Shutter Island - Codes and Conventions
The use of mise-en-scene in Shutter Island is typical of that of a psychological thriller film. They use a lot of stairs down to dark places, this is important to a lot of thriller films because it shows entrapment because they won't be able to escape easily if something happens, this is a large part of most thriller films because it makes scenes more tense because with dark areas and stairs anything could jump out at them, this makes the audience have a sense that something's going to happen when they get to the other side of the stairs. Another use of mise-en-scene is they way the ocean makes the veiwer realise that they are on an island that are in complete isolation from everywhere infering that there is no where to run. Mise-en-scene is also used to show entrapment because there is a number of obsticles between the protagonist and the exit suggesting that they are defenseless.
Another thriller convention that is used in the film Shutter Island is that they use a lot of non-diegetic sounds. Non-diegetic sound is music or sound that is added into the film but the protagonist in the film cannot actually hear this music or sound it is just to add background noise so you know how the protagonist are feeling at that time or to add sound so it gets rid of the silence before something jumps out at the protagonist. Non-diegetic sound is important in thriller films because it adds suspense a scene.
Camera angles are used to look around corners that couldnt be seen by the protagonist. This is used in order to cause suspense for the audience. Camera angles are also used to make something seem bigger than it really is so that it looks more threatening and vice versa. This can be an important tactic to use in thriller films in order to make the protagonist seem weaker or sronger dependng on the sitution. Shutter Island does this because the chracter who the audience initially think is the protagonist is actually the antagonist by the end.
