The Shining

Over two lessons our class watched Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of "The Shining". Whilst watching the film, we all made notes on his use of Cinematography and Mise-En-Scene,  I thought that he was very creative in the way that he did his camera shots. In a scene where Danny is playing on the floor, Kubrick uses an ariel shot whilst a ball rolls on from the off screen space and then changes to a close up, that wasn't something that we'd expect in a scene which is set indoors.
Also when Jack and Wendy were on the stairs, the use of high and low angles were manipulated because normally we'd expect the person in the low angle shot to have all the power, but Wendy was in that shot and although she had a baseball bat, she was still the vulnerable one and Jack had all the bad intentions. Another camera movement to talk about is when Danny was on his bike and the camera was at his level behind him, usually the camera would be up higher, almost looking down on him because he's the child but by making the camera at his level it made us as the audience feel just as vulnerable. Reflecting back on the film, the camera always tracked the action whether it was a close up, mid shot or an over the shoulder shot. 

A lot of red came into the setting as we began to see Jack change and particularly when Danny is alone, this symbolised the blood of the little girls he could see and the danger that was yet to come. When the actors stared into off screen space, the close ups included a depth of focus, the camera focussed on the actors' facial expressions but the background was slightly blurred so we would concentrate on what was happening in the foreground of the frame. Also the tense changed throughout the film, whilst Jack is walking around and walks into a bar, past bartenders and waiters were there, this helped the audience to understand the narrative better because Jack was talking to a waiter and he was the man who killed his family and it helped to make more sense of what was happening.

In my opinion I thought the acting was really good, Kubrick didn't use a stereotypical dolled up woman running away from her husband, making it more realistic and believable to watch. The transition that Grady made was also chilling and he went from a generous and helpful waiter to a cold killer who was very stubborn and seems to know exactly what to say to Jack. 
Going off other reviews, a lot of people found it frightening saying they had to go to bed with the lights on for the entire summer which i'd say in an exaggeration as I think it's more of a psychological thriller than horror.