As the chapter progresses, Harper lee uses techniques of description of light and dialogue to describe the atmosphere. First she adds sinister details when it is said ‘the corner cast sharp shadows on the Radley house’. This adds more evil because of the Radley house being a feared place of the children and the shadows caused by the street lights are of the Radley house. The irony is that the menacing Radley place is the place their rescuer comes from. Secondly, she describes the darkness of the night as ‘pitch black’ and she describes Scouts vision of Jem as ‘barley visible’. This further emphasises the children’s fear of the scene. Dialogue is used with the darkness when Jem comments the dark by saying ‘Didn’t know it was this dark. Didn’t look like it’d be this dark earlier in the evening’, the repetition of Jem saying the word ‘this’ dark shows how Harper Lee emphasises the dark to show how dark it really was. Once again Harper Lee describes the atmosphere by using the dark with the dialogue when the children’s conversation quickly turns to the subject of haints when it is said ‘ain’t you scared of haints?’, clearly nervous of the dark of the Halloween night it was imagined by the danger. Again ironically the danger is coming from something much more real.
Harper Lee then uses techniques of movement and sound to describe the atmosphere during the attack and just before it. The suspense is created before the attack with Jem pressing Scout’s hand when they stop every five paces when it is said ‘we had not gone five paces before he made me stop again’ this shows Jem is scared and taking it very serious of what he might be hearing and the suspense is you do not no what he is hearing. Also, soon after, Scout describes the quietness of the night when it is said ‘hear his breath coming easily beside me’ this shows it is not very hard to hear every sound and the atmosphere is very quite. During the attack Harper Lee describes the atmosphere of the fight with the sounds herd by Scout ‘scuffling, kicking sounds, sounds of shoes and flesh scraping dirt and roots’ this creates tension and suspense as you do not know who is hitting who and who is the attacker. Also Scout describes her movement as ‘I stood there dumbly’ this shows she was stunned by it all and her mind was working slowly.
In the film music, lighting, camera angles are used to show the atmosphere as description techniques cannot be shown, because of this some things are omitted for effect and some things are added. The main thing that was not in the film was Cecil Jacobs jumping out at them on the way to the schoolhouse and in the schoolhouse. This was so the tension is carried on the whole way through the story and there is no happiness in between. There was a few things changed and added in the film, one was Jem was meant to be carrying Scout’s costume but in the film Scout was wearing it. This was to show Scout’s helpless ness during the attack and how she struggles to move around. The biggest difference was that in the novel there was only one tree in the schoolhouse yard but in the film there were trees all around the schoolhouse yard. They did this because in a film you cannot show total darkness otherwise the viewer would not see what’s happening, so they added many trees to make it mysterious and hard to see who and where the attacker was coming from.
Light is not used much to present the film but the darkness on the way back home is dark enough to see everything, but not in grate detail and I think that it’s important to keep the darkness in the scene but also to see what is happening. Before the attack on the children Jem creates tension by stopping again and again whispering ‘Hush Scout’ and also Jem’s seriousness of his role of attending with Scout to the building is shown on his facial expression and speech. The music added atmosphere to the film when walking towards home there is a normal simple piano but when they stop the music stops with them and only the individual sounds of them and the attacker are heard to create suspense. When the attacker jumps in a violin is introduced to make it faster, louder and shaper which creates tension. The noises herd during the attack were dogs howling, a storm and trees waving to make it mysterious. Other noises during the attack were leaves being kicked about, heavy breathing and hitting sounds add tension.
Camera angles added cinematic tension to the film when it focused on Jem’s and Scout’s face to show their feelings and reactions to what is happening. Also it creates tension when they are walking and they look around to see where the sound is coming from. During the attack the camera focuses on the feet of the attacker and the stranger or Jem to show they are unknown. The fighting increases speed by the camera zooming in and out on the fight. Another reason for the camera focusing only on their feet is to remind us that the film is based on Scout’s view and she is the narrator.
I feel the film is more effective than the novel as the suspense and tension is built up more efficiently. The film does not include any happy or childish behaviour to break up the tension during the film for example the play or Cecil Jacobs scaring them on the way to the play and the novel does. Another reason is you can see the individual reactions made by Jem and Scout in the film, even though you don’t know what they are really feeling inside, it’s more exciting watching them instead. Also Music added to the film makes it tenser, scary, and exciting and is used to build suspense which cannot be done this easy in a novel. My final reason is the movement in a novel is harder to follow than to watch it in the film.
In conclusion I feel that the novel has les advantages and the film has more advantages as in a film the novel’s images are easier to remember in my mind than the imaginations I have to make from the novel. The choices of the director of the music, light, camera angles and slight changes from the novel all have their own roles which create cinematic tension, excitement, mystery and speed, these all combine to make a very commendable film.
