Online Film Analysis

Ocean's Eleven
The scene starts with six people sitting around a table playing poker, right away you can tell that Brad Pitt's character, will be a main character. The shot uses deep focus, as players are placed in the foreground and middle ground, because you can see for example, the strippers in the background of the shot. By sitting around the table, the shot is balanced according to the Rule of Thirds. The light is dim, illuminating only the from of the players and the table which helps to portray the feel and atmosphere of a casino, and the overall feel of the movie. The opening scene is followed by several scenes, of much shorter duration, shows three players, each placed in one of the planes of depth. Pitt's character is the dominant character because his commanding dialogue is making up for much of the sound, although the darker lighting on him, kind of puts him in the shadows. In the next sequence, the camera work changes, cutting between Rusty and Danny.

Silence of the Lambs
The scene starts with a long shot, showing the entire house as well as the police men that are about to go in. The barking of the dog, I thought was like a foreshadowing of everything that is about to happen. Then there are cuts back and forth between what is going on outside the house, as well as what is going on inside the house. The low-angle shot makes the girl at the bottom of the well love helpless and weak. While the high-angle shot makes the man above the well appear to be the dominant figure. When the are going back and forth between cuts, what you then find out, is that the people outside the house, are outside of a different house than the one they are supposed to be at. So the close-up on Jodi Foster's character when he opens the door, is a bit of a shock. Extreme close-up on the detective's face, when he finds out that Jodi Foster's character is at the right house alone, really displays the emotions and fear that he immediately feels.

Amadeus
The clip begins with an old man in the middle of the frame, and alternates to a youthful priest. The alternation continues as the two talk, aside from several shots that highlight the older man in the midground as he plays some of his old songs on a piano. The only source of light is through a window behind the older man. The light both illuminates him and lights up streaks of dust as it pours into the room. As he conducts a song playing in his head, the scene flashes back to a larger woman coming down a flight a stairs while singing opera. She is in a decadent outfit, and stands out in the background of the frame. As the song finishes, the scene flashes back to the older man, trying to relive in the memory of his past glory. The scene is distinguished by the discomfort and relation between the older man and his guest, whenever the camera turns to either of them, they are the sole subject in the frame.

The Mirror
The scene opens with two young, bald boys scurring out of a dimly lit room with in all-wood furniture, appears like a cabin. A reverse tracking shot backs away from the scene, while keeping the original room in the frame for a long time. The camera then pans to the window of a door, and in the deep background, the two boys who originally left the room are now seen at the front door. The only sound heard is the sound of a dog barking, and a man yelling out "Mikah". The camera slowly pans across from the house's porch, to center on a huge house fire in the background. A woman stands in the foreground watching, and a man stands in the mid ground, both in silence. The boy goes out to join the woman. The only sound in the shot is of flames burning and rain falling onto the porch.