Doors Scene Deconstruction & Analysis
My edited version of the “The door scene” consists of 3 shots;
- A panning Close up of Van walking down a hallway
- A Medium Wide two shot of Cine approaching Van
- A wide angle of X entering frame to accompany Van and Cine within the shot.
The scene is covered in a rather unorthodox style. Instead of a typical wide angled establishing shot, the scene begins with a close up of the central character Van, as she walks through a hallway. The utilization of this close and rather claustrophobic shot establishes the limited space the central character has within her surrounding.
As depicted in the following medium wide shot, due to the restricted space Van has to move within her environment, she decides to stand still with her back facing the wall upon being started by the sudden sounds of a door being opened. From these actions and facial expression, Van’s performance reflects the implication that she isn’t supposed to be wondering inside the building. While Van spontaneously begins to attempt a series of pirouettes, Cine emerges from one of the nearby rooms and walks slowly towards Van. In conjunction with the slow pacing of Cine’s walk towards Van and her movement through the shadows of the poorly lit hallway, the scene presents a brief tense moment as its unknown to the audience as how Cine will react upon seeing Van hiding in the building. However the shot ends rather anti-climactically due to Cine’s apathetic reaction to Van’s presence.
Throughout the final lingering stationary wide shot, it not only introduces the additional character, but certain elements within the shot reflect the character of X. Immediately upon hearing Van and Cine enter his area of the building, X bursts through the doors and coldly greets them, which establishes him as an unlikable and mean spirited character. Furthermore lighting is an important factor. Due to the darkness of the building’s low-key lighting and the specific positioning of X within frame, the character is always covered in the darkness of shadows, which suggests the mysterious nature of X. This is further heightened by the way this character is depicted on screen, due to the omission of a shot positioned in front of X, as his face is never revealed to the audience. Thus contributing to audiences potentially identifying X as a mysterious, and possibly sinister character.