We need to talk about Kevin

Mise-en-scene and sound play a really important part in the opening sequence of ‘we need to talk about Kevin.’ It does this by provoking audience response.

In the opening, the first scene is dark and there are screams and ticking in the background used as a parallel backtrack. The screams create an eerie sound causing the audience to think of death and torture. When this is used with a ticking noise it allows more imagery to be created as the ticking can represent a ticking time bomb meaning that the ticking it building tension in the audience and signalling that a major disaster is going to occur. A bright white light is seen as the scene ends. This is a huge contrast from the screams and dark thoughts as the bright white light is a pure and heavenly tone. This light may show that someone has died and gone to heaven, or that as the next scene is in present day it is a sign for being ‘reborn’ and starting anew.

A new scene begins and the first thing that the audience see is the colour red. The red is used to signify blood and aggression. This affects the audience as this signifies that something is wrong and anger and anguish may be following this women and she doesn’t seem to be able to get away from it. Furthermore in this scene the women is lifted up and she is positioned into a cross position. This position shows a religious aspect as Jesus was pinned up on the cross. This is used to provoke the audience as Jesus was not aggressive. He was peaceful and calm. But in this scene the women is in the position of a cross and is covered in red tomatoes. Maybe showing that Jesus is covered by blood and this may provoke some of the audience. The cross could also symbolise that the women is at peace for that split second, but is then dropped into the tomatoes and trapped again as everyone kicks tomatoes at her. In the scene everyone is close together and it is tightly packed, but yet surrounded by all of these red crushed tomatoes. This may show that even if someone is close to you, fighting/aggressive may still occur and blood may be drawn.

In the next scene it goes to present day and the women is in her home and she just wakes up. This may suggest to the audience the audience that the woman is tired and she just wants some peace and quiet. The lighting in the house is rather unpleasant/unnatural to the audience as there is still the colour red appearing. This provokes the audience response as the audience know that red seems to be following this lady around even in present day. Also there is a yellowy tinge to the colour of the inside of the house. This colour can be used to represent sickness/illness. There is a camera shot which is point of view and it is looking through the window. The blinds show a shape of prison bars which can be seen as the women is trapped in her own home or it is a form of foreshadowing as Kevin is later seen in a prison. This would alert the audience as no-one should be ‘trapped’ in their own home. When the lady gets up she knocks over some pills. This shows the audience that this women isn’t normal and that she is on some kind of medication. The woman makes her way around the house and walks outside. When she is outside the first thing that the audience hear is the sound of birds tweeting and a sense of freedom. This shows a complete contrast in comparison with her house. All of the colours seem to bright up and everything looks natural and pure. This could show to the audience that when the woman is inside her house she feels locked up and away from the outer world, dwelling on all of the bad memories. The camera then zooms out and there a red substance all over her house. Yet again this red colour doesn’t seem to want to go away and keeps reminding the audience that death/aggression seems to be following her.

This scene is a flashback. This scene is in the past and everything seems to be happy. The house that the woman is in seems to be open and light no sign of red. The woman has a family and is smiling and there is laughter as the little girl is dancing with her dad. This shows the audience that in the past the women seemed to have a good, happy life but keeps the audience wondering what happened to it all. Even though the house is open and light. The colours within the house are boring and plain. These are the kind of colours that would be associated with hospitals and psychiatric wards. This is showing the audience that even though the woman seems happy she still feels slightly trapped and that her life seems to be a chore. In addition when the audience see the woman smiling there is a slight reddy/yellow light on one side of her face. This shows that something sinister is still following her. Before Kevin enters the room the little girl is all happy and playful, but when he enters he drops his bag on the table and the audience can tell that there is a sudden increase in sound. The girl goes quiet and so does everything else. The audience can see that Kevin seems to bring misery to the room and a sense of awkwardness. Also the way Kevin is presented in this scene is as if he is unhappy as he has no happy facial expressions. Everyone seems to be happy in this scene as they are laughing and having fun, but Kevin seems to stop all of that as he enters the room.

Overall ‘we need to talk about Kevin’ continuously provokes an audience response throughout the opening scene as a sense of eeriness seems to be following this woman throughout the whole opening. All of these signs are represented by different elements as the colour red constantly occurs throughout and keeps reminding the audience of this.   

Sound Techniques- Film Analysis

The sequence that we filmed was based on a hacker uploading/downloading virus onto a computer, but he does not know that he was apart of an experiment only known to few. This experiment caused him to lose his memory of the events and black out often. So the sequence practically begins properly when the Hacker is being interrogated. The Hacker had blacked out and he does not recall any of the events that took place 13 hours ago. Agent turner and agent Sullivan are a part of M.I.6. They found the hacker on the floor in one of the rooms and ask him questions once he came around. Due to the black out the Hacker couldn’t remember. So Agent Sullivan is the good cop, who tries to comfort the captive, but Agent Turner has a different approach and seemed to lose his temper quickly, his approaches were rather aggressive to try and put fear into the captive.

All of the listed sound techniques were involved in this sequence.

At the beginning of the sequence there was a parallel backing track, which allowed the audience to realise that the Hacker (Malcolm Reid) was doing something not ‘normal’ as the backing track introduced a certain mysterious vibe to the setting. The second scene carried on the backing track. This introduced the sound bridge technique; this showed a continuation of the two scenes. Diegetic sound was used when Agent Turner slammed the desk as you could see the source of the sound. Non-diegetic sound was used when there was a man screaming outside of the interrogation room in the corridor. We chose to use these sounds at these points as the slapping on the desk showed that the Agent was getting frustrated, also the screaming showed that maybe the service doesn’t just interrogate people. These sound techniques were also our on and off screen sounds. Our contrapuntal sound was used at the end of the sequence with the hacker laughing. This showed that even though the Agents were taking it serious the hacker wasn’t and it just doesn’t fit in with the scene. All of these choices and the way they were executed I believe were successful as the way each other technique was used shows how/ why it is used and they were used in a effective manner.

Assessing own technical capabilities:

I believe that most of the sound was captured effectively but during the sequence where Hassan walks into the room he seemed abit quite. This was because the door was too far away from the camera so the microphone was not able to reach him.

The sound equipment provided was used effectively when needed; maybe after a little more experience of using it we may be able to use the equipment better.

The differentiation between diegetic and non-diegetic sound was shown clearly in the sequence as there was 2 very distinct was in showing it as the man screaming down the corridor was non-diegetic as the source of the sound was not shown, and Agent turner slamming the table with his hand was diegetic as the source of the sound was shown. Furthermore the difference between on and off screen sound was clearly as well by these two examples as the slamming of the table was on screen and the man screaming was off screen.

In addition, the difference between parallel and contrapuntal sound was shown as the opening track had co-ordinated with the opening sequence and the laugh at the end did not match the scene that was being filmed. This showed a real contrast between the two as they are completely opposite techniques and if used 

effectively can great a huge impact in a film.

The use of the sound bridge could have been a little better, but I think that they way we used it was good as it showed a continuation between two scenes and linked them together in some way.

Overall:

In conclusion the positive aspects of our film was the use of all the sound effects, as they were used effectively, also the dialogue was good to a certain standard and the story that we was trying to put across was good for the time that was allotted to us. We all played our part well and all of the characters different personalities were shown.

If I were to make improvements then I would ensure that the sound equipment is used effectively throughout the whole film so that no-one sounds quite. I would also add a few more camera movements like a long shot to show the environment outside.