My Notes
CAMERAWORK:
•The panning camera shots that leave a lot unseen, contributing to a suspenseful environment.
•When the woman goes down the stairs the camera doesn't immediately follow, it lingers, once again not showing us exactly what's going on until she actually sees what it is at which point the camera in the basement pans down to show us.
•Cuts to a shot of the washing machine and slowly zooms in which keeps us wondering if it'll work.
•During their first confrontation the woman steps towards the camera which gives a very angry aggressive tone seeing as its from Lester's pov.
•Cuts between shots where each character takes up the whole screen when they speak. This continues until Lester looks away, the camera shot than backs up to have both characters in the shot, and finally when Lester turns around the camera cuts to what he notices he notes it and then the camera gets slower again with both characters to show where his attention is.
•After he hits her the camera stays on her for a while and then switches back to him to show the effect it has on him.
•The technique of switching between them with the camera shots continues even after she's been killed.
MISE-EN-SCÈNE:
•Immediately the dark tones and shadowed lighting create the suspension in the set.
•When the woman is confronting Lester her face is shadowed making her seem evil in a way.
•Lester's face is well lit and his expression looks sad and submissive which makes us want to empathize with him.
•The look at the poster gives us insight into Lester's mind and what he's thinking, i think this is very clever and i think the poster represents the situation, something that was innocent and grounded being tainted with something violent and graphic.
•The way Lester's moving and what he's doing and wearing create a new sense of panic which I feel is very effective.
•Each shots lighting has changed a little when he starts practicing his plan everything's a bit brighter and incorporates warmer light instead of white light, definitely changes the mood of the setting.
SOUND:
•The sound design is pretty good, the wrench really and Lester's voice sound like they're coming from the basement which helps to create a convincing set.
•When the washing machine breaks the sound becomes overbearing forcing the characters to yell over it which creates tension and urgency.
•There's never any music throughout the first scene, lets all the effects do their job and sink in.
•Music cuts in once he notices the poster which is the big turning point.
•Music sounds heavy and deranged.
•Music fades out once Lester gets on the phone, allows us to focus.
•Different music plays, this music is very commonly found in scenes where someone is planning something out or thinking and it creates another tone a less serious slightly goofier tone.
EDITING:
•Having all the camera shots put together very slowly builds suspense
•After he kills her the camera cuts become more frequent and sporadic which now creates the sense of panic.
Comparison:
The example notes are good no doubt, they name each type of camera shot and the different techniques implemented, however my camera notes elaborate on the effect the camera work has on the viewer and what it does for the actual scenes itself.
However, on the examples editing notes they explain how the editing helps build the scene and how effective that is. They made more points on the editing and after reading them I see a lot of things they put that I didn't but should've.
I enjoy how much they focused on the washing machine in the sound nots and they elaborate on how many different effects the washing machine actually had on the scenes whether it was silent or making noise. They could've included more about the music and sound in terms of everything after the washing machine though.
The mise-en-scene notes were a bit lackluster, they could've explained how the things they listed actually contributed to the mise-en-scene instead of just listing them to show a deeper understanding for why those elements are used.