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The Sixth Sense Analysis

M. Night Shymalan, director of The Sixth Sense sets the audience up for the rest of the movie. He creates the mood of the movie perfectly. The scene is about one minute and 46 seconds, and throughout the scene the camera follows Cole’s mom from beginning to end. With the use of a hand held camera and limited cuts, and resisting focusing on Cole, the main character. Shymalan captures a mood of confusion that Cole, the main character, feels throughout the movie.
The camera is obviously hand held during the entire scene. The camera is shaky when following Cole’s mom. This makes the morning seem hectic, like it usually is, but it also emphasizes how the whole movie is hectic and confusing. The audience does not see the cupboards open, and it is a shock to the audience as much as Cole’s mom, when she finds the cupboards s open. She is confused as to how this happened and is a little freaked out, as is the audience so early in the movie. Along with the camera being handheld, Shymalan decides to only put in one cut during the scene. This also emphasizes the continuous confusion. The camera follows Cole’s mom to allow for the cupboards to open so it shocks the audience the next time they see the kitchen.
Shymalan decides not to focus the camera on Cole in this early scene. Rather, it is focused on Cole’s mom. When he is on camera during the scene, it rarely shows his face, and he has limited action. This not only shows his nervousness to what is happening, but also shows that he is not in control what is happening. Cole is intimidated by what his mom thinks of him, because he is afraid of his differences with the rest of the world. When Cole leaves for school, the camera finally focuses on Cole, but primarily his sweat handprints left on the table and them disappearing. Again this shows his nervousness towards what is happening to him.
This scene really focuses on setting up the rest of the movie. Shymalan does a very good job at creating the nervous and confusing mood of the movie by using a long hand held camera shot and using little focus on Cole in one scene. Shymalan does a good job setting up the audience for a confusing and nervous surrounded movie.