Analysis - Don't Breath

 

Meaning and tension is created through various combinations of film language. In the beginning of the scene, we’re shown the mise-en-scene of the scene, which takes place in a person’s house, which shows where the events will take place. The scene begins with a high-angle shot of a dark room with low-key lighting, inside the house, where 2 people are standing below. The camera is placed atop the room, to effectively display the attic door on the very top, in which the woman moves up to. Diegetic sound is most prominent in the beginning scene, as the man and the woman are shown conversing about how to get out, in which the camera cuts to a group shot of them from still a high angle-shot, where they’re both framed with narrow spacing, which suggests how they’re enclosed and trapped in this small space, with little room for escape. 

//Through editing, the camera blurs to each of the character’s faces, to ultimately show their nervous and tensed facial expressions, given the fact that there’s a person behind the door who’s wanting to kill both of them. The diegetic sound of them conversing is suddenly halted, as the door behind them is pushed further, through a loud, abrupt movement of the man, which reflects the man behind the doors’ imminent pursuit of the 2 characters. The camera then follows the characters through a tracking shot, whilst still being shown through a high-angle shot, in which the woman moves toward the open attic door, before nervously looking back at the man, which is shown through a medium-close up with a slow zoom of her worried facial expression, which both shows her mental state of mind and emphasis on her leaving him. 

The camera consistently follows the woman as she ventures to the attic, which is incredibly dark, with lowkey lighting, and the only diegetic sound that’s heard is of her hurryingly moving through the attic, with her shuffling on the roof. The woman is shown through a tracking shot, and is shown through a wide shot with her being placed at the middle of the clip with larger framing, with a slow zoom in to her. This reflects her isolation and being abandoned by the other man. Ominous non-diegetic sound is also prominent in the scene, as the woman tries to move through the enclosed attic, which furthermore reiterates how little space there is. Following her movements, a dolly zoom of the attic in front of her is shown, accompanied by the same ominous sound with a low gravel-like sound, which effectively shows both the small enclosed space, as well as how long the attic floor is, therefore showing both how its almost never-ending length and the darkness circling her self. The low sound is then again abruptly interrupted by the loud noise of the man behind the door who manages to push through and land the other man onto the floor. Fast-paced editing and long shots are used to show both the abruptness and suddenness of the following events, in which the man behind the doors’ dog pushes the other man in a quick movement out the window and onto the glass below. The other man falls onto the glass, with a soft diegetic thud, as the glass below him starts to crack ever so slightly, which is shown through a medium-shot of him lying atop the glass. The suddenness of the sound changes from low, ominous sound to sudden loud bursts of noise, which ultimately shows how the characters in the scene are utilising their sound senses to help them escape. 

The camera then cuts to the woman in the attic who’s slowly moving towards the bottom, as shown through a medium close-up on her movements, which is shown through the consistent use of a tracking shot. Abruptly, the camera cuts to the vicious dog, who follows the woman’s lead into the attic, which then cuts through the low sound to a more vicious sound with the dog’s movements. A sudden push-in shot with a close-up on the woman’s face is shown, as she realises the importance of her going through the dark hole beneath her, as the camera uses the push-in to show the emphasis of her moving away from the dog, who’s also shown through the sudden push-in shot. Similarly, as the woman lands into the space below her, the man with the gun moves away from the glass (where the other man is atop), and moves towards the sound, therefore ultimately reiterating the importance of sound in the scene. The man with the gun is portrayed with much larger framing, whilst still being isolated in the framing, but this reinforces his current power over the other characters, as he has weapons and the other characters don’t. Equally, the man with the gun, is represented as being powerful and ultimately overpowering the other 2 characters, however the characters seem to deceive the old man, with the typical archetype of the supposed, ‘vulnerable’, elders.