Pan’s Labyrinth – Impact on Spectator

Sound
The sound in Pan’s Labyrinth consists of diegetic and non-diegetic sound. The diegetic sound being the fantasy world sound effects, like the Mandrake rout when it was crying, the faun and the labyrinth itself. The non-diegetic sound consists of the Foley sound effects and just typical sound effects used, like the footsteps and the killings that the Captain does, the stitching of the Captains face, the scarping of the knife that Mercedes does to the Captain, etc. I think the scene in the beginning in which Carmen and Ofelia are on the way to the Captain in the car, is a very significant scene, because its all quiet and contrasts to the havoc where the Captain lives. It impacts the spectator because the audience can sense the tension in the car from the calmness, until they get a bad sign from Carmen getting sick from the baby, this foregrounds the bad events that will occur at the Captains place.

Mise-en-scene
Pan’s Labyrinth is filled with many various aspects of mise-en-scene. The costumes are very impactful, for example Ofelia’s dress that her mother made her created a meaningful scene, in which she gets her dress and shoes dirty, making her mother very disappointed. Her clothes are used to showcase Ofelia being an innocent child, interested in fairy-tale stories and fantasy worlds, which makes the audience feel more for her when she is forced to grow out of it because of her new living situation with the Captain. The lighting in the film add onto the effect of the mise-en-scene because the fantasy world, involves lots of colours that have been darkened my mysterious lighting in order to make them appear more ominous and show the difference to the natural world. The set design of the fantasy world also creates effect and impacts the spectator, because it is made much bigger and better and more fake in a way because its all magic. The props also contribute to the film because they show the time in which the film was portrayed. An example of the props impacting the spectator is the grape scene, in which Ofelia eats the grapes in the fantasy world that she is instructed not to eat. The audience feels tension as Ofelia tries to run and escape the mysterious creature with eyes on their hands. The grapes are significant because they suggest that if she changes or takes things from the fantasy world, there will be consequences.

Cinematography
The film uses a lot of handheld camera footage to capture the realism of the natural world in the film, so when it switches to the fantasy world we see a change and more wider shots to showcase the unnatural elements. The film also uses a lot of close ups to show each characters thoughts, emotions and feelings towards what happens in the scenes. The wider shots, often are used in this film to establish the setting and characters in the scene.

Editing
The editing in Pan’s Labyrinth consists of bright and vivid elements featured in the fantasy world, while in the regular world it switches back to dark and gloomy colours. The scenes throughout the film are usually cut quite regularly by switching between the characters when speaking, then showing reactions of the characters too. One particular scene that comes to mind when speaking about the editing is the scene where Ofelia goes into the tree and leaves her dress on the branch, and when she comes out there is nothing on the branch, on purpose to create panic and distress, the editing is the camera panning round the woods as Ofelia is looking round for her dress.

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