The Shining (response)

In the Shining many unconventional and difficult techniques are used when filming. The most common being tracking the main subject from behind which gives the viewer a sense of following the subject and seeing what they see. When a group of people are having a conversation and walking the camera will move in front of them while filming making it seem as though you are walking backwards while in front of this group of people. The camera also almost always follows a moving subject.

The use of zooming is also very prominent in this film; having a scene/shot of and object/person and then zooming out to reveal the location of this object/person is done very often. Seeing what the object/person is and having to wait until the camera zooms out to expose the surroundings or situation of the object/person creates a suspense in the film.

The camera shows a proper MS (showing waist upwards) even when subject is in an awkward position or bent in some way. Also the breaking of the 180˚ is very discreet. The switching from a WS to MS when breaking the rule made the transition very smooth. Keeping the difference between the two sides as being one the MS shots and the other having the WS shots makes the switch much less confusing than it would be otherwise.

The use of mirrors in the film is very creative. Using the mirror to film the actors instead of filming themselves and foreshadows the use of the mirror near the end of the movie.

Control over light is really good! No strange shadows on faces due to overhead lighting at any noticeable point in time. Very dramatic music creates tension throughout the whole movie whether something dramatic was about to happen or not. The sudden increase in loudness right before a title shot/screen (?) came up scared me each and every time even when I knew all that was going to happen was text on the screen.

Overall the use of interesting filming techniques to narrate this story made it very interesting and dramatic and even though I was very tired/terrified when watching it I didn't want to look away at any point in time (except for the end which was just plain terrifying!)