Further research into Alien

Extra film research: alien

There is a low humming throughout the scene, this is ambient. It creates a tension, and adds to the idea of being on a space ship. It is an environmental factor, and diegetic.

Later in the actual chest bursting scene, there’s a sound like a heartbeat, which seems to get a bit louder when the alien is about the burst from Kane’s chest, this adds a sense of fear, and because you don’t actually listen to it or pick the sound up when you’re watching it for the first time, it makes you scared, and manages to do it in a subconscious way. It seems to mirror the characters pulse, and gives you a insight of what they’re feeling, as well as allowing you to feel like your there too.

The characters tone changes throughout the scene, at first their relieved, then become happy. This happiness, over the speeding heartbeat gives the audience an idea that something’s not right, you know the film is building up to something. On the other hand, the fact that the characters are happy could put some viewers in a false sense of security, making the following scenes shocking and terrifying.

There is some non-diegetic music over the scene later on just before Kane’s body is released into space (like a funeral). It gets louder as the camera pans around the room ,its fairly quite, and down beat, this could represent the characters feeling. Just as the body is about to be released it gets louder, and seems to sound a bit triumphant, maybe implying that he’s the likely one. Slowly it fades away, just like his body into space.

Most of the characters have a similar accent, with two of the men having slightly different ones. All of them have some type of American accent.

This scene could represent gender; it appears to put men above women, as men speak louder and more assertive. The men are always in the middle of the screen, and directly address the other characters. In this scene the women rarely speak, so this could imply that men are more powerful than women.