Analysis of the opening sequence of “The Sixth Sense” referring to the technical elements sound, camera work, Mise-en-Scene and editing Throughout the opening sequence of The Sixth Sense (1999), the director M. Night Shyamalan creates an uncomfortable atmosphere and sets up the tension among audience members for the rest of the film. The first shot we see is of a naked light bulb. This automatically creates and sets up the eerie feeling for the rest of the film to follow. This eerie atmosphere is created buy using a 15 second shot to allow the bulb to turn on slowly. This then shows the black space around the room and sets up lots of narrative enigmas for the audience making them wonder where they are and what’s in the rooms but more importantly who is coming into the room. This automatically sets up a ghostly theme for the rest the film as the audience as they know someone is in the room but cannot yet see the character. The first thing the audience hear is the diegetic sound of a door opening or creaking to increase the tension of who is coming into the room. We then see a silhouette of a woman. This adds to the mystery of which the character could be but relieves tension for the audience, as stereotypically women are not villains. The overall setting seems uncomfortable due to the light bulb and the darkness of the room even though there are lights on. The audience later find out that the woman is in a basement/cellar as she is looking for wine and this relieves tension among audience members as it gives the scene a more relaxed and romantic feel. The camera is placed behind the wine rack and tracks the characters (Anna’s) every movement while she looks for wine. This creates an extremely uncomfortable atmosphere for the audience as we there is potentially someone
Transcript
Analysis of the opening sequence of “The Sixth Sense” referring to the technical elements sound, camera work, Mise-en-Scene and editing
Throughout the opening sequence of The Sixth Sense (1999), the director M. Night Shyamalan creates an uncomfortable atmosphere and sets up the tension
among audience members for the rest of the film.
The first shot we see is of a naked light bulb. This automatically creates and sets up the eerie feeling for the rest of the film to follow. This eerie atmosphere is created buy using a 15 second shot to allow the bulb to turn on slowly. This then shows the black space around the room and sets up lots of narrative
enigmas for the audience making them wonder where they are and what’s in the rooms but more importantly who is coming into the room. This automatically sets up a ghostly theme for the rest the film as the audience as they know someone is in the room but cannot yet see the character. The first thing the audience hear is the diegetic sound of a door opening or creaking to increase the tension of who is coming into the room. We then see a silhouette of a woman. This adds to the mystery of which the character could be but relieves tension for the audience, as stereotypically women are not villains.
The overall setting seems uncomfortable due to the light bulb and the darkness of the room even though there are lights on. The audience later find out that the woman is in a basement/cellar as she is looking for wine and this relieves tension among audience members as it gives the scene a
more relaxed and romantic feel. The camera is placed behind the wine rack and tracks the characters (Anna’s) every movement while she looks for wine. This creates an extremely uncomfortable atmosphere for the audience as we there is potentially someone watching her from behind the wine rack due to the cameras movements.The use of red can indicate danger to the audience as Anna has red flowers on her dress, she is wearing red lipstick and she is looking for red wine. This can indicate to the audience that Anna is in danger or in a dangerous situation and
therefore can feel uncomfortable and ‘on edge’ watching her in the cellar. The audiences suspicions are potentially confirmed when the camera slowly zooms in on Anna’s face to create a close up shot to view her emotions more clearly and she looks slightly suspicious as if something’s not right.
The camera makes quite a quick cut to a long shot of Anna in the room and the audience can automatically see how out of place she is in the cellar as she is wearing a brightly coloured costume in a room that is almost black and white making her stand out against the setting. This can also make her
look more vulnerable to the audience as she has been put in a potentially dangerous situation and is completely unprepared for it. She shivers which recertifies audiences’ suspicions of something not being right. The setting changes and the camera is closely focused on the fireplace where there are red cards clearly made by children and candles burning. The red card
with a fairly scary looking child drawn on the front could foreshadow a danger with children to come in the film as all the red can resemble danger in the shot however the candles make the setting look a lot more romantic than dangerous.More light hearted music is also playing in the
background but we cant tell if this music is diegetic or non diegetic as there is no stereo or music playing device in the shot yet the music feels like it would fit in the scene. The audience finds out that it is more of a romantic setting when they see her partner who she seems very intimate with. This makes the audience feel less tension and relax more as seemingly there is no danger anymore and the cellar could just be the “one room everyone doesn’t like”.
The editing in the opening sequences tends to show longer shots to create tension among the audience keeping them on the edge of their seat and showing them that it is more a scene of suspense than action. The opening titles at the very beginning show a small white font against a black background, which is similar to the first shot of film we see with the light bulb. This creates an uncertain and uncomfortable atmosphere for the audience as black usually has connotations of fear, uncertainty and danger.
