Post 3 - Scene Breakdown

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuN2KkimDrs (Clip from Perfect Blue [1997] Directed by Satoshi Kon)

In this scene, a man pulls into a parking garage before being killed by a stalker, who believes the man has caused harm to a woman he is obsessed with. The strategies used in the editing and pacing of the scene do an excellent job at creating tension and fear. The opening shots establish the scene, showing the setting and who the focus of the scene is. He sees a threatening note left in his parking space, to further ramp up the suspense. After this are several shots where the camera views him from behind various objects, such as cars and pillars. This makes the audience feel as if they are the stalker, viewing the man from afar without his knowledge. After this, the camera moves in closer to the target again, allowing the audience to experience his point of view, feeling fear caused by the eerie approaching music. After a brief lull in the music, resting a false sense of security through sound design, the music starts again, and the camera once again zooms out from the man, once again creating the sense that the audience is stalking him. The music volume continues to rise, until peaking with the opening of the elevator doors, showing the man’s face of confusion and fear, followed by the reveal of the noise source: a stereo in an empty elevator. The audience never sees the act of killing the man, just the aftermath, as the elevator doors open on a different floor, revealing the man’s bloodied body, as the music fades away. This scene masterfully uses camera angles and distances, combined with sound design, to take the audience back and forth between the points of view of both the stalker and his victim. Making the audience feel as if they are going between the two also relates to the central theme of the film, that being the loss of identity. This may be what Satoshi Kon was trying to achieve when deciding what camera angles to use in this scene.