This document summarizes and analyzes several shots from the movie "The Descent". It describes the first shot as Sarah hallucinating about her deceased daughter on her birthday. It then explains that subsequent shots establish that Sarah has been hospitalized after a car accident. Another shot uses a "trombone shot" technique to convey Sarah's fear and realization that darkness is coming for her. The final shot shows Juno crying over also losing someone, Paul, in the same car accident.

1. CINEMATOGRAPHY: THE DESCENT
A01 | ZMINA HAWTHORNE

2. This is the first shot in clip three taken from
the movie ‘The Descent’. The POV (point of
view) shot shows an out of focus shot of
Sarah’s daughter, Jessica with a birthday
cake. The shot is then brought into focus as
Jessica blows out the candles on the cake.
The shot is brought into focus to draw the
audience into the cake as that’s the focal
point. This shot conveys to the audience
that Sarah is hallucinating and seeing her
deceased daughter just after she had died.

3. These are the establishing shots of Sarah
realizing that she’s been hospitalized after
the car accident that was shown in the
previous clip. The close up and mid shots are
static and show her appearance after the car
accident.

4. This is the trombone shot (or dolly zoom)
of Sarah with shock, fear and realization
that the darkness is coming for her. A
trombone shot is used when the camera is
zoomed in on the focal point at a fixed
point then as the shot is then tracked as
moves closer to the focal point the camera
is then zoomed out.
In the second screen-cap the shot is a POV
(from the ‘darkness’) coming after her
which conveys to the audience that
something may be coming after her. As
Sarah continues to run the hallway gets
darker which highlights the fact the it
seems like darkness is closing in on her.

5. This is a 360 degree tracking shot of Sarah
clutching onto her friend Beth, this is a closing
shot of the first clip. This shot represents the
fact that Sarah has escaped from the dark and
now in the safe hands of her friend, that’s why
she is clutching onto her.
This is the last part of the clip taken from
‘The Descent’. It shows Juno crying. This is
significant as Juno has also lost someone
she loves in the accident – Paul (Sarah’s
husband) who she was having an affair
with.