Unit 26, Assignment 1 Improvements

In the clip from Jurassic Park, Spielberg used quite a few low angles and this makes the audience feel on the same level as the children and it also makes them feel more vulnerable because we're looking up at everything and it makes us feel small and inferior. The close ups that he uses allows the audience to really see how the actors react and it can make us feel a certain way, for example when we see a close up of them looking scared we feel empathy for them and when we get the over the shoulder shot of the dinosaur chasing Tim into the freezer it makes the audience feel tense because we can see the action from both of them from behind.

Similarly in Jaws, the over the shoulder shot is effective because when we're looking at Brody, we can see him looking into the off screen space a lot and it makes us feel anxious and we want to know what he's looking at. Again with the dolly zoom that Spielberg uses really makes the audience want to know what's happening and makes us feel almost nervous because of how the camera work made his reaction more dramatic. Also prior to the attack, the camera shot is a point of view of the shark underwater and with the music added in, we can feel the suspense because we know what's about to happen and it seems to take forever for the shark to reach the boy. This is just one example of how Spielberg uses sound to his advantage and can make the audience feel a certain way, the track includes what sounds like a heart beat so that automatically makes us feel nervous and it makes the narrative more interesting by creating the tension and making us want to know what will happen next. 


I'm going to analyse the sound from Steven Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind", again he hired John Williams to compose and conduct the music which can prove he's an auteur because he uses the same crew to create his signature style. 

In this scene, there is diegetic dialogue between the scientists and the non diegetic instruments that have been pre recorded, as the communications from the ship become more frequent it is almost comical for the audience because there's just a huge ship with aliens inside making noises. The sound coming from the spaceship is important for the narrative because it makes the audience feel quite tense, and we want to know what's going to happen after it so it creates enigmas and we're left wanting to carry on watching. Towards the end, the pace of the instruments slows down and the tone becomes much deeper which suggest something serious which changes the mood of the audience from being slightly comical to aware that something is about to happen and we concentrate more on what's happening.