Two minute analysis (2) The Sixth Sense

The first two minutes of the film, consists of the titles. The background is black, with the font being a light blue colour, capitalized and presented directly in the middle of the screen. They fade in and hold for approximately 4 seconds before fading back out. There is a piano combined with a violin that is being played during the titles, the music is slow paced, and builds up creating a tense atmosphere enforcing the horror genre. The clip opens with a black background. A light bulb slowly lights up which contrasts with the music. The music from the titles continues to play and gradually becomes quieter as the light bulb lights up the room which reveals a basement from a long shot. There is no music currently playing which creates the feeling of a possible “Jump” scene to the audience. This is an effective method, and works well combined with the dark setting of a basement. There is synchronous sound of an unknown figure who appears to be walking down some stairs. The light bulb may symbolise the source of light, and due to its size it isn't very large. This suggests the horror genre of the film. The clip cuts to a long shot revealing a woman who is wearing a purple dress, she walks slowly towards the camera into a mid shot this reveals the dress in more detail. The contrast between the dress and the basement is huge, as the basement appears all dark and dirty, and doesn't fit with the clothing. This can symbolise insecurity and establishes to the audience that extraordinary clothing is being worn. The clip then cuts to a mid shot of some candles, there is diegetic music being played which hints to the audience that it is playing from a CD player. The music also contrasts with the previous cut, as the lack of music that was being played created the atmosphere where the woman character and the audience would feel unsafe. The music is extremely effective when contrasting with the light, as it highly symbolises the safe zones. The clip then cuts to a two shot of a man and a woman which suggests that they live together as the location is revealed to be set in a house. The full location of the set isn't revealed to the audience immediately. This establishes the horror genre, as the unknown present location of the characters enforces a tense atmosphere. For example if the scene opened with an establishing shot during the daytime, of a house the same atmosphere would not have been established, as the previous basement setting has more potential base settings than a house which would obviously be set in a street. The man and woman are dressing themselves in jackets and sweaters, this symbolises the lack of heat, and may suggest that they live in a small area. In contrast the additional clothing may symbolise vulnerability, this would be modern for the male gender as traditionally males are seen as a confident gender. This would also be traditional for the female gender, as females are traditonally seen to be more vulnerable than males. Link to Youtube here By Aaron Riley