In M. Night Shymalan's movie The Happening, I noticed the relationship of humans and the earth. The earth is revolting and spreading a deadly toxin and killing humans in the area of Pennsylvania. The plants are doing what many people do to the earth itself by damaging the enviroment. It shows how we have damaged the earth so much that it decideds to attack the human race, and because of this the movie also portrays a moral of treat others the way you want to be treated because in real life some people abuse the earth and do not take care of it property and because the earth, specifically the plants its shows how if a person can not take care of the earth than the earth can show the same disrespect to people.
Along with Kelsey's thoughts, the movie also touches upon people in goups and their safety. The plants start releasing toxins in big areas and parks in cities such as NYC and Philadelphia where there are obviouosly many people. However, as the movie goes on, the characters learn that if they are in smaller groups, they will not disrupt the plants as much and will therefore not cause them to release the deadly toxin. Along the lines of cinematography, the majority of the movie takes place during the day which causes high key lighting and the sky is typically gloomy which gives a doomed mood. The characters that end up dying have blank faces before they die and they all do the same thing- walk backwards and kill themselves, which dehumanizes them all and categorizes them as all being the same in the end.
To add on to what both Kelsey and Maria have said, I've found that there is a constant theme that Shymalan manages to tie into his movies, (or at least the three we have chosen) where the character/s are faced with a mystery that both they and viewers of the film are completely clueless about. In this case, we're given what appears to be an invisible killer that not only makes people go crazy but it rapidly makes them kill themselves by any means possible. Ideas of what may have caused this bizarre phenomenon were thrown around as the film progressed, and it's only natural for viewers to make their own guesses as well. It's this sense of confusion and suspense that this particular director's movies live off of, a life-line that is not exactly the most original in the cinematic world, but one widely accepted by audiences everywhere and are what really makes his movies such as "The Happening" great.
(( Well.. Since I've waited a couple hours and no one has commented, I suppose I will. Again. Hope this is ok! ))
To build off of what I had previously said about suspense in Shymalan's film "The Happening", I decided to compare his tactics to those of Alfred Hitchcock's. As we've learned in class, Hitchcock is well known for keeping an audience on edge with the use of unrestricted narration. By letting us know what the protagonist doesn't, we're stuck in a position of worry and fear. Shymalan accomplishes this with restricted narration, where we learn all information the same time the characters do. It's almost a different kind of suspense, one in which we just want to know what the heck is going on. In this case, not only are the protagonists trying to figure out what's making the entire world go crazy, we're stuck wondering why on earth plants would start 'talking to each other and wanting to wipe out the human population.'
You can also see in the movie how a problem affects society and how they react to it. In these case most of the people don't know what to do but obviously the main character finds out and tries to tell and explain why and what is going on with the nature.
Adding on to Victoria's second comment, M. Night Shymalan's favorite director is Alfred Hitchcock ("Biography for M. Night Shymalan"). He does include himself in most of his movies just like Hitchcock did. In the Happening he was labeled Joey, the man who kept calling Alma, but we do not see him in the film at all. The Happening is the first time he has not appeared in one of his movies. Also Shymalan kept most of the movie in diegetic sound, just like Hitchcock. This added realism and a sense of security when music was finally played. One scene in particular is when people were killing themselves on a street, most cars were stopped and it was crowded because of the toxins. Suddenly a police officer kills himself and people follow his actions and shoot themselves too. The only thing an audience member can here is the sound of footsteps, a car door, and the shots of the gun. The gun shots are portraying death among the people, though the faces of the people are not being shown. It dehumanizes them and shows how they are all the same, which is what Maria explained before.
“Biography for M. Night Shymalan.” The Internet Movie Database. 2010. Web. 27 Feb. 2010.
Adding to what has been said about sound and narration and it's effects to the film, another important aspect to pay attention to is cinematography. To me, the most prominent factor that Shymalan used was camera angles. High and low angles are used many times at extreme levels to portray the situation of the scene. One that especially stood out to me was towards the beginning where the scene takes place at a construction site and numerous workers are committing suicide by jumping over. The camera is looking up from the ground which is the point of view of the workers on the ground and the camera goes back and forth between looking down onto those below and up onto those falling from above. This shows how powerful the "toxin" is and that is taking over the lives of the entire city. Another place I saw this was when the group of people are in a rural place but then come to a bunch of big houses while they are in small groups. One of the groups is too large and has been affected by the toxin and are now committing suicide. The point of view is that from the group which the main characters are in and they are on a hill overlooking this happening so it shows a high angle on those dying. This was also shown on some other scenes in the movie such as on the train and in the train station and at the different houses the main characters visited. It is very successful in showing danger and giving a mood with which the audience knows something bad has to be on the horizon.
To comment on what maria said, the cinematography is quiet apparent with Shymalan's work. The high and low angles that in most cases are extreme long shots. There many times that this happens in the movie. Maria's example was a very good reflection of this. Everyone has made great new points about the movie and used some good refrence points.
To add to marissa's post, societal issues are constently brought up through out the film. Many other issues are brought up and questioned through out the film and then in the end the main character always seems to fix everything.
Adding to Kelsey's comment he really likes to participate and appear in his movies, just like Alfred Hitchcock. I remember in the movie Signs he was one of the main characters in the movie.
The second movie Signs, also had some Hitchcockian elements included in it. The movie mainly has diagetic sound, and the non-diagetic sound being part of a music motif. The diagetic sound emphasizes the actual sound of corn stalks and how he is not moving, yet something is. The non-diagetic sound is the same creepy music. Also Shymalan uses shots that are like god’s perspective. Two in particular are when they first found the crop circle it zooms out so that it shows that family being secluded from the rest of the world. The second one is when Father, his son and daughter and brother are going into town after the discovery of the crop circles. The family is shot while driving in the car and it makes them seem minor amongst the other people in the town. Also there is moments of the restricted and unrestricted narration switch. Most of the time the audience is learning information from the father, but then it will switch and learn information from other characters. In one particular scene, the Father is telling the sheriff about the people they saw on the farm the night before, the Father is the mostly the only one talking but that is the main character we learn information from. The cop however reveals some clues to the family and why the mother is not there. Although the viewers do not find out the whole story at once, scenes do appear which finally come together in the end and reveal this side story.
In this second movie Signs there are a lot of low angles, for example when the dog attacks the Bo and Morgan. Also there's not to much dialogue in the movie and as Kelsey said Father is the one talks more.
It's rather interesting to see one director's movie, then see another one and compare the two. Certain elements in The Happening seem to carry over into Signs and it becomes evident the M. Night Shymalan favors some distinct themes that he works into his films. Perhaps this is just notable because of the certain movies we picked, but either way it provides a good topic of conversation. As an example, both Signs and The Happening had a theme of human helplessness and shared a sense of what is unknown to the human race. What separates the two however, is that in The Happening, the force driving people to kill themselves is a complete mystery, where in Signs, aliens are pretty much well known based on various theories and such.
I agree with Victoria in that there are specific characteristics that are common so far in his work. One important thing is that the characters seem doomed and alone and depressed the whole time. The overall feeling is just very down and sad. In Signs, the dad had just quit his job of being a preacher in the town after his wife died, and the kids are just boring and everything they say is monotone. The music is also a common element between the two movies. It is very loud and creates a mood of doom and fright which fits the plot well. Also, the problems in the societies presented so far are prevalent all over the world-with the deadly gas from The Happening, and the aliens from Signs. This shows that Shymalan is aware of the dangers in our world, though they may not be exactly the dangers him movies present, there are some that our race is creating for itself and his movies reflect that idea and it's consequences.
Adding to what Victoria said, there was another theme of future in this film. The aliens and their existance, but also fate vs. free choice. In the end when the son is in the hands of the alien, the family is contemplating what to do. The father thought of when his wife died and gave him and his family advice. This advice helps him, his brother, and his daughter save his son. Another example was when the son Morgan picked up the book on aliens at the book store. He and his father looked at the book and in it included a picture of a house being taken over by aliens. The house in the picture is identical to the one in the book. It portrays that somethings are meant to happen no matter what happens and what paths people take in their lives.
Another prevalent connection between Shymalan's films we have watched so far are the use of symbolism. In both of the movies, various weapons have a negative connotation and ultimately are bad to the human race and the main characters presented. In Signs, specifically, water was an important symbol. Throughout the majority of the plot, it was just an annoyance because the daughter was paranoid about it being dirty and contaminated. Then, in the end, it turned out to be what the humans needed in order to save themselves from the aliens. In The Happening, the main problem was the trees and the toxin they were releasing. The connection in nature between these two films shows us that in Shymalan's opinion, the human race is slowly ruining the world's resources which is casing further issues and dangers to us humans.
In the films of M. Shymalan you can see how humans react to problems presented by nature. For example, in the movie Signs the people were faced with the danger of being attacked by aliens that wanted to take resources from the Earth and killed humans will they were at it. Then, in The Happening, the people were affected by the plants and the toxin they were releasing which caused them to have an instinct of death rather than survival. As Maria said, the symbolism is the connection and struggles between humans and nature.
In The Village, I saw fewer similarities to Alfred Hitchcock than The Happening, and Signs. In this movie there was more non-diagetic sound than previously. The only diagetic was the sound of “those who they do not speak of”, the bell they rang, and also certain points to emphasize the creatures from the woods. It was a good balance of non-diagetic and diagetic. It showed the happiness yet darkness all in one town. The narration in this was mostly unrestricted narration. We learned a lot of information from the main towns people. The restricted narration came from the group of town elders who held the secret of the town and the woods that surrounded them. It would be a quick switch between the two, for example when Ivy learned about the creatures from her father, which then moves to a restricted scene of the elders discussing the village entirely and from there it leads to the unrestricted narration of the reasons why the came here. That is one of the similarities to Hitchcock. Also another similarity is that he appeared in his movie towards the end. Shymalan was the security guard at the security headquarters around the reserve.
Shymalan's third movie that we watched is Signs. In this movie, the characters live in an area that is surrounded by woods that are supposedly so dangerous to enter that no one ever does and they take superstitious precautions in keeping the dangerous creatures out of where their houses are. This movie, similar to his other movies, has an underlying meaning of being trapped and being in danger against the unknown. The theme of having a plot line that follows something that can be connected to the negatives in society lately is clearly important to Shymalan. He is very successful at portraying the messages and how he feels about them through his films. Specifically, in The Village, the people are in danger from the unknown, but it is ironic that the most brave of all of them is a blind woman. I feel as though this is significant because she cannot even see the creatures but knows how dangerous and can sense them better than anyone else can due to her strong senses, but she is still strong and brave against them. It is also interesting about the use and importance of colors in this movie because the bad creatures are signified as red, and the good people as yellow. This is important because even the blind woman can sense the colors of people and identify them that way. For these reasons, I believe that the film is touching in part on racism and discrimination in past and present society.
In addition to Maria’s post about the some of the themes. Shymalan was also commenting on violence in the world. There is going to be violence no matter what. The people in the village moved there to avoid the other people of the town and the gun, and gang violence that was growing with the change in the times. They went back to a simpler time and they still experienced violence. The animals getting skinned and also when the man was stabbed by the mentally challenged man. It showed how people just living their lives are going to be injured by their fellow people just like the families that were located in the village. Also the mentally challenged man represented everybody in the world. There is going to be someone, somewhere who commits crimes and the world is not totally capable of stopping it no matter where you are. This theme portrayed the lesson as no matter how much someone goes about life avoiding the possibilities of violence; it is never going to be extinct, so people shouldn’t go about life avoiding the possibilities, because just living gives the chances of violence happening to them.
Sound and cinematic elements are also important factors in THe VIllage. Like Kelsey said, the sound includes some non-diagetic music which is there in order to create suspense and specific moods based on the given scene. The camera angles are also significant in showing vulnerability and power in differing characters. One of the strongest low angles is of the watch tower at night which portrays that it is powerful and safe, high above all the danger. One interesting clip that Shymalan created is when the main male character is in the watch tower, so he appears to be in control, but then he hears a knock at the door up to the tower and when he looks down to the ground, he sees the creature going past. This defies the typical laws of filmography in that the high and low angle situations are switched, where the vulnerable one is with the low angle, and the powerful dangerous one has the high angle. However, he uses non-diagetic music to show the difference in their status of the scene and what is going on. There are also many medium and long shots oh characters while they are at eye level with the camera which shows that they are all the same and no single character is special. The few uses of close ups are in order to show emotions and the feelings that Shymalan wants to portray to the audience. The other uses of cinematic elements in this film are significant and contribute to the meanings that each scene holds.
What I noticed after watching The Village was it's distinct similarity of color scheme to Shymalan's Signs. It really succeeded in creating an overall mysterious atmosphere, which seems to be a common trademark in this particular director's films, save The Happening. Maybe this is a contributing factor of why it received such horrendous reviews! To continue off of what both kelsey and maria have mentioned, The Village follows closely to this director's preference for basing his movies off of throwing his characters in a situation where they are almost helpless when it comes to how to solve whatevever problem they have to face. It's a great way to string each of his films together and I really admire the thought he must have put into doing so.
Adding to what Victoria said about the movie the Village I think that Shymalan likes to make films showing how society will react against a problem, in the 3 movies that we watched you see how society reacts against non-common situations for example in The Happening they realize that being in small groups of people they will avoid the plant toxin, in Sings the solution was water for Aliens and in the Village they were avoiding the real world because they were scared about crime.
This is my seventh year teaching film, and ninth overall. I got my B.A. in journalism in 1998 from the University of Minnesota, then worked as a sports writer at The Star Tribune for awhile. I eventually went back to the U for my master's degree in English education, and started teaching in 2001.
I live in Minneapolis with Susan (wife, works at General Mills), Jack (son, born in August '08), and Gunnar (dog, a PBGV -- look it up).
24 comments:
In M. Night Shymalan's movie The Happening, I noticed the relationship of humans and the earth. The earth is revolting and spreading a deadly toxin and killing humans in the area of Pennsylvania. The plants are doing what many people do to the earth itself by damaging the enviroment. It shows how we have damaged the earth so much that it decideds to attack the human race, and because of this the movie also portrays a moral of treat others the way you want to be treated because in real life some people abuse the earth and do not take care of it property and because the earth, specifically the plants its shows how if a person can not take care of the earth than the earth can show the same disrespect to people.
Along with Kelsey's thoughts, the movie also touches upon people in goups and their safety. The plants start releasing toxins in big areas and parks in cities such as NYC and Philadelphia where there are obviouosly many people. However, as the movie goes on, the characters learn that if they are in smaller groups, they will not disrupt the plants as much and will therefore not cause them to release the deadly toxin. Along the lines of cinematography, the majority of the movie takes place during the day which causes high key lighting and the sky is typically gloomy which gives a doomed mood. The characters that end up dying have blank faces before they die and they all do the same thing- walk backwards and kill themselves, which dehumanizes them all and categorizes them as all being the same in the end.
To add on to what both Kelsey and Maria have said, I've found that there is a constant theme that Shymalan manages to tie into his movies, (or at least the three we have chosen) where the character/s are faced with a mystery that both they and viewers of the film are completely clueless about. In this case, we're given what appears to be an invisible killer that not only makes people go crazy but it rapidly makes them kill themselves by any means possible. Ideas of what may have caused this bizarre phenomenon were thrown around as the film progressed, and it's only natural for viewers to make their own guesses as well. It's this sense of confusion and suspense that this particular director's movies live off of, a life-line that is not exactly the most original in the cinematic world, but one widely accepted by audiences everywhere and are what really makes his movies such as "The Happening" great.
(( Well.. Since I've waited a couple hours and no one has commented, I suppose I will. Again. Hope this is ok! ))
To build off of what I had previously said about suspense in Shymalan's film "The Happening", I decided to compare his tactics to those of Alfred Hitchcock's. As we've learned in class, Hitchcock is well known for keeping an audience on edge with the use of unrestricted narration. By letting us know what the protagonist doesn't, we're stuck in a position of worry and fear. Shymalan accomplishes this with restricted narration, where we learn all information the same time the characters do. It's almost a different kind of suspense, one in which we just want to know what the heck is going on. In this case, not only are the protagonists trying to figure out what's making the entire world go crazy, we're stuck wondering why on earth plants would start 'talking to each other and wanting to wipe out the human population.'
You can also see in the movie how a problem affects society and how they react to it. In these case most of the people don't know what to do but obviously the main character finds out and tries to tell and explain why and what is going on with the nature.
Adding on to Victoria's second comment, M. Night Shymalan's favorite director is Alfred Hitchcock ("Biography for M. Night Shymalan"). He does include himself in most of his movies just like Hitchcock did. In the Happening he was labeled Joey, the man who kept calling Alma, but we do not see him in the film at all. The Happening is the first time he has not appeared in one of his movies. Also Shymalan kept most of the movie in diegetic sound, just like Hitchcock. This added realism and a sense of security when music was finally played. One scene in particular is when people were killing themselves on a street, most cars were stopped and it was crowded because of the toxins. Suddenly a police officer kills himself and people follow his actions and shoot themselves too. The only thing an audience member can here is the sound of footsteps, a car door, and the shots of the gun. The gun shots are portraying death among the people, though the faces of the people are not being shown. It dehumanizes them and shows how they are all the same, which is what Maria explained before.
“Biography for M. Night Shymalan.” The Internet Movie Database. 2010. Web. 27 Feb.
2010.
Adding to what has been said about sound and narration and it's effects to the film, another important aspect to pay attention to is cinematography. To me, the most prominent factor that Shymalan used was camera angles. High and low angles are used many times at extreme levels to portray the situation of the scene. One that especially stood out to me was towards the beginning where the scene takes place at a construction site and numerous workers are committing suicide by jumping over. The camera is looking up from the ground which is the point of view of the workers on the ground and the camera goes back and forth between looking down onto those below and up onto those falling from above. This shows how powerful the "toxin" is and that is taking over the lives of the entire city. Another place I saw this was when the group of people are in a rural place but then come to a bunch of big houses while they are in small groups. One of the groups is too large and has been affected by the toxin and are now committing suicide. The point of view is that from the group which the main characters are in and they are on a hill overlooking this happening so it shows a high angle on those dying. This was also shown on some other scenes in the movie such as on the train and in the train station and at the different houses the main characters visited. It is very successful in showing danger and giving a mood with which the audience knows something bad has to be on the horizon.
To comment on what maria said, the cinematography is quiet apparent with Shymalan's work. The high and low angles that in most cases are extreme long shots. There many times that this happens in the movie. Maria's example was a very good reflection of this. Everyone has made great new points about the movie and used some good refrence points.
To add to marissa's post, societal issues are constently brought up through out the film. Many other issues are brought up and questioned through out the film and then in the end the main character always seems to fix everything.
Adding to Kelsey's comment he really likes to participate and appear in his movies, just like Alfred Hitchcock. I remember in the movie Signs he was one of the main characters in the movie.
The second movie Signs, also had some Hitchcockian elements included in it. The movie mainly has diagetic sound, and the non-diagetic sound being part of a music motif. The diagetic sound emphasizes the actual sound of corn stalks and how he is not moving, yet something is. The non-diagetic sound is the same creepy music. Also Shymalan uses shots that are like god’s perspective. Two in particular are when they first found the crop circle it zooms out so that it shows that family being secluded from the rest of the world. The second one is when Father, his son and daughter and brother are going into town after the discovery of the crop circles. The family is shot while driving in the car and it makes them seem minor amongst the other people in the town. Also there is moments of the restricted and unrestricted narration switch. Most of the time the audience is learning information from the father, but then it will switch and learn information from other characters. In one particular scene, the Father is telling the sheriff about the people they saw on the farm the night before, the Father is the mostly the only one talking but that is the main character we learn information from. The cop however reveals some clues to the family and why the mother is not there. Although the viewers do not find out the whole story at once, scenes do appear which finally come together in the end and reveal this side story.
In this second movie Signs there are a lot of low angles, for example when the dog attacks the Bo and Morgan. Also there's not to much dialogue in the movie and as Kelsey said Father is the one talks more.
It's rather interesting to see one director's movie, then see another one and compare the two. Certain elements in The Happening seem to carry over into Signs and it becomes evident the M. Night Shymalan favors some distinct themes that he works into his films. Perhaps this is just notable because of the certain movies we picked, but either way it provides a good topic of conversation. As an example, both Signs and The Happening had a theme of human helplessness and shared a sense of what is unknown to the human race. What separates the two however, is that in The Happening, the force driving people to kill themselves is a complete mystery, where in Signs, aliens are pretty much well known based on various theories and such.
I agree with Victoria in that there are specific characteristics that are common so far in his work. One important thing is that the characters seem doomed and alone and depressed the whole time. The overall feeling is just very down and sad. In Signs, the dad had just quit his job of being a preacher in the town after his wife died, and the kids are just boring and everything they say is monotone. The music is also a common element between the two movies. It is very loud and creates a mood of doom and fright which fits the plot well. Also, the problems in the societies presented so far are prevalent all over the world-with the deadly gas from The Happening, and the aliens from Signs. This shows that Shymalan is aware of the dangers in our world, though they may not be exactly the dangers him movies present, there are some that our race is creating for itself and his movies reflect that idea and it's consequences.
Adding to what Victoria said, there was another theme of future in this film. The aliens and their existance, but also fate vs. free choice. In the end when the son is in the hands of the alien, the family is contemplating what to do. The father thought of when his wife died and gave him and his family advice. This advice helps him, his brother, and his daughter save his son. Another example was when the son Morgan picked up the book on aliens at the book store. He and his father looked at the book and in it included a picture of a house being taken over by aliens. The house in the picture is identical to the one in the book. It portrays that somethings are meant to happen no matter what happens and what paths people take in their lives.
Another prevalent connection between Shymalan's films we have watched so far are the use of symbolism. In both of the movies, various weapons have a negative connotation and ultimately are bad to the human race and the main characters presented. In Signs, specifically, water was an important symbol. Throughout the majority of the plot, it was just an annoyance because the daughter was paranoid about it being dirty and contaminated. Then, in the end, it turned out to be what the humans needed in order to save themselves from the aliens. In The Happening, the main problem was the trees and the toxin they were releasing. The connection in nature between these two films shows us that in Shymalan's opinion, the human race is slowly ruining the world's resources which is casing further issues and dangers to us humans.
In the films of M. Shymalan you can see how humans react to problems presented by nature. For example, in the movie Signs the people were faced with the danger of being attacked by aliens that wanted to take resources from the Earth and killed humans will they were at it. Then, in The Happening, the people were affected by the plants and the toxin they were releasing which caused them to have an instinct of death rather than survival. As Maria said, the symbolism is the connection and struggles between humans and nature.
In The Village, I saw fewer similarities to Alfred Hitchcock than The Happening, and Signs. In this movie there was more non-diagetic sound than previously. The only diagetic was the sound of “those who they do not speak of”, the bell they rang, and also certain points to emphasize the creatures from the woods. It was a good balance of non-diagetic and diagetic. It showed the happiness yet darkness all in one town. The narration in this was mostly unrestricted narration. We learned a lot of information from the main towns people. The restricted narration came from the group of town elders who held the secret of the town and the woods that surrounded them. It would be a quick switch between the two, for example when Ivy learned about the creatures from her father, which then moves to a restricted scene of the elders discussing the village entirely and from there it leads to the unrestricted narration of the reasons why the came here. That is one of the similarities to Hitchcock. Also another similarity is that he appeared in his movie towards the end. Shymalan was the security guard at the security headquarters around the reserve.
Shymalan's third movie that we watched is Signs. In this movie, the characters live in an area that is surrounded by woods that are supposedly so dangerous to enter that no one ever does and they take superstitious precautions in keeping the dangerous creatures out of where their houses are. This movie, similar to his other movies, has an underlying meaning of being trapped and being in danger against the unknown. The theme of having a plot line that follows something that can be connected to the negatives in society lately is clearly important to Shymalan. He is very successful at portraying the messages and how he feels about them through his films. Specifically, in The Village, the people are in danger from the unknown, but it is ironic that the most brave of all of them is a blind woman. I feel as though this is significant because she cannot even see the creatures but knows how dangerous and can sense them better than anyone else can due to her strong senses, but she is still strong and brave against them. It is also interesting about the use and importance of colors in this movie because the bad creatures are signified as red, and the good people as yellow. This is important because even the blind woman can sense the colors of people and identify them that way. For these reasons, I believe that the film is touching in part on racism and discrimination in past and present society.
In addition to Maria’s post about the some of the themes. Shymalan was also commenting on violence in the world. There is going to be violence no matter what. The people in the village moved there to avoid the other people of the town and the gun, and gang violence that was growing with the change in the times. They went back to a simpler time and they still experienced violence. The animals getting skinned and also when the man was stabbed by the mentally challenged man. It showed how people just living their lives are going to be injured by their fellow people just like the families that were located in the village. Also the mentally challenged man represented everybody in the world. There is going to be someone, somewhere who commits crimes and the world is not totally capable of stopping it no matter where you are. This theme portrayed the lesson as no matter how much someone goes about life avoiding the possibilities of violence; it is never going to be extinct, so people shouldn’t go about life avoiding the possibilities, because just living gives the chances of violence happening to them.
Sound and cinematic elements are also important factors in THe VIllage. Like Kelsey said, the sound includes some non-diagetic music which is there in order to create suspense and specific moods based on the given scene. The camera angles are also significant in showing vulnerability and power in differing characters. One of the strongest low angles is of the watch tower at night which portrays that it is powerful and safe, high above all the danger. One interesting clip that Shymalan created is when the main male character is in the watch tower, so he appears to be in control, but then he hears a knock at the door up to the tower and when he looks down to the ground, he sees the creature going past. This defies the typical laws of filmography in that the high and low angle situations are switched, where the vulnerable one is with the low angle, and the powerful dangerous one has the high angle. However, he uses non-diagetic music to show the difference in their status of the scene and what is going on. There are also many medium and long shots oh characters while they are at eye level with the camera which shows that they are all the same and no single character is special. The few uses of close ups are in order to show emotions and the feelings that Shymalan wants to portray to the audience. The other uses of cinematic elements in this film are significant and contribute to the meanings that each scene holds.
What I noticed after watching The Village was it's distinct similarity of color scheme to Shymalan's Signs. It really succeeded in creating an overall mysterious atmosphere, which seems to be a common trademark in this particular director's films, save The Happening. Maybe this is a contributing factor of why it received such horrendous reviews! To continue off of what both kelsey and maria have mentioned, The Village follows closely to this director's preference for basing his movies off of throwing his characters in a situation where they are almost helpless when it comes to how to solve whatevever problem they have to face. It's a great way to string each of his films together and I really admire the thought he must have put into doing so.
Adding to what Victoria said about the movie the Village I think that Shymalan likes to make films showing how society will react against a problem, in the 3 movies that we watched you see how society reacts against non-common situations for example in The Happening they realize that being in small groups of people they will avoid the plant toxin, in Sings the solution was water for Aliens and in the Village they were avoiding the real world because they were scared about crime.
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