The Sixth Sense: closet ghost scene

In this scene, I found that although the Director has used a range of shots and angles, they have been seamlessly edited together so that the audience are not aware of the movement and angle of the camera as the main character moves about the set.

The first shot in the sequence is a high angle shot of a balloon floating up, and then immediately cutting to a MCU of Cole looking up. Here the cross cut represents how the two things are happening simultaneously so Cole is in fact looking up at the balloon. It is made even clearer by the way the director has matched the actor’s eyeline with the high angle of the camera in the previous shot showing exactly where Cole is looking. Cole then gets up followed by a Match on Action where we see the moving subject walking into the space which naturally follows his previous action of getting up and the audience are able to see him walking off screen. The Match on Action also helps the audience identify that the shadow belongs to the little boy in the previous shot and no one else.

This is followed by some complex camera movement where the camera pans in one direction and then in the opposite direction, followed by smooth a tilt up. This is made to seem continuous as the director, although panning the camera both right and left has followed the 180° rule. This means that the audience are able to follow the actor’s movement up the stairs, rather than placing the audience at different angles, which would make the editing more noticeable and the shot would lose its mysterious effect as a whole. Rather than using choppy cuts here, the panning movement also slows the pace of the scene down so that audience suspense and tension can gradually be built up.

As the boy slows down we are again able to see the string of the balloon shown at the beginning of the shot sequence. This shows how the first cross cut between the balloon and Cole’s matching eyeline towards it, have finally been brought together. Directors always use this technique of two things happening simultaneously in two different shots and then eventually being brought together so that both can be seen in one frame. The Director lingers on this shot for a while, zooming slightly in. Here it is obvious that the boy is no longer looking up at his balloon, but somewhere ahead of him. This is followed by a motivated cut to the shot of the door which shows what he is now looking at. The handheld low angle camera effect emphasises that we are looking at it from his point of view as it matches Cole’s eyeline from the previous shot. It places us on his side therefore creating empathy within us.

The shot of the door is then followed by a reverse shot of Cole, where his eyeline is looking directly in between the door frame and open door. Here the director places the audience where the voice is coming from, which can also be seen as a reaction shot as we can see Cole’s frightened expression. The director then cross-cuts to a high angle shot of two boys talking at the bottom of the stairs. This shows how their conversation is taking place simultaneously with the previous shot. As the boy looks up, he motivates the next cut to the low angle shot of Cole again. Here the director is using a repeat of a previous shot showing the audience that although everything around him is still going on, Cole is still stood stunned in exactly the same position.

Shot-reverse-Shot is then used from the boys to Cole and back to the boys. Here the director has used shot order, from high angle LS to high angle VLS. These have been edited together so that the audience are smoothly taken through the physical space up the spiral staircase. Again, the previous cross cutting between the Cole and boys have now been brought together in this VLS as we see both boys and Cole’s hand as well as the balloon string.

Here we are placed in Long range from the two boys, distancing the audience from them, but closer to Cole’s hand. This means that the next cut to the MCU of Cole follows on more smoothly. The director also uses cuts to reduce wasting time showing the whole climb up the stairs, as the audience can work this out for themselves when they see the boys approach Cole from the back. This therefore saves time so that more important information can be shown during the length of the production.

Cole then turns around and we then see the standard technique of Shot-reverse-shot used in many conversation scenes which actually places the audience in action. This is then followed by the specific shot order of MCU to MLS, where we first see the boys and then where they plan to take Cole. They then move towards the camera. Here the camera moves from in front of them to behind them and then back, however the audience is not aware of this due to the Match on action. The director then uses the black-out transition placing the audience in the darkness behind the door but then cuts to the other side of the door. Here the choppy cuts increase the pace of the action.

The director then cross-cuts to a low angle shot of the balloon again as it pops and we hear a screaming sound. I have noticed that it is essential to refer back to the different themes (the balloon/ party downstairs) that have been going on in a shot sequence to make it seem more continuous and realistic, because these things are still happening so they cannot be forgotten, especially by the audience.

Here we see a clear Reaction shot which shows that parallel to the popping of the balloon and screaming, downstairs a woman looks up but then carries on her conversation. However, we then see Cole’s mum’s reaction as the camera tilts up. Here her eyes motivate her next action and so the camera cuts to her going up the stairs. As done previously with Cole, the camera pans around as she goes up the stairs and then quickly cuts to an LS from the other side, and again to a low angle shot of her as she reaches the door. Here the two quick cuts represent how the pace of the scene and action is increasing as the tension increases.

It then match cuts to a high angle shot where the mother’s eyeline in the previous shots matches the other characters to whom she was looking at. Another cut to a high angle shot of the actors on the stairway follows, however the director seems to have used the 30° rule, so that although the camera has moved between set-ups, it has avoided jumps. The scene finally ends with two straight cuts.