In ‘The Blair Witch Project’ the colour of the film is dim and indistinct. This is because it helps gives the effect that the audience isn’t actually watching a film but the ‘real’ accounts of the three filmmakers who were making a low budget documentary. The lighting of the film is very dark, and at some times the clips are in pitch black. This low key and pitch black lighting helps keep the audience caught up in the moment of the film and provides the suspense needed to keep them on the edge of their seats.
Throughout the film ‘Psycho’ a lot of non-diegetic sound is used in the form of background music. The reason why the music in ‘Psycho’ was so effective was because although most of the time it was unnoticeable it still managed to create the suspense and atmosphere needed. However one part of the film where there was non-diegetic sound, which was purposely added to be noticeable, was the shower scene. When Marion is being stabbed there is a sharp, uncomfortable sound. With each sound added there is a cut in the clip that helped make the scene more dramatic and effective.
In ‘The Blair Witch Project’ no non-diegetic sound is used. As I said before, the film was created to give the effect that the audience were watching the actual accounts of the three film makers so the film had to be made as real as possible, so by adding non-diegetic sound, the realistic effect would have been lost. A lot of diegetic sound was used though. The film mainly relies on the sound to convey its feeling of suspense to the audience (i.e. there are periods in the film where the clips of film are complete black and all the audience has to relate to is the audio). The sort of sounds used were heavy breathing and screams from the distant, which made the audience feel like they were actually there.
The way in which the camera framed the characters in ‘Psycho’ was very original. Looking at the scene where Norman is being questioned by Arbogast, the camera is right underneath Norman’s neck which gives the audience an unusual perspective of him. The way Norman is framed in this clip helps show us how nervous and awkward he is feeling.
The way the camera framed the characters in ‘The Blair Witch Project’ was again very original. A lot of the time extreme close ups would have been used, and the throughout the film the camera very rarely gave a frame which was of the whole persons face/body. For example, when we look at the scene called ‘Heather’s Confession’ we only see half of her face and cannot see anything that she can. This helps build up the suspense and allows the audience to identify with Heather because they too are beginning to feel the fear.
In ‘Psycho’, the movement of the camera is steady. A lot of tracking/zoom shots were used. The tracking/zoom shots allow the scene to be slowly introduced to the audience, allowing them to adjust to what has happened in the scene. For example, when Marion is killed in the shower scene, the camera zooms out from her eye slowly showing the whole scene to the audience. This could have been done because of shock of seeing the main character killed off, the slow zoom out gave time for the audience to grasp the concept of Marion being dead.
The filmmakers of ‘The Blair Witch Project’ wanted the film to look as realistic as possible, so to assure that the camera was not placed on a tripod to give the realistic effect. There was a lot of jerky camera angle movement, which contradicts the smooth camera movement in ‘Psycho’. This type of camera movement gave the effect that the audience was actually there, and not watching a film.
The mise en scène in ‘Psycho’ is very different to the mise en scène in ‘The Blair Witch Project’. In ‘Psycho’ a lot of props are used (i.e. lamps, chairs, smoke), however in ‘The Blair Witch Project’ hardly any props are used because the film is set in the forest. When looking at the acting in ‘Psycho’ and ‘The Blair Witch Project’ I found ‘The Blair Witch Project’ had better quality acting in. The characters spoke to the camera as if it was a real situation, which gave the intended realistic look. The acting in ‘Psycho’ was just as good, however I found it less effective than ‘The Blair Witch Project’ acting.
The shower scene in ‘Psycho’ the clips were edited mostly with the dissolve effect. It helped the filmmakers show what had been left of the room after Marion had been killed. It was a lot more effective using this method rather than a simple cut to each clip.
The editing of clips in ‘The Blair Witch Project’ were all simple cuts. If any other method of editing had been used, the film would have lost its realistic effect.
Now that I have examined and compared the film language of both films, I have decided that ‘The Blair Witch Project’ had used its film language in a more effective way which helped create its suspense and horror.