ALIEN:
The film Alien is a sci-fi horror film created in 1979
directed by Ridley Scott. It stars Sigourney Weaver, Harry Dean Stanton and Ian
Holm as part of a crew in the spaceship ‘Nostromo’ where they are awoken out of deep sleep to an
distress signal from another planet this however was not the signal they wanted
to be woken up by but a deliberate awakening. The crew begin to equip for their
landing on the planet which the signal has been picked up from as they take a
bad landing on the planet once landing some of the crew disperse and decided to
investigate the area before towing back the broken down ship to earth what the
crew don’t know is that there is an Alien on the broken down ship which begins
to travel around ‘Nostromo’ preying on the crew.
I had to analyse two of the scenes from this film to my
choice, these two sequences are the opening sequence and the Chest buster scene. Analyzing on the mise-en-scene, sound and editing.
The opening sequence begins with a wide panning shot of
space as an establishing shot .As the film title dissolves over the shot a
menacing non diegetic soundtrack slowly fades in, setting up the films tone and
atmosphere. This suggests to the audience disequilibrium in the films plot.


The shot pans to the right as a shallow
depth of field focusing on a control panel with red and blue lighting showing
binary oppositions this used as we track down to the next shot of the darkened
corridor and a white background room this draws the attention to the ladders in
this shot and space suites giving a sign as to what they do and also a sign of
escape. There is a shot of a computer turning on this is the first movement we
see on the ship.
As the ships computer receives the distress signal the crew
are revived from there hyper sleep This is symbolic of giving birth as the
ships computer is called mother the pods wake the crew which is what a mother
does as it dominates them, in control. The non- diegetic sound changes from a
sinister score to a naturist sound. Kane arises from the pods as he is the
first to be born and is the first to die / give birth later on in the Chest buster
scene.
A tracking dolly shot is used to show the living quarters in
use with the diversity of crew eating at the table. A diegetic alarming noise
grabs the crew’s attention as they vacate the table and add costume of jackets.

Diegetic noise is used as an alarm to gain the crews notice where we hear
Ash’s intercom telling the Dallas to come and see Kane however the whole crew
follow his lead a cut is used to the medical bay where the audience is
presented with a close up shot of Kane in pain in the mise-en-scene we can see
surgical tools this is so the audience knows that they are in the medical bay.
The crew surround Kane to empathize his illness and to gain the audiences focus
on Kane. Ash then walks through the center of the shot dividing the crew to him
and Kane, Ash’s costume is completely different to the crew as they have all
got some form of cream clothing on as a suggestion of uniform where as Ash is
in a blue outfit signifying he doesn't fit in and is not one of them. A close
up shot is then used again on Kane’s face to show his pain where he is asked ‘does
he remember anything about the planet’ to which he says ‘I remember some
horrible dream about been smothering ’ which cuts to Ash suggesting some form
of conflict between the two whilst he was unconscious. A cut is given to the
living quarters where the crew are participating on their last meal before retiring
to bed. Kane begins to fill his plate full of food again a cut is used back to
Ash watching Kane’s movements this happens throughout this scene creating a
clear guidance as to something is wrong between the characters.
A high angle
shot is used behind Kane while he suffers in pain this shows the audience
exactly where he will be positioned later on in the scene. Inter-cutting is used
between the two shots of Kane in pain and Ash clearly watching him suffer.

Parker goes to kill the alien where as Ash tries to stop the killing letting the alien escape from the room cuts are used to show the split between the crew and Ash in Kane’s death and the Alien’s escape. As the alien retracts from the body the audience hears a non-diegetic noise faint heartbeat which passes from Kane to the Alien this is used as.
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