This document discusses two films, 127 Hours and Buried, and their key elements that made them compelling and entertaining despite being confined to a single location. 127 Hours tells the true story of a man trapped between rocks for 127 hours and uses techniques like a video diary, tense music soundtrack, and graphic camera angles of his amputation. Buried features only one actor trapped in a coffin and uses phone conversations to develop the plot without showing other characters. Both films relied on strong scripts and performances as well as innovative cinematography to keep audiences engaged throughout their confined settings.

1. 127 Hours (2010)<br />36556952984500127 Hours is a film co-written and directed by Danny Boyle starring James Franco. The film is based on the true story of Aron Ralston who after a mountain climbing accident became wedged between two pieces of stone. He stayed trapped for roughly 5 days (or 127 hours) before eventually cutting of his own am to escape.<br />Danny Boyle described the film as ‘an action movie with a guy who can’t move’. Essentially this is what we’re aiming to make with our film Tied. Boyle also planned for the opening half an hour to feature no dialogue at all but this was later dropped when writing the script. The film has received rave reviews and as I have seen it myself I can say that yes it is gripping and entertaining but how does it create this, surely a film based on a character who is stuck can’t go anywhere. Well let’s take a look at the key elements of the film:<br />R. Rahman was hired by Boyle to do the soundtrack. They had previously teamed up for the film Slumdog Millionaire where both won academy awards for best director and best original soundtrack. Like in Slumdog, Rahman uses heavy drum beats and indian style music to create very exciting and tense moments in the film which certainly adds to the entertainment value.<br />387350070993000Another element is that of a video diary. The character caries with him a camera which after the accident he uses to display his feelings, regrets and in general an insight into his perspective. With this technique we also begin to see the character loosing his sanity. <br />What is also very interesting is the cinematography and the bizarre placement of cameras, such as a small camera at the bottom of his water bottle, showing the audience how much water he has left but in a very stylised way. In the scene when he cuts off his arm the camera cuts to a shot inside the arm showing the knife puncturing the flesh in detail. Now let’s have a look at this scene in detail. <br />The quot;
amputation scenequot;
was the handiwork of makeup effects artist Tony Gardner and his team at Alterian, Inc. as well as the help of medical professionals. They strove to be medically accurate in every minute detail, as Danny Boyle shot the entire scene in one take (with multiple cameras) and every aspect of the scene needed to be functional as well as realistic. This proved very effective as audience members in the cinema have been noted for leaving at this part of the film and even fainting.<br />3737610-102489000So the key elements to incorporate: camera angles/cinematography, music, video diaries/monologues, and shocking events.<br />351409026924000Buried ( 2010)<br />Buried is a 2010 Spanish thriller film directed by Rodrigo Cortés and starring Ryan Reynolds. It follows Paul Conroy, an American truck driver who has been kidnapped in Iraq and is being held captive underground in a coffin. The astonishing thing about this film is that it only features one actor on screen for the entire duration of the film. Voices are heard and conversations are had between characters using a phone but the characters are never seen, it is entirely through the perspective of the protagonist.<br />The director Cortés says that he was left with the impossible task of filming this and somehow making it work. As he is also a trained engineer he was able to design 7 different coffins/boxes to be used for filming. The filming took place over 17 days. The director says that what attracted him to the film was not only the fact that it was dubbed as an impossible film to make but also the strength of the script. The lead actor Ryan Reynolds said that what people enjoyed about the film was the thrill ride but also the idea of ‘what would I do in this situation’. This is a key selling point of the film.<br />351472568389500So to recap, the key elements of this film are similar to the key elements of 127 hours; the script, the music and the camera angles. But I think in this case I think the key feature was the strength of the actor and script which can also be said about 127 hours. <br />