Gestalt research - Insidious - Single camera scene.

 Filmed in Los Angeles in the early part of 2010, 'Insidious', which was originally called "the further" tells the story of a family who have just moved into a new house. Strange things start to happen and when their son Dalton takes a fall in the attic after seeing something strange in the corner Renai and husband Josh dismiss it as a minor injury. However when Dalton doesn't wake up the next morning, he is rushed to hospital and doctors claim that he is in an 'unexplainable coma'. However when Dalton comes home to be cared for there, the devil trying to possess Dalton, comes with him.
'Insidious' is a horror/thriller directed by James Wan. The scene I have chosen to comment on is the part where Renai Lambert(Rose Byrne) is taking the rubbish out. She picks it up in the kitchen and puts some music on and then walks around the house towards the outside bins. A childlike figure changes the music and dances next to the player as the audience watch in a one 360 degree shot of Renai walking outside all the way around to her noticing the figure dancing. This shot, would not have been possible with a multi-camera technique because other cameras would have been seen.
The use of this shot is very important to the effect of the scene because by using a continuous shot, the audience believe that Renai is actually seeing this figure, it seems a lot more real than it would have if the figure was put in a different cut of the scene. Using a single camera, allowed the audience to follow Renai's eye line and therefore connected them to the character.
  The sound used in this shot is very creepy because the music changes from classical, to a sad children's rhyming song. I think that the director (Wan) used childlike music and characters to almost trick the audience into thinking that Renai believes Dalton is awake and dancing as she runs towards the house, however when the common horror movie underline piano music starts, the audience and Renai realise at the same time, that this is not Dalton but another child.
  I took inspiration from this film for the project Gestalt, by looking at the surreal characters in the film such as the life size moving dolly's and the idea of the further realms being underneath the ground.