The second area I will be analysing is camera angles, camera angles can change the way you perceive a scene, for instance if a low angle shot is used then it creates a feeling of power to the person or object it is being used on. In this scene lots of P.O.V shots are used. P.O.V shots are point of view shots; they show you what the character is seeing through their eyes. This helps you too see how scary the place is looking from hi eyes it is the way the director, David Lean, makes you feel sorry for Pip. At the start of the scene there is a long shot of Pip running to the graveyard it looks very dismal and very bleak. This adds to the impression of it being a bad place. When Pip meets Magwitch lots of low angle and high angle camera shots are used to show the power difference between the two characters. The camera never goes above Pips height in this scene this shows the dominance Magwitch has over Pip as he is always shown to be dominating him in height. This is done a lot when the two are talking.
The third area I will be looking into is sound, without sound we would not find the scene of any movie to have the same effect items such as music in a movie build up the tension without this we wouldn’t have the feeling we do have with all the sound effects that show tension, music can be used to make us feel sad, happy, tense frightened or excited. There are two types of sound used in movies the first is digetic, this is sound that comes from objects or people on the screen such as a bird tweeting or someone laughing. The other type of sound is non-digetic this is things like music, it is a source of sound that does not appear on screen. Also under the category of sound is silence, a lot of people forget about silence but silence is used a lot to build tension up and to give you a frightened feeling. When the opening credits are on it is a very cheerful tone of music and it is a big contrast to the start of the scene where Pip is going to the graveyard this makes the next part seem worse because of the cheerful music on at the start. As soon as the scene starts there is wind blowing and trees creaking this sets an eerie scene and makes you think something bad is going to happen. There is a non-digetic sound at the start; this is the sound of a violin making sharp chords. After this there is sounds of birds crowing which sets the scene and makes the viewer think the place is not normal. There is a scream made by Pip to show scared he is. This affects the viewers as well and we start to feel for Pip being in the graveyard. The voice of Magwitch is very deep and he shouts some of his words and he has a dialect. Magwitch’s way of speech makes him seem very aggressive and his dialect makes him seem more of a convict as if he spoke in standard English then he wouldn’t seem as fierce. The sound of Pip’s voice is very high, he sounds scared and helpless this is a big contrast to Magwitch’s voice it is a great way of showing the power difference between the two and builds up the tension very effectively. Pip shows how he is scared through sound in other ways apart from through his speech while he is with Magwitch he takes large deep breaths and sounds like he I s gasping all the time this shows you how uncomfortable around Magwitch he is and makes the viewer wonder why which is building up the tension.
The last section I will be analysing is lighting, the way objects or characters can greatly influence our understanding of a scene a good example of this is under lighting this creates distorted shadows giving you a bad feeling towards the object this has been done on. Light can be bright to create a pleasant mood or dimmed to create shadows, for a spooky, sinister mood. Throughout this scene Pip’s face is always in the light, this makes him look very innocent to the viewer and makes you feel for him when he meets Magwitch, a big contrast to this is Magwitch’s face this is as his face is always in shadow. Shadows and dark normally convey evil and bad to people so this makes the viewer feel he is a bad person. All the gravestones in the churchyard are in the dark apart from Pip’s parents one. This shows that his parents one is more significant then the others there.
I think that tension is brought to the screen very well in David Lean’s Great expectations as all the effects he uses work very well to give the viewer that effect that something is going to happen. I feel all the techniques are needed in order to get the effect it does, without the use of one of them they wouldn’t be as effective. All the techniques used create a spooky and frightening atmosphere and when this is the atmosphere tension gets built up automatically. If I were directing this movie I would build it up slower so the audience will be more interested in what is going to happen and the tension will be even greater. Apart from that I think everything is very good maybe I would have the sight of Magwitch in the bushes to get people more involved with it or have the sound of his chains rustling and Pip looking around to see what it is. Then when Pip tries to run a way Magwitch would jump out and stop him.
