This film tells the story of one man's struggle with insanity through his disjointed perceptions of reality. The camera techniques, such as extreme close-ups and shifting perspectives, aim to illustrate his deteriorating mental state. There is no dialogue and the black and white cinematography and sparse setting reveal few identifying details about the main character. The slow pacing and smooth editing style present his insanity as normal to him, though disturbing to the viewer.

1. Doodle Bug Created by Christopher Nolan

2. Message.. The message of this film is insanity. We see one man’s struggle to come to terms with being different. He is hearing things and seeing things that aren’t really there and it seems to be taking over his life. This film delves into his life and tries to understand what he is going through.

3. Camera techniques.. It starts with the title sequence, but the ‘o’ in ‘Doodle’ is substituted with the main character’s eyes. The title then fades away and you see the main character in a close-up shot. This then tracks back revealing him crouched down in his apartment, looking around frantically. The camera then circles him as he continues to look around the room.

4. Camera techniques.. There are then numerous extreme close-up shots of objects in his house, mainly ticking clocks. This implies that he is in a hurry or that he is anxious about something, this is backed up by his actions. There is then a close-up of the phone as it rings, disturbing his ‘mission’. The camera follows him as he jumps over a chair and onto the ground, hitting the floor with his shoe. There is then a low angle shot as we see something scuffle across the floor, this shot is then matched as he notices it too.

5. Camera techniques.. The hunted, we are lead to believe is a mouse, is then revealed as a mini version of himself. There is numerous high angle shots looking down on ‘mini him’ exaggerating how small he is compared to the main character. There is then a close-up shot of the main character’s face but from his mini self’s point of view as he slams down his shoe, crushing it. Then in the same close-up shot as another, bigger version of himself appears behind him. This shot successfully illustrates his insanity.

6. Sound.. Throughout the film there is non-diegetic sound of the music. This is played to fit with the visuals and keep the mysterious feel that is being shown through the main character’s actions. There is diegetic sound too; the audience hear the clock ticking, the bubble in the water and the sound of the main character jumping around, knocking furniture. They seem to be exaggerated as there is no other diegetic sounds. There is no dialogue in the film apart from what we can vaguely hear down the phone when he takes it off the hook.

7. Framing.. The framing and camera movements seem very still and basic. There is only one character in the film and therefore he is mainly centre of the frame – this is because he is centre of the film.

8. Mise-en-scene.. The film is set in the main character’s apartment. He looks rugged in his casual clothing as if he hasn’t made an effort at all, perhaps he hasn’t even got dressed yet. The whole film is monochrome, this kind of fits with the fact that there isn’t any dialogue. It gives it the feel of an old style, like films made years ago. Also these combine so that no information is really given away about the character, there is little clue about his life; we don’t know his accent, his eye colour, hair colour… we just know he is insane. This is effective because it is supposed to be the main focus of the film and this way, it is.

9. Editing.. The film has a very slow pace and therefore is edited to fit this style. The shots are long and smooth, each shot slotting in with the next, making the story flow. However, with a film based on this type of topic, you may expect more fast, choppy shots to exaggerate his insanity, but in this film, his insanity seems completely normal to him and therefore it is edited together to seem like someone’s every day life.