Elephant

Elephant
Director:Gus Van Sant
Release:2003
Genre:Drama

Elephant is a film that is shot to feel like a documentary but a documentary the spectator feels like they are in. This is done by using various types of shots to make you feel like you are next to the characters. The film follows several characters through there daily lives in high school showing how their paths intertwine and how everyone has their own problems until two characters take things too far and massacre the students turning an ordinary day into a blood bath. This climactic end comes as a shock to the spectator because it is completely different to the rest of the films mellow, slow paced feel.

The film starts with a wide tilt shot of the sky showing clouds glide by to show time passing by, this is used later in the film to create a sense of time scale for the events. Followed by one of the only point of view shots in the film, looking at trees as the car drives past them. Then it switches to a blacked out screen with the characters name on it, this is used several times to introduce the main characters in the film. The first character John is introduced with a tracking crane shot of the car he is in shot from behind the car, similar to the shot of the flats in "La Haine" were the camera was mounted on a remote controlled plain. The shot follows the car at a steady pace but the car doesn’t keep to the pace so the shot often catches up to the car brining the long shot to a medium long shot then the car pulls away from the camera. This instantly tells the viewer something is wrong because this type of shot is used a lot to show cars traveling and the shot and the car usual move in unison but in this case the car is not in time with the camera. Then there is a reverse shot of John's dad as he switches places with John and the camera follows him and becomes a reverse shot and close up when he's in the passenger seat. This show that his characters importance. Then as the car starts again the camera shakes making it seem as if you were on the bonnet looking into the car.

The next character Elias is introduced then there is a still shot of the character walking towards the camera and without cutting continues as a tracking shot, shot using a steady cam. During most of the scene you are looking at the back of the characters head or his side and when he leaves the scene, which is all one long shot, the camera becomes static and the character walks away. This, like most of the film, isn’t like the conventional rules of cinematography but makes the spectator feel as if they are there next to the characters. When John enters the high school the depth of field becomes shallow so inside the school your attention is on the character and you don’t rely think about the surrounding almost as if it were a familiar place further emphasizing the sense of being there and being a student. Then it cuts to still, extreme long shot of the field where several groups student are doing different sport. This is used to show some of the characters that will feature later but instead of concentrating on a certain group the shot shows every one, so the director has to uses the movement of the characters in the shot to grab and move the spectators attention to someone different as apposed to moving the camera. But the effect is the feeling of being there and starring at the field not rely paying attention to any particular group. When Nathan gets his hoody and starts walking away the camera starts following him with a tracking, medium long shot that stops following him as he nears the edge of the field so that as he walks up to the high school it becomes a extreme long shot. But once he’s in the building the camera is above his shoulder and the depth of field becomes shallow again. This is used to show where he is going then when he is inside its like you are following him showing you his point of view without a point of view shot and see it as a student who is familiar to the surroundings. This is the shot used to show each character inside the high school building until they begging doing something.


Because Elephant show sections of different characters day and how they intertwine, similar to Pulp Fiction, there are certain parts of the film the director want you to remember so that you can relate back to it later in the film. Van Sant uses slow motion when one of the girls (Brittany, Jordan and Nicole) says “He’s so cute,” as Nathan walks by so later when the film follows the girls story from that point the spectator relate back to the scene with Nathan not only connecting the several stories into one and setting a time frame but also making it feel more like regular school life where you often see people you know walking around during the day. This is done at this point so that the spectator knows how and when each character started their day and is used again when John passes a jumping dog then see’s Alex and Eric enter the school carrying big bags and dressed in army gear. So that later in the film when the girls see the dog you know that’s the time Alex and Eric enter the building and when you see it from Alex and Eric’s point of view you know where the other characters are around that time.

Another thing Van Sant uses to make the spectator pay more attention to a scene and remember it throughout the film is panning shots. In the class where the students are discussing weather or not you can tell if someone is gay just by their appearance a panning show rotates 360 degrees to show each student in the circle they are debating in. This relates to the fact that the Alex and Eric are both gay even though they are not portrayed as gay so the spectator doesn’t expect it when they walk into the shower together. And also to the fact that though you cant tell weather someone is gay or not just by appearance and way they act but you can tell when someone has the problems that the two characters had just by looking at them. The film is called Elephant because of the phrase “elephant in the room” which basically means obvious but ignored because if there was an elephant in the room it would be impossible to miss so the only way to seem as if its not there is to ignore it which is what the students and teachers done in the school ignored the problems that Alex and Eric had. Panning was also used to show Alex’s room and the drawings on his wall to show he is talented person not just a psychotic kid so the spectator can relate to him and the problems he has so that when he massacres the school it comes as more of a shock.

In the final scenes of Elephant the depth of field becomes deeper to show unfamiliarity because it not just an ordinary day the characters become more conscious surroundings this is made clear to the spectator by using a deeper focus so they can see the detail of the surroundings they hadn’t seen earlier in the film. Also the colours you saw earlier seemed to show who would be killed, with all characters wearing red being killed and with John surviving wearing yellow which gave hope for Benny but Benny was the character of false hope to show that there are heroes in situations like this one but they don’t always succeed. And the film finishes with a medium long shot of Alex holding the a gun pointed at Nathan and Carrie and for the first time in the film the camera zooms out on a character turning the shot into a long shot as if the spectators chance to look into the world of this high school was over and the camera crew were leaving.jumping dog then see’s Alex and Eric enter the school carrying big bags and dressed in army gear. So that later in the film when the girls see the dog you know that’s the time Alex and Eric enter the building and when you see it from Alex and Eric’s point of view you know where the other characters are around that time.

Another thing Van Sant uses to make the spectator pay more attention to a scene and remember it throughout the film is panning shots. In the class where the students are discussing weather or not you can tell if someone is gay just by their appearance a panning show rotates 360 degrees to show each student in the circle they are debating in. This relates to the fact that the Alex and Eric are both gay even though they are not portrayed as gay so the spectator doesn’t expect it when they walk into the shower together. And also to the fact that though you cant tell weather someone is gay or not just by appearance and way they act but you can tell when someone has the problems that the two characters had just by looking at them. The film is called Elephant because of the phrase “elephant in the room” which basically means obvious but ignored because if there was an elephant in the room it would be impossible to miss so the only way to seem as if its not there is to ignore it which is what the students and teachers done in the school ignored the problems that Alex and Eric had. Panning was also used to show Alex’s room and the drawings on his wall to show he is talented person not just a psychotic kid so the spectator can relate to him and the problems he has so that when he massacres the school it comes as more of a shock.