The horror film 'Silence of the lambs' displayed a wide range of points to do with the 4 elements; Mise-en-scene, camera angles/movements, sound and editing.
The opening scene began as an establishing shot of the forest with the credits and names of actors in the film appearing and disapearing sharply, immediately putting the audience on the edge of their seats because of the sudden jumps from one name to the next, which also links in with the genre of the film so that people immediately know that it is a horror film before it has even properly begun. The camera then goes on to perform a tracking camera movement of the main woman character in this scene, this comes across to the audience as if the woman is being watched and preyed upon, therefore the camera is being the predator in the shot. Also, the fact that there is always fog behind in the background could be a way of telling the audience that something bad is always going to happen because the fog blocks the clear vision so no body knows what could be lying beyond it.
The other surrounding sounds that can be heard as the woman is running through the forest are the cooing of a crow which leaves a sense of evil within the film as crows are generally seen as quite mysterious and scary, also as she runs, we notice the sound of crunching leaves that could be symbolising death as they sound like the crushing of bones, so the audience feel tension building as we study to see what is going to happen to her as she runs deeper into the isolated forest.
The first close up that we see of the woman shows great determination on her face and as she studies a rope that is infront of her, we see how she is willing to overcome an obstacles that get in her way. I feel that this close up is also a way of showing the characteristics of the character to give the audience an inkling as to what she is like as a person before the film properly begins. As she begins being introduced to the audience in a deeper manor, the sound begins to change; the music behind her gets louder and more dramatic, and the pace of her panting gets quicker and louder perhaps signalling a lack of breath that may link to something that happens to her further on in the film.
Also, the music begins to change as each scene changes and jolts from one scene to the next, which gives a sense of the woman being followed in the way that the general pace of the film gets faster, the closer she gets to her destination. When she climbs the rope, we see that that side is very dull and the lighting is fairly dark, yet when she has succeeded in climbing the rope, there is light on the other side, perhaps showing that for every task she has to complete, she will always come out better on the other side.
When she approachs the prison we see that when she is walking down the steps, the bars of the prison are red which could be revealing that she is descending into hell and to her death in which she will be trapped. The fact that the camera is filming the people from behind the bars also links back to the fact of her being followed as she was in the forest, so perhaps that that person has followed her all the way here and continues to now. The humming tone that appears is contradictory as humming is usual seen as an innocent tone whereas seeing that it is in a horror movie, its like there is evil hiding behind the innocence. The over shoulder shot of both characters could be showing how they are on par with eachother and share the power and how there is not one dominant character over the other.
As the two characters approach the bars in which they walk through, there is a slight beeping noise behind them which could perhaps be revealing a countdown to get in there so that they remain safe, and then once they have reached the actual prison itself we notice how there is a bold contrast between the two colours red and white, perhaps showing how although the woman has a pure and sincere side to her, contrasting that she also has a dangerous fighting side, which would be the red overpowering the white in her personality.
As she approaches one of the worst prisonners in the jail, we notice that the only noise we an hear are the ones of her footsteps when she walks, which could be showing that when there was music there she wasn't alone and people were watching her, yet now that that background music has been taken away and all that can be heard is her footsteps, she is in a vunerable situation because she is all on her own so if anything happens to her, she has to defend herself with nobody else there to protect her.
As she reaches the end of the corridor, we see that there is light at the end perhaps revealing how she has survived and escaped away from all bad because the light has overtaken the darkness that followed her on her journey to the end. But then she is met by the worst man in the prison who, unlike all of the other prisonners, is isolated and kept behind a perspecs glass, yet although he is worse, we is better kept and cleaner than that off the other prisonners which could be showing how even the best and uperclass people can still perform bad things. Also, the way that whenever he is asked a question, he answers back with a question himself so that he avoids answering what he is meant to could reveal how he is trying to hide something but is very clever as he knows exactly what he is doing to prevent the truth arising.
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