a child and the pale man hates children as he kills them the pale man is also influenced by an art piece called 'Saturn devouring his son' this could foreshadow later in the film the captain has a son but unfortunately the mother dies.
also the camera pans from Ofelia to a pile of children's shoes this links to the context of the time it was filmed which was when the Holocaust was happening and that is a reference to how the children and adults were stripped from all their clothes and were thrown in to a pile as that is the level of control Hitler had so this shows the level of control the pale man has and the pale man is a reference to the captain who is a reference to Franco.

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