Arlington Road - Georgia Worsfold

Main character

• The boy seems ordinary apart from his injury, I think this because of the clothing he is wearing.
• He is in a lot of pain, it looks like he is in shock as he only starts screaming when the man finds out what is wrong with him. Realisation of the pain.
• It seems like the boy has something wrong with him because of all of the voices you hear, presumably from his head.
• Because of the voices in his head, you get the feeling that someone made him do it as the voices keep on saying ‘go on do it’ etc.
• As the viewer you could perceive this as the boy is vulnerable, weak, and gullible, also could be that he is desperate for people to notice him.

Camera work

• It starts off with an extremely blurry long shot, this could have been used to confuse the viewer straight away. Also as a shock tactic for when you see how ill the boy looks.
• There is a lot of extreme close ups of the boys eyes, mouth, nose and feet. This helps you understand the state the boy is in and also can help you figure out what has happened to him.
• At first you do not actually see what has happened to him, then you get a median close up of his arm, this also shocks you as you build up an image of what could have happened to him, before you see it.
• Some of the shots are off-set and wobbly this adds to the strange feeling you already have. It results in the boy looking even more unsteady.
• There is a point of view shot, which allows you to see what the world looks like to him in his particular situation. So this also allows you to understand the main character more.
• Because of how they shot this sequence you can tell that there is something wrong straight away.
• There is a shot of the man in the car, and then a shot of the boy again. This works really well to bring the two characters together. So it doesn’t just look like the man has came out of no where.
• When the man runs after the boy, there is a few shots of the boy from behind, this also works as a point of view shot of what the man can see. So you can then see why the man is getting worried when he calls out towards the boy, because you can see that the boy is in pain when walking.

Editing

• The main editing that is used is the blurriness of the shot. It keeps going blurry throughout. This confuses the audience and makes them want to see properly what is happening.
• It could have been used to show how bad the boys sight is, so it puts the audience in the boys shoes.
• The voice over is a significant part as it gives you more possibilities to what could have happened to the boy. If you just saw the boys arm with no voice over, then anything could have happened, but with it you get a better idea.
• At first the cuts are really slow, they dissolve into the next shot, this makes it easy to see what the speed of the boy is. After a while the shots start to get faster especially once the man runs out to him, this indicates the speed of the event, it also makes it look much more fast.

Sound

• The music is very ghostly and spooky sounding, this adds to the strange feeling from all of the camerawork etc.
• The music starts off very slowly and quietly this again shows the speed of the situation at that particular moment, but as it goes on the music starts to get louder and faster, this also starts to show more about the situation, that it is getting more threatening for the boy as it goes on for longer.
• When the man runs up to the boy the music gets much more faster and louder, this makes it more shocking for when you see the boys arm, as the music overwhelms you, with the image you see.

Mise en Scene

• The clothing throughout is nothing out of ordinary, it suits the characters. E.g. in hospital, they are wearing their uniform.
• There is quite a lot of blood, states to what extent the injury is.
• In one shot there is blood that drops onto his shoe and then in the next shot there is no blood on his shoe, this could either be a mistake, or it could have been used to confuse the audience even more. To make them ask questions and think more. Is this really happening, or imagination.
• The lighting is high key outside and also in the hospital, it isn’t the usual low key lighting that is used in thrillers. The high key lighting washes out any colour and drains the boys face, it makes everything pale. You don’t get distracted with anything in the background.