Mise en-scene

Mise-en-sceneCaleb Knowles

Clip 3 – Hospital Scene

This shot shows the light is just focused on the cake and Jessica while the background is pitch black in order to show that this scene is probably imaginary and set in a dream. However, the light is a bright orange which makes it seem like a somewhat happy and inviting setting, compared to what is about to be shown.

Again, the light is focused on one subject; Sarah, while her surroundings are all dark to keep up the emphasis of darkness or a dream world.

With the green lighting, the hospital has completely lost that “inviting” feeling and a whole new setting has been created which is lifeless, dark, and eerie.

The darkness itself has also been set as if it is physically chasing Sarah or something else is hiding in the darkness that is trying to get a hold of her.

As soon as the darkness completely consumes Sarah, the dream world changes almost instantly back to the real world, leaving drastic changes in the lighting and the fact that there are other people in existence.

The lighting changes from a dark and grimy green to a “safe” and “welcoming” white, which is the basic colour of a light bulb but compared to the dream world, the white light is refreshing and “safe”.

Location

Ultimately, this scene is all set in the same place but shown in two parallel worlds: the dream world and the physical world.

Within the dream world, the setting is dark and green, and almost everything is cloaked in shadow. Even parts of Sarah’s face and body possesses elements of shadow and darkness. Whereas within the physical world, there is almost no shadow at as everything is illuminated by the bright lights in the real world’s hospital corridor.

Another difference is that there are no people, save for Sarah, in the dream world, and within the real world, there is the average amount of people you would be expected to see within a hospital, and each of them possesses an element of colour to the scene, as opposed to the dream world.

Costumes and Props

This birthday cake shot is significant due to the fact that Jessica was killed in the previous scene, which we are about to find out, which means that she wont have the birthday party, cake, etc. that Sarah and Jessica were talking about just before the car accident.

This shot shows us straightaway that Sarah must have survived the car crash, unlike Paul and Jessica, and is now in the hospital. The hospital robes that she is wearing, the bed she is lying in and the beeping of the heart rate monitor gives us this information almost instantly.

This quick shot of the heart rate monitor shows that there is no heart beat being detected, and although we just witnessed Sarah tear off her hospital wires, the question: “is she really alive or is she dead?”