CUBE analysis

The first shot from this, we see an extreme closeup of the characters eye, with the white of his eyes being seen first, this colour association is of purity which is what we initially can pair with this character. His pupils seem to constrict and that generally is due to drug use and or bright lights, so it leaves an enigma surrounding the character. We have longer shot lengths here to make the audience feel just as uncomfortable as the main character is and also to create a sense of lingering. Throughout the entire opening sequence it is silent, this excessive use of silence can be seen as uncomfortable and unnerving for the audience as even during action it remains silent, setting the tone of the film as quite uncomfortable for audiences viewing. We also see within the first minute, multiple high angle shots which main the main protagonist seem smaller and more inferior within the cube that he is seemingly trapped within. The colour of the walls is also white, this has the connotations of peacefulness and also freedom, yet it is quite the opposite within that cube making it ironic. At 1:03, we see a pan as the camera moves around the key image of the character. This camera shot can make the audience feel nauseous an or uncomfortable due to the speed and rotation of the shot, this is used effectively to convey the confusion and claustrophobic style of the prison that he is encapsulated within. We see a large amount of darkness upon the character due to a lack of lighting within the first room, from barthes theory, we can suggest that this character is evil or bad from the use of lighting. On the other hand at 1:43 we see a high key side lighting on his face, which could mean that he has a darker side to him and or a split personality. At around 0:53, we see a tilt which goes upwards and then comes back down, this is used effectively to show off the fact that he is small compared to the prison he is in and shows off that he is fully trapped within there.The first door he opens has a blue interior, which has the colour associations with coolness and being trustworthy, yet he seems to close that door after an initial shot of confusion in a closeup on his face. This could show that he doesn't know what he doing stuck within this place as he doesn't know what is in each door. The second door he goes into is a deep red, the colour associations with this are danger and blood/ violence. This could foreshadow future events of the opening sequence and this leads us to assume further through barthes theory that something bad is going to occur within the room. We now get shorter shot lengths to show that it is an action scene and from his facial expressions, we can see that he is scared to be going into this room after the door behind him closes. We then get a closeup on his shirt and then it quickly jump cuts to a side shot of his face where we start to see blood pouring out of his skin, this creates a sense of enigma as we don't know why or how this blood has come out of his face. We get a high angle shot of blood pouring on to the light while the shadow remains clear of blood. This could represent the violence corrupting the light and or purity. The character falls apart and the shot remains and makes the audience yet again feel uncomfortable and finally the metal wiring comes into the scene showing what kills him. At this point we get a high pitch, quiet background soundtrack as the trap seems to fold in on itself and it fades to white, finally showing off the title of the film as "Cube." It starts with a white background for the title but quickly fades to black, showing that there is a false sense of security from the purity and that there is a darker side to the film.

We could attempt to use the tilts and pans that are used in this film to try and make the audience feel uncomfortable, as well as this, during the violent scene in the sequence, we could use shorter shot lengths compiled together to try and make it seem like a lot is occuring at one time. The lighting is used effectively in Cube, so i think if we could use that, to show off the split personality and or foreshadowing future deaths, it could be used effectively to build suspense.