Shutter Island, Martin Scorsese

Introduction:

Today we will will be analyzing the first scenes of Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island.

Shutter Island is an American Thriller from 2010

It tells the story of eddy Daniels, a US Marshall, who has been put on the case of investigating a disappearance of a patient at a mental facility at Shutter Island.

The opening scene presents the first encounter between Teddy and his partner Chuck while they head towards Shutter Island

Bathroom:

-We start off by an establishing shot of a boat on the misty sea in which Teddy Daniels and his companion, Chuck Aule, are traveling on, heading towards Shutter Island.

-In the bathroom, where we are first introduced to Teddy, he is the first character we are introduced to, but the camera takes a distance from him in the first shot as we only see the bottom half of him in a medium shot.

-A low orchestral music combined with ambient and what sounds like a steamship horn creates a mysterious and tensioned feeling from the opening shot and continues throughout the entire scene.

-As Teddy looks into the mirror, the camera has been deliberately positioned to show this shot of himself with his shadow creating two men in one shot.

This shot implies many things when you have saw the end.

-This scene can be interpret by a breaking of the fourth wall because Teddy looking the spectator straight into the eyes  with a close up shot and say “Come on”

By breaking the fourth wall, a character acknowledges their fictionality.

On the Boat:

-As Teddy walks through the room between the lavatory and deck, he crosses two mud-yellow lamps, disturbing the otherwise melancholy grading

-We follow Teddy from the lavatory to the deck in a zoom and pan movement that reacts between the foreground and background shifting focuses.

The camera zooms and pans around with him to the other door and we are again being told to follow his every move.

Deck:

-Out on the deck, the colors are monochrome with a blurry background creating flat space

-The camera tilts the waves, provoking a feeling of seasickness from the spectator's side as well, connecting us to his characters physical state.

However, when Chuck is communicating the camera is more static.

-The framing on the deck consists of medium shots, adding up the mysterious tension making it difficult for the audience to grasp a sense of location

-Focus also shifts between Chuck to Teddy, and just before a flashback, focus is on Teddy drawing us into his mind.

Flashback:

-We can notice that the music which are here when Teddy was in the lavatory continues into the flashback scene, but is complimented with another soundtracks.

-One of the big distinctions between reality and flashbacks are the color use.

-In contrast to the cold blue and green use in the scenes of the boat, the flashback is made up of mixed color temperatures.

These colors concern yellow, green and red, creating an almost ill feeling.

...