The Happening Analysis-Shots

The happening is a supernatural thriller filmed in 2008.It was written, co-produced and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. The film includes actors such as Mark Wahlberg as Elliot Moore and Zooey Deschanel as Alma Moore, Elliot's wife. The film is about an exposed toxin causing people to commit suicide and how they attempt to escape the mystery toxins causing  the disaster.

This shot is a worms eye view of the clouds above moving around in time to the music and the credits are shown in front of the cloud background. As the music gets faster, the clouds move faster and the background gets darker, so the background is parallel to the music.

This is a long shot of a man waling his dog, you can only se the bottom half of his body as the camera uses a tracking shot to follow the people. In the back ground of this shot you can hear people taking and everyday noises as this shot is a norm of everyday life in central park. There is also slight non digested music of eerie dark music to set the tone and atmosphere.

This is an establishing shot showing the location o the scene as it shows the audience that the scene is clearly set in a park.This shot is also a wide angle shot as it fits all of the area into the lens it. There is digestic sound effects in the background of this scene of people talking and laughing showing the norm(everyday) life of the people in this scene.

   
This is a jump shot from the previous establishing shot of the park to this low angle shot looking up beyond the trees to the city buildings in the background. Whilst this scene s shown the non-digestic music is still playing in the background to create suspense.

This is an example of a zoom shot as the camera slowly zooms into the characters on the bench. This allows the audience to see the characters talking, this is also an example of a two shot as it includes two characters in one shot. In this scene it creates a focus on these two certain characters as the speak and the background noise and music softens allowing you to hear their convocation, this is also known as the "cocktail party effect".

   This series of shots are what's known as shot reverse (reaction) shot, where the camera focus's on one particular thing (for example this women) and it shows that she has noticed something therefore the next shot is an image of what she is looking at, (being the park with the people standing still,)the camera then moves to the next shot being her reaction of what she has just seen, I find this effective as it shows the characters emotions and reactions clearly through their facial expressions.
 

This I an example of a high angle extreme close up focusing on the women's fisted hand clasping the needle in her hair. This shot shows that the needle in her hair is an important prop in the scene and that something bad may happen with it as the women is grasping tightly with force on the needle also the camera is focused directly on the needle making it significant. The music's tone also seems to change to more dramatic this creates suspense and a tense atmosphere. 

                                

This is a close up shot of the women stabbing the needle into her neck, this shot is effective as it focuses on the neck and needle however it shows the women in the background as well making it a two shot, in this hot you are also drawn to the women behinds facial expressions and how concerned and scared she is.