Panic Room

I like this sequence because it is rather subtle in the messages it puts across and the lack of complexity can actually make the audience more anxious about what the movie is about. It is set using shots of buildings and bird’s eye views of streets and floating block letters can be seen among the structures with no explanation for why or how they are there, this could make the audience uneasy. Coupled with the use of diegetic sound of cars and horns and sirens. There is also the deadly non-diegetic sound of a cello and violin playing deep low tones that keeps the audience intrigued. The music then changes where the violin is dominating along with a clicking sound similar to a clock which creates the sense of suspense building up. Mise en Scene is not widely used even though there are many different objects, the director is unlikely to have gone out of his way to acquire those. When the music changes we are also shown more of the streets and things closer to ground level such as people, bill boards and cars. There is also a point where there is a billboard clearly visible for the audience to see depicting a man and perhaps his lover or wife and is used as a challenge to the audiences expectations of a deadly atmosphere approaching. Lastly when we see a shot of New York’s Times Square, the names of Patrick Baucha and Paul Schulze are cleverly placed to the far right where there is not much movement going on while on the left there is a busy street and multiple bill boards visible to see. This also leaves the words ‘Fears’ obviously clear to the views eyes when it flashes up on the electronic billboard. Then as we near the end of the introduction sequence the viewers are shown a ground level view of a park where all the people’s movements have been sped up which makes them almost sudden blips on a screen before disappearing again. This again creates a sense of unease in the audience before their thoughts are challenged again by the deadly music and odd angles being suddenly cut off and we see a woman walking down a street while talking naturally. This creates the sense of wonder of what could happen in the movie after having experienced that sudden contrast of feelings.