This scene from Stanley Kubric’s The Shining is a climactic scene in the film. It is the scene where Jack Torrence reveals his violent mental state to Wendy and threatens to kill her. Upon researching this scene I have learnt that it was shot 127 times and that one of the first uses of the now commonly used steadicam was in this film and this scene. I have chosen references that I would use to describe some of the camera and lighting, sound, set design and mise en scene symbolism in the scene if I was to explain how I wanted to create the scene to others. The first part includes some references with notes I might write highlighting the parts I am referring to. The second part is my analysis as myself talking about why I would have chosen those references and how I think they relate.
The lighting in this scene is made to look very natural even though it is being filmed inside a built studio set. The light needs to be coming from outside and practical lights upstairs. The first reference shows the characters back lit with the background being blown out with light which makes the actors look silhouetted in front of the windows. This is what Stanley Kubric has chosen to do with the windows in his hotel. This could be to hide the outside of the windows which is the outside of the set and also to add to the uneasy and threatening feeling of the scene. The camera is pointed right at the windows so the light is allowed to flare into the camera lens creating a milky lower contrast look and blue flares spreading onto the character of Jack but not so much on Wendy. The second reference shows the large bright source creating flares over the characters heads. The type of flared lighting in these scenes adds to the mood – rather than exposing the inside to the outside and watching the angles for flares a more realistic or natural feeling is created where you can see the rawness of the shot so Jack’s intense delivery feels more real and scary. It is made to feel like we are in the same room put into Wendy’s place backing away from the character and Jack’s face changing between being easy and harder to see.
The second reference is from The Piano and I would use is as another way to describe how I would want the light to spread over the subject making a milky low contrast light. In this shot a haze has been used to help highlight the beams of light coming through the window and also spreads the light around creating a very soft quality of light. It looks as though haze may have been used in The Shining scene to do this and bring more light into the room as well as creating a dusty look for the hotel.
In No Country for Old Men Rodger Deakins often uses a mixture of colour temperatures. The last reference I have used uses the “natural” moonlight with tungsten coloured artificial lights in shot as well. Mixing colour temperatures can create very interesting images and in The Shining the director/DP have made a choice to put interior lights on and have the characters move from the cooler light up into the warmer light. If I was talking about colour temperature to my collaborators I would say that I would want the characters to start off in the bluer light seeming to be coming from outside and move into very warm light towards the end. As they move up the stairs and the shots cut between Wendy and Jack, she will start to move more into the warmer light created by the chandeliers upstairs. The shots will then cut between Wendy up in the warmer light and Jack kept down in the cold light. The warmer light acts as a safer place for Wendy as well as showing her as the innocent one in contrast to the bluer light Jack is left standing in.
The Shining 