THE PLAYGROUND
Short thriller about a man who pics up a young female hitchhiker. As the awkwardness builds in the car we find out more about the man's past and what his intentions really are.
We open with a man who has half of his face lit with a dim blue light. We can only see the side of his face that is lit, and the rest of the screen appears black. As he speaks the camera closes in on his mouth making it our sole focus. There are also close ups on his eyes as he says certain words and or phrases to emphasise them.
The dim lighting and the darkness suggest danger and set the audience on edge. Immediately we assume that the man is not sane and could be seen as a bit of a threat. He sounds as though he is looking for revenge, by the low, meaningful tone of his voice and his stern facial expressions.
The colours remain dull as he stops to give a girl a lift. She appears vulnerable, it is night time and she is alone. There are eye line matches and close ups to show what he is looking at. You do not see much of their surrounding, inside or out the car. Most of the focus is on the two characters. The lighting is very minimal inside the car and it looks as though they are lit by a light inside the car, again only highlighting half their face. There isn't much sound, only the dialogue which is clear.
The eye line matches show us what he is looking at, they support the idea that he could be dangerous as they are often things like her legs, her hands, and her eyes. The smirk on his face and the glances he takes at her also support this. As an audience we become scared for her, we don't know where she is and we have our presumptions about him.
We feel part of whats going on as the camera movement is hand held. The man has a menacing look on his face before he hits the girl. He fills our expectations. He inserts a cd into the cassette player and music begins to play. The music accompanies the actions of the man digging a hole. This sequence consists of mostly close ups and medium close ups.
The close ups allow us to focus on whats going on, it allows the audience to make sens of the narrative by only displaying the most important parts. The music makes it more sinister as it accompanies a sinister act.
