Analyse the use of cinematic techniques to create mood and atmosphere - Comment on their effectiveness, in creating the illusion that Malcolm Crowe is alive.
ANALYSETHE USE OF CINEMATIC TEQNICQUES TO CREATE MOOD AND ATMOSPHERE. COMMENT ON THEIR EFFECTIVENESS, IN CREATING THE ILLUSION THAT MALCOLM CROWE IS ALIVE.
The Sixth Sense is a story about child psychologist Malcolm Crowe who, at the beginning of the film is shot. You are then shown forward in time where he appears to have recovered but is having marriage problems as his wife seems to be ignoring him. He puts all his energy in to his work, he gets particularly involved in one case. The case of Cole Sear, Cole lives alone with his mum he seems to be a very disturbed child but no one can work out why. Malcolm gradually befriends Cole and Cole learns to trust him and then he reveals his secret, he can see dead people and they are haunting him.
Malcolm works out that the way to solve Cole's problem is to not be scared of the ghosts, as they aren't there to hurt him, they just need his help. So he says goodbye to Cole feeling satisfied then he returns to his wife, only to be reminded of what a state their relationship is in, this is when it slowly starts to fit in. He remembers Cole's description of the dead people, "they don't know they're dead, they only see what they want to see, they walk around like normal people" then it all makes sense, Malcolm is dead too, that's why his wife is ignoring him and Cole is the only person he can communicate with.
The Sixth Sense is filled with effects of many different types that help to set the mood, for example the music right from the beginning of the film is eerie and suggests that there is something not quite right. The music accompanied by the camera angles and other effects really help to set the scene.
Like in the scene where Cole's mum is looking at photographs of him and is noticing that there is a strange light by him in all of them, which is suggesting that he has been able to see ghosts all his life. There is high pitched tinkling music playing possibly on the piano which almost suggests she is being enlightened and is starting to realise something is wrong. Her head obstructs the camera so at first you can't see what she is looking at and then as she moves it the camera pans across them as it slowly discloses the information to the viewer so its as though it is only just getting through to the viewer as it is to his mum, so we can then feel some emotion and sympathise with his mum as for a while we are both uninformed of what's happening. In this scene her nails are painted bright red as she touches the photos. Throughout the film the colour red is used to show anything that is wrong in the real world and there is always red around when there is a potentially dangerous or explosive emotional situation.
Another thing that is used when something scary or wrong is happening or going on is shadows, big shadows and lighting effects make the situation very scary and make the people seem vulnerable, because the shadows stretch up the walls and flicker, really putting you on edge and almost express Cole panicking. They make people seem vulnerable because you can't stop shadows, you can't touch them or hurt them so you are helpless towards them and they can seem like they're closing in on you, they are also associated with the dark which many people find unnerving. So ...
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Another thing that is used when something scary or wrong is happening or going on is shadows, big shadows and lighting effects make the situation very scary and make the people seem vulnerable, because the shadows stretch up the walls and flicker, really putting you on edge and almost express Cole panicking. They make people seem vulnerable because you can't stop shadows, you can't touch them or hurt them so you are helpless towards them and they can seem like they're closing in on you, they are also associated with the dark which many people find unnerving. So even though they aren't actually anything to be afraid of they still play with the viewer's emotions.
The shadows also give away another part of the plot, dead people don't have shadows so none of the ghosts can have shadows and if you watch you also notice that Malcolm does not have a shadow, this is hinting to the viewer that he is not actually alive.
Cole and his mum wear red clothes a lot, red is very significant throughout the film and so is the temperature, you continually see the temperature on the thermostat go down in their house whenever Cole is alone and scared just before he has an encounter with a ghost, its like a warning. Cole tells Malcom that it gets cold when a ghost is scared or angry. When Cole is in hospital and exposing his secret to Malcom it is so cold you can see his breath as he whispers it. This is a massive clue that Malcolm is dead, the camera also zooms in on his face as Cole tells him "they don't know they're dead, they walk around like normal people". It seems very obvious but whilst you watch it you put it down to the camera wanting to catch Malcolm's reaction to what he is saying, it adds tension as Malcolm seems to be unnerved by it and he is obviously scared because it has gotten so cold. Cole has the bed sheets pulled right up to his chin like he is trying to hide and he looks very small, this creates sympathy for him, the camera zooms right in on his face, almost invading his personal space, this makes him seem helpless to everything, and you see the terrified expression on his face clearly and it you are very aware of it as the background is very dull as he is in a hospital, it is all plain grey so you have to focus all the attention on him as this is a very important breakthrough emotional scene, it is Cole opening up and trusting some one which he hasn't done before so he is extra vunerable and the viewer feels sorry for him.
Cole's house has lots of long corridors in it so that it builds up suspense as he walks along them and all the signs that something bad is going to happen are starting to appear, the shadows start to grow, the music becomes more tense, its gets cold, you hear Cole breathing heavily so show that he is scared and there will be red somewhere, and then he will see the ghost. He will scream or the ghost will shout or make some kind of scary gesture, for example a small girl ghost vomits. This is the climax and often makes you jump, they are the action parts of the film where you see how awful it is for Cole and this is where some viewers would get very scared rather than just unnerved because it is graphic, you're not just hearing Cole talk about it you are seeing it yourself. Some people may find the build up and suspense more frightening then the climax but I find this part the scariest. Often at a climax the camera cuts to an extreme wide angled lens, this makes is more dramatic and you get a clear quick shot of the ghost or Cole terrified and it's a bit of a shock and makes the shot slightly more significant than the build up to it.
Another thing used a lot in the Sixth Sense to create atmosphere is vulnerability, as Cole is a young boy that makes him even more vulnerable, as he is smaller and not as strong as an adult so you feel scared for him at times. They make both him and Malcolm seem vulnerable using camera angles and lightening effects. For example in the scene where Vincent Gray is in Malcolm's bathroom, it is light in the bathroom where Vincent is whilst it is dark in the room where Malcom and his wife are. This makes Vincent more threatening as he had the confidence, time and thought to switch the light on so he can see and is comfortable in there. Whereas Malcolm can't turn on the light (which means he is at a disadvantage because he can't see, so is slightly disabled) because if he does Vincent will know he is there, he is hiding from Vincent because he's a threat so Malcolm is made to appear vulnerable. There is also a lot of use of shadows in this scene as it is dark and this adds to the scary mood. Later when Malcolm is talking to Vincent he is sitting down and the camera is angled down at him, making him seem small and insignificant, whilst Vincent is standing so you can see he is in control of the situation and Malcolm is at his mercy. Also when they are in the bedroom the camera is hand held instead of on a dolly to create a more immediate and uncontrolled effect because the scene is not controlled and Malcolm and his wife are panicking so it could be a reflection on how they are feeling.
The very first scene of the film is a key scene as it provides the viewer with a lot of information instantly and so the mood and atmosphere are set right from the start, Malcolm and his wife Anna are talking in husky quiet voices which almost gives the impression that they are hiding from something, they are dressed up and obviously celebrating something, they are acting slightly drunk which means that they will have slower reactions which makes them vunerable. The scene uses exposition to disclose some information quickly about Malcolm, it shows his award for being a child psychologist and he touches the frame of it so you know it is something close to him and to connect him with it. The room is also dark with candles flickering to create shadows, so what appears to be a romantic scene actually has a hidden reason which is to use the shadows flickering to create a bit of tension unexplainable action to the room.
You also see them getting cold which is another signal that ghosts are around. When they are in the bedroom and scared there is quick cutting between zoomed in shots of the characters while the music gets more intense and is building up to a climax, it creates an urgent mood.
When Vincent turns around you see the scratches on his back that are the same as Cole's, revealing right at the beginning that he has the same problem as Cole. But the viewer doesn't catch on because you don't know Cole's secret at this time. It is a clever twist in the plot because it makes Vincent Gray and Malcom's death relevant to Cole and so it all links together so Vincent has a good reason to kill Malcolm and helps Malcolm to believe Cole.
Vincent shoots himself in the head so the viewer knows that he is definitely dead, but he only shoots Malcolm in the stomach so Malcolm is more likely to recover so it is easy to believe that he survived his injury and is alive. Throughout the film, despite obvious hints the viewer believes he is alive because there are a lot of clever effects used and it has been very well planned. Malcolm seems to change his clothes but he actually only wears different combinations of clothes that he had on the night that he was murdered, for example he puts on a jacket that he had worn that night, you don't remember him wearing it and you are also not thinking about it because you haven't any reason to believe he's dead so he seems to of changed his clothes.
An important scene between Malcolm and Anna happens in a restaurant on their anniversary, he arrives late and sits down, but he doesn't move the chair as he sits. The camera is on a dolly and slowly tracking around them and is it keeping with the melancholy mood. Anna is wearing a red jumper and the restaurant is decorated with red to show something unreal in around. As Malcolm talks to her the shot is from behind her so you can't see that she is not reacting to him talking so you believe that she can hear him and is just still choosing to ignore him, same as he is. As she gets up and leaves the camera is behind Malcolm and the and the scene has reversed, he has taken her place in the frame and it invited you to see from her point of view and what she saw, an empty table.
Malcolm chooses to believe that she is still ignoring him. He wraps himself up in his case with Cole so he doesn't seem to go out much, but you can assume that he goes out when he is not with Cole, as you have no evidence that he doesn't. At one point Cole walks in on him mum and Malcolm sitting in a room leaning towards each other and so it appears that they have been talking, she then says "you have one hour" and walks out like she was saying it to Malcolm and Cole but really it was directed at just Cole she but you can't tell because she's not making eye contact with him so she could be talking to anyone.
Cole actually tells Malcolm that the ghosts only see what they want to see and they don't know they're dead. Saying that they only see what they want to see, this makes it easy for Malcolm to believe that he is alive so he doesn't act strangely and has no idea that he is dead and so the viewer is unaware too because most people assume that if you're dead you realise so they have no reason to doubt he is alive. You also believe he is alive because you get used to seeing him talking to Cole like he is a normal person because at the start if the film you don't know Cole's secret and you don't rethink it when he does reveal his secret.
It's through clever scene planning and cutting that they create the illusion that he is alive, they miss out the bit where he is actually talking to people but makes it look as thought he has been so the viewer just assumes they were talking, its left to the predictability of the way the viewers mind works and its an assumption.
I think the sixth sense is a very clever film, the way they use the sound and lighting effects add atmosphere and the camera shots add drama. It is a very good media piece to analyse as it uses lots of significant things throughout the film such as the red whenever something bad is going on. Although I do think things like that go unappreciated unless you watch it more then once, because you aren't looking for them the first time you see it because you don't know what is going to happen later in the film. I think all the effects do get the desired reaction from the viewer as they are well planned and combined have you in suspense for the whole film.