Analysis of 2001: Space Odyssey

 

This scene is taken place in space on what appears to be the moon, this can be implied from how we can see a planet in the background in this wide angle shot and how the environment doesn't appear like any from Earth. This creates a sense of mystery as it makes us wonder why there is a structure here? who is there? Moreover from the bottom right we can see 5 people, from their shiny suits they are astronauts and from the designs of their suits it appears to be set around 1960. We get a better look at these people in the next scene which is shot at a low angle to show them looking down at something, most likely it is in the hole that had been lit up in the previous scene. We see one of them turn to another, we presume that this is asking what they do next which connotes uncertainty in them so this could infer that they are investigating something. In the background we have non-diegetic music that is quite eerie, it is most common in horror and it is used to build tension

We cut to a closeup shot of e of the crew, this puts the viewers at the perspective of one of the astronauts, and since this isn't the steadiest of movements we can infer that it was filmed handled, this may be to make it more realistic as it would be like this if they had some sort of build in camera. We shift to a shot like the start, this is to create a sense of scale as it shows how big the object in the centre is compared to them. We cut to an eye level shot of the side of one of the astronauts, we see in his face that he is confused and scared but also by the fact that he is circling around it , he is curious and he is wanting to find out information about this object. The constant shifts being quite choppy and frantic, this emphasises the atmosphere as it is quite tense and it shows there is some fear within the group.

We see the man walking towards the object, his curiosity overcoming his fear but as he does this the tension rises and the music in the background gets gradually louder, he reaches out to tough it and when he's about to it cuts to a closeup of his hand, this implies that him touching it will cause some form of big event, however as he touches it, the camera cuts to a medium shot as he moves away, however there is still a high amount of tension as the music keeps getting louder. We cut to a wide establishing shot so we can see everyone else's reactions.

We see all the crew move together for a photo, and as this happens another layer of non-diegetic sound overlaps the other as it builds up, this rises the tension even more and we move to the perspective of the cameraman seeing what they see before a high pitched noise plays, we know that the astronauts can hear this based upon their reaction, moreover it connotes the idea of aliens and abnormality however this sound is even painful for the audience, this makes it so that the audience can empathise with them and it makes it a more realistic experience for them.

While the sound plays, it cuts to the sun setting over the horizon, this symbolises something coming to an end, perhaps this implies that the crew ends up dying because of it or perhaps the sun it appearing which could reflect the hope that the audience has in the astronauts, hope that they are okay, however it is short lived as everything turns black and silent, and black being symbolic of death confirms that the astronauts died, however we are left wondering about what happened which makes us engaged with the plot further as the audience wants to uncover the mystery, this concept makes the film appear as some form of horror as there is high tension at the end and it leaves the audience confusted.