Cinematography in 'Elephant'

In this blog I will be talking about how cinematography is used in the film 'Elephant' as well as features of mise-on-scene.

Firstly, I noticed that many tracking shots were used. One example of this can be seen when one of the characters' was walking into the school from the field (red hoody). The camera followed him all the way from the outdoors right through the corridors of the building. Another example of a tracking shot takes place whenever a character was in a car as the camera was placed in the back-seat to capture everything that the character(s) did or said. During these shots we can only see the back of the particular character's head. This is a clever idea as cloaks the character in mystery, causing the audience to wonder where the person is going, what they look like and what they are like in terms of personality.

Another interesting use of the camera was when it did a slow, 360 degree rotation inside a classroom where students were having a debate about what makes a homosexual recognizable. I think this was to possibly show that there was more than one character in the room and to see other people's reactions to what was said in the scene.

Moving on to mise-on-scene, a lot of the sound used in the film was digetic, but there were moments where the audience had to think about it. For example, at one point we can hear an acoustic guitar. We first presume that this is non-digetic as we cannot see it on-screen. However, a few seconds later, we see that a student is sat outdoors playing it, making us realize that the music in this scene is actually digetic. Another point in the film that used digetic sounds involves one of the students at home playing the piano.

A lot of the lighting used was very natural. We know this as some of the film was shot outdoors, meaning that only the light from the outdoors would be seen. Also, the lighting used in the school corridors was very dim, giving us the impression that the only lights actually being used were the ones in the school, with no additional studio light added in. This gives a very naturalistic feel to the building. Off-screen space was also well used - we know this as there are many classroom doors and windows along the corridors, which makes us wonder what is going in them.

Coming back to cinematography, There was a moments during a tracking shot when a pupil walked over to a dog. When the dog jumped up, it was in slow-motion. If I remember correctly this is basically the only moment when slow-motion is used in the film. The impact of this is that it marks a turning point in the storyline - the shooting is about to begin, which changes the atmosphere and tone of the film.