One Hour Photo

This is an evaluative essay of the opening sequence of a psychological thriller; "One Hour Photo". It is relevant to our research as it discusses the mis-en-scene and cinematography used in a typical opening sequence to a pychological thriller. It has helped us with ideas for camera angles and many other porcesses we could possibly use in our film. This film was the spark for our idea and so we look up to it emmensly. We appreciate all aspects of the film and we are planning to replicate many of these within our own sequence.


With reference to sound, editing and cinematography, how is meaning created in 1 hour photo?

One hour photo begins with several credits sliding into a black screen from the left, one by one. They have multiple colours within each word, bellow which are numbers to make the credits look like negatives from none-digital cameras. Each credit pauses in the centre of the screen to allow the viewer time to read it, before a bright light flashes in the middle of the word, to erase it. This effect looks like a flash from a camera which, therefore, gives the setting for the film, which is largely based around cameras and photography.

Throughout the opening credits there is a low, steady, pulsing base line, which represents a heart beat. High pitched strings, slowly increasing in pitch, create an ever-increasing tension, climaxing in juxtaposed silence and a bright white visual. Within the white shot is a white camera, the only colour within the whole shot is a small red button on the front of the camera. There are no curves, soft angles, colour or anything else to make the shot look welcoming, warm or friendly. The lack of emotion and sound makes the whole shot very tense and eerie. It is of extended length which builds tension with it climaxing in the camera flashing, with loud diagetic, mechanic noises of the camera. The loud noises of the camera are so shocking to the viewer because of the eerie silence before hand.

The camera then cuts to a close-up shot of a computer screen loading the photograph the camera has just taken, it is of a white man with bland, colourless clothes and bleach-blonde hair standing in front of a brilliant blue background, the only colour in the scene so far. The camera quickly cuts to a medium shot of the camera which suddenly jerks to an extreme close-up of the same camera. This shows the significance of the camera in the film and suggests the film will be unpredictable. This quick change in camera angles is accompanied by the same shutter, mechanical noise and flash of the camera as before, this makes the viewer jump and feel uneasy.
The camera cuts to an establishing shot of a dark room, which pans around to show a completely white room, with the man from the photograph sat at a table, the only colour in the room is a red chair. The theme of red being the only colour in the room seems to follow throughout the opening sequence. The complete lack of colour and silence in the room represents the isolation of not only the room but the man sat at the table. This gives the viewer an idea that the man may be lonely and vulnerable to the world. This is reinforced later in the film when we get to see his house for the first time. It looks much like the blank interrogation room in that there is no colour; all of his appliances and furniture are white and bland.

The isolation of the room is interrupted by a door loudly opening and slamming shut, in storms a man wearing a bright blue shirt, suggesting he is a police officer. The colouring of his shirt stand out from the blank room and from the mundane-coloured man (now being shown as a criminal) sat at the table. The camera cuts from the establishing shot to a medium, over the shoulder shot of the police officer, and then the same shot of the man.

There is little sound in the shot, nothing more than a none-diagetic slow rumble and diagetic conversation, through lowered voices, between the man and the officer. Within the conversation the officer asks a series of questions, the final of which makes the man think; a close-up of his face shows his thought process. The camera cuts to a medium, unstable, zoom of a woman with a camera, there are lots of bright, saturated colours and the it has been slowed slightly, only 10 per cent or so, but enough to make it look like a memory or reminiscence. The entire shot is juxtaposed to all of the previous angles, there are no strait lines, or sharp angles; everything is soft, warm and welcoming.

Soft piano and strings enter with the shot creating a positive, uplifting mood. The sound of laughter and children playing is also heard but at a slower pace and with an echo effect, this adds to the memory/reminiscence theme. There is an unusual voice over from the man in the interrogation room which shows the viewer it is his memory. It also allows the viewer to see what he is remembering perfectly, not their own interpretation of his words. This puts the viewer in a privileged position, and can understand this mans personality and thoughts.

An establishing shot follows with a soft pan of a garden full of balloons and bright colours, giving the impression of a child birthday party. Following this are several point of view shots, none of which are stable, which puts the viewer into the scene. All of the colours are saturated and sounds have an echo effect, also all of the shots are slowed slightly. The shots show a young boy blowing out his birthday candles and a water fight between several children. All of the shots are selectively focused upon one child, (the birthday boy) and, what appear to be, his parents. The voice-over, soft music and laughter all continue through the several shots.

The family shown in this scene are later shown in their home, full of warm colours and soft lighting, which is juxtaposed to the man’s home which is completely white, hard and eerie to the viewer. Sharp shots and jerky movements of the camera are also used to reinforce the mood of the house. This sets the scene for the entire film and also gives more information on each character.

Dale also wrote a similar essay with a similar title, also discussing the different media elements used in One Hour Photo. He has included different information than Kirsty, so both are equally useful to us.

How is meaning created through sound colour cinematography and editing in the opening sequence of one hour photo.

When we watched the opening sequence there wera a lot of things that you could pick up on looking at it through a media point of view. The first thing I am going to talk about, is how meaning is created through the sound of the piece, one thing I noticed was that the music was very mysterious and had a dark nature to it, quite sadistic – this created a lot of enigma about what was going to happen as we didn’t know. The mysterious music also creates tension, and suspense. When the main character has the flashback, the sound is still very eery, but there is a non-dijetic sound of children’s laughter, making a juxta position between the two. Also the fact there is little dialouge in the first part of the opening sequence creates a lot of enigma involving the character – creating even more tension for the audience.

Another thing that I am going to talk about is the colour that is used in the opening sequence to one hour photo. When looking at the main character, the clothes he is wearing are very dull and grey, there is no colour to them at all. And throughout most of the opening sequence, the places where it is taken from are also very dull and bland with no colour, when he is being asked questions in a room, there is juxta position from him and the man that is asking questions because he is wearing bright colours. Later on we are taken into his house and the entire place is white. During the flashback the character has – the colour is a lot more vibrent and colourful, but also has a sepia edge to it, to remind us that this is a flashback . This creates a juxta position between the dullness of where he is now, and all the colours we are shown in the memory/flashback.

There are a lot of different editing techniques used in one our photo. First of all, we have a CU shot of a camera taking photo’s of a man, there is no non-dijetic sound added apart from the flash from the camera. We then see him in a room being asked questions there is a medium shot of the two people talking – the camera then zooms into the mans face into an ECU and hold’s it there for a couple of seconds. The screen then wipes out into a flashback the man is having, but there is also a voiceover of him talking. The whole flachback scene is put into a slight slow – motion, and there are slow wipes as it changes flashbacks. At the end of the flachback there is children’s laughter but it extended to create the picture for us of it being a memory.


From these essays we have decided to test out some techniques used in One Hour Photo. These are:

• the colourless life Si lives
• the idea of the obsessive link to photograqphs
• the unknowing victim
• the stalking in the car
• the knowledge Si has of his victims