M.P - Techical Analysis - The Sixth Sense (Night Shyamalan, 1999)

The sixth sense is an American Super natural movie which has bankable stars such as Bruce Willis. This movie was a high budget movie of $40 million with a box office of $672.8 million making it a very successful.
Click on the link to see the scene below.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc5B-ercdKE

Shot Duration	Camera distance /movement/angle	Mise-en-scene	Sound
0-8	MS of the protagonist, eye level angle	There is a young boy in the image, the scene is very dark as it is night time, there is only a bit of lighting on part of the door,	Mostly silence, can slightly hear the boy naturally breathing
9-13	LS of the protagonist and the door and other features in the hallway. Eye level angle	It is still dark, the boy opens the door fully and runs out of it towards to camera, he is wearing a white vest and pants connoting vulnerability and movement suggest he needs the toilet.	Same again except can hear the door squeak when it opens
14-21	LS of the protagonist, eye level angle,	The boys runs into the bathroom, the door is open while he goes to the toilet, he is facing the wall suggesting something may happen behind him. He is centred in the shot. The light is on which relaxes the audience.	Same again
22-29	CU of a timer, eye level	There is a timer which is ticking, the timer is centred in the shot perhaps conveying it is significant	Very quiet ticking sounds
30-33	LS of the protagonist,  eye level angle	He is stilling going to the toilet, then a figure walks into the shot going from right to left, cannot see the face just the body which creates suspense	The sound of the boy peeing, loud non-diegetic sound when the figure walks past which causes a jump as the scenes so far have been very quiet
34-43	CU of the protagonist, eye level angle	The boy is right of the screen, he turns his head slowly around showing he heard something, he has scared facial expressions and looks worried causing a build-up of suspense. When the boy breathes heavily the breath is visible from his mouth showing he is cold	Very quiet non-diegetic clangy sound when the boy turns his head around, can also quietly hear him breathing
44-57	LS of the protagonist, eye level angle	The boy finishes going to the toilet, turns around and walks towards the door to leave, he stands for a few seconds panting suggesting he is nervous and breath is still visible	Non-Diegetic sounds that are implied are coming from another room, sound of the toilet flushing, also dark music is quietly playing
58-1.10	POV shot from the protagonist, eye level angle, hand held camera movement causing the shakiness of it to sustain the suspense	The door to the kitchen is open, can see part of the inside of the kitchen, it is centred in the shot with the dark hallway either side which shows a juxtaposition in lighting and adds to the tension	Non diegetic dark music is still playing very quietly, there is also suggested sounds coming from the kitchen
1.11-1.18	LS of the protagonist, eye level angle	The boy is seen at the door of the kitchen from the inside of the kitchen, he is walking slowly with his hands on his legs suggesting he is nervous and scared,	There is dialogue from the protagonist where he says “mumma”. It is spoken softly and as a question
1.19-1.23	MCU of the mother, eye level angle	The mum is turned not facing the camera then turns to face the camera, she has a bruised face (pro-filmic effects) and an angry facial expression. She is wearing a dressing gown which is unusual.	There is dialogue from the mother where she speaks in a mean stern tone towards the boy
1.24-1.25	MCU of the boy, eye level	The boys facial expression show he is frightened and the lighting is darker which shows vulnerability for the boy	There is a sound bridge from near the end of the shot of the mother talking
1.25-1.27	XLS of the mother, eye level angle	The mother is standing in her dressing gown and is standing on the right of the shot, a lot of draws and in the kitchen are open which suggest the mother has been frantically looking for something which keeps the tension	There is dialogue from the mother where she shouts “You can’t hurt me anymore”, it is thought that she is directing it at someone who isn’t the son but he is the one there. Her voice is high and shaky suggesting she is scared.
1.28-1.29	CU of the mothers slit wrists, Eye level angle	The mothers wrists are in view which are slit and blood is visible which shocks and scares the audience, her wrists are shaking showing she is not in a right state of mind which sustains the tension	There is non-diegetic music that plays when her wrists are revealed, the music sounds metallic and enters as soon as she puts her wrists out to shock the audience
1.30-1.36	LS of the protagonist running, handheld camera which is shaky which matches the boys running action	The boy runs away the hall into another room, it is dark lighting again and harder to see him	The mother starts to shout for someone else which creates a scary atmosphere
1.36 – 1.38	POV shot from the protagonist looking back at the mother, canted angle, hand, fast movement	A very quick shot of the mother is seen when it is implied the boy is closing a door to block her out, it all dark except the light coming from the kitchen and her, the door is then shut and only black is visible on the screen	The mother continues to shout with the tense soundtrack still playing, There is an emphasised beat when the door is shut from the inside suggesting the boy is more safe
1.39-1.42	MCU of the protagonist, eye level angle	The boy is sitting in a dark space with a torch, the scene is mostly dark but there is light so the audience can see the boys face, he is crying showing he is very scared	Sounds of the boy crying, music continues to play at a lower volume however the music sound changes and it more tuneful and church like
1.43-1.45	MLS of a Jesus ornament, eye level, the camera is focused on Jesus and the surroundings are blurred	There is a Jesus ornament of some sort shown in the scene, he looks sad which suggest he is perhaps ‘watching over’ the young boy while he cries, there is some flickers of light shown from the torch that the boy holds	Music continues with the sound of the boy crying
1.45-1.47	Shot of lots of other ornaments, the camera positioned at one side of the surface the ornaments are on at eye level angle	There are other ornaments and there is light flickering again from the torch and shadows of the ornaments are visible	Music continues with the sound of the boy crying
1.48-1.52	XLS of the protagonist sitting in the room he is in which looks like a fort he has made, eye level angle	The boy is sitting pointing the torch at the shelf of ornaments, there is some light coming from the torch and the boy is panting and just finished crying but is stressed	Music continues and the boy is heard panting and there is dialogue from him repeatedly saying “ok” showing is trying to calm himself down
1.53 – 2 (end)	XLS of the fort/tent the boy is in, high angle,	The fort/tent the boy is currently sitting in is shown, the outline of it is detected through the light of the torch than is seen, everywhere else is dark, shadowns of the ornaments are seen through the tent, the torch light is shaky which show she is still distressed and not completely calm	Music continues while still hearing the boy panting, a voiceover is heard which starts to tell a story about a boy

There are aspects of the sequence that I find useful and can help influence the opening scene my group and I do:

• The cutting rate is slow which does help to build up suspense as the length of them cause me to feel nervous as I do not know what is going to be in next shot.
• Many of the shots feature no dialogue, which we do not want in our opening sequence. It was very effective in the sequence when there wasn't dialogue as it made the scene more nerve-racking     
• There are many times in the scene where it is quiet which would be good for our opening as it helps to create tension and makes the audience feel uncomfortable and unsettled       
• There is a jump scare in the scene when the dark figure suddenly walks across the shot, this is good as it is unexpected and in our sequence, we hope to do a jump scare.
• Pro-filmic effects were used in the sequence to imitate blood on the mother and bruises.
• There was a POV shot which was very effective and visceral which contributed to the intense atmosphere. This could be a good one for the opening sequence I will be doing.