Room 8 Analysis ED

Room 8

room 8 begins with a prisoner being guided through a prison courtyard by a Russian prison guard, this immediately sparks enigma amongst the audience. questions are raised like why is the protagonist in jail and why in Russia? immediately after this short scene the plain title sequence 'Room 8' shows it is white on a black background plain and simple similar to a prisoners number on his uniform. a shot of a match box moving around as if something is inside is shown creating more enigma as this shot appears to have no relevance to the story so far, the table is old and scratches it is also discoloured representing the state of this Russian prison, dirty and deprived of an luxury. the match box has a stereotypical russian design, constructivism, this has connotations of freedom as that art movement was made around world war 2 when the russian people stood up and rebuilt their country, this is ironic as later on in the sequence it is revealed it is a shrunken prisoner inside of this match box.

As the prisoner is guided into his new room the existing prisoner in that room quickly picks up the moving match box in a snappy secretive way building enigma even more, making the audience ask questions and become more and more intrigued as to the match box. The lighting in the room is dark and has a blue tinge to it representing how the prisoners feel locked up in these rooms all day. there is a long pause before either of the prisoners speak, however when the moved prisoner asks for the man's name he is met with silence, his body language tells the audience he doesn't want his name revealed as he remains still and facing away from the other prisoner a shot reverse shot reveals the other prisoners reaction to this in a close up of the man's face. The pace of editing is slow to put emphasis on the characters awkward first encounters, and adds to the hostility of the prisoner who was always in the room, the prisoner remained seated all the way through and doesn't even get up to greet or address the man's new cell mate, this would be classed as rude however it is later revealed that this man has a lot of room mates and none of them seem to last very long.

When the moved prisoner asks the existing one about the box the man shies away and responds with 'nothing', his body language tells the audience he is trying to hide something and more enigma is created, his shoulders a hunched over and he turns away before saying nothing. however the man moves extremely quickly when the other man goes to open the box and snaps 'stop' this shows the audience that this box is of importance and that the man is obviously very touchy about his box, the reason why isn't apparent yet however enigma is being built. after some dialogue a very faint diegetic soundtrack is introduced, it is similar to that heard in horror movies when enigma is being built the soundtrack slowly builds and stops at the next line of dialogue, this subtle sound build tension and intrigue as to why this man doesn't want the other man in the box but also why he is being so vague about it.as the box is opened and revealed that its a birds eye view of the room he is in a diegetic sound is played similar to that heard in detective or crime movies, sparking more intrigue amongst the man but also the audience as many more questions are being asked in their heads. a zoom in shot of the mans reaction is played as he realises it isn't a copy of the room but that room in the box, more diegetic track is played similar to the first but building in volume and instruments, the zoom then continues to a close up of the prisoners face and shock and awe can be seen.

As the prisoner explores the box in disbelief even more, the other man seems extremely disinterested as seen by his body language and facial expression as compared to the other prisoner who can express his shock any more. as the man becomes more intrigued and explores the box even more the non-diegetic soundtrack of an orchestra or instruments of that kind begin to build ever slightly more, when the man touches his own hand through the magic box it begins to give the audience a sense of scale that the man is literally match box size, and alot of the previous enigma is answered but not all of it.

the mans facial expression quickly changes and it is obvious to the audience the man has an idea as he runs to the corner of the room, he asks the man to open the box for him, no this is the only time the other man has been seen to leave his seat at the desk which is interesting as the other man has shown no interest in anything other than the man not touching the box. the man climbs out of his prison cell into the giant prison cell, and he has shrunk to the size of a thumb, the camera pans as the music crescendos and a giant hand and matchbox is seen picking up the original tiny prisoner answering the question as to why the matchbox was jumping around as if something was inside of it.