PROPS- The Key.
Ofelia's Book.The
timer. The watch.
They all play a significant part in the film. Examples -
Key - represents the key, she
gets from the Toad and the
store room door key.
The Watch- Vidal's father smashed his watch so
he knew the exact moment he died, which in this
film Vidal has a watch so passing on the trait.
SETTING- There are two main settings
within this film. One being the real
world and the other being the fantasy
world. Real world contains such areas
like the forest, Vidal's house. Fantasy
world contains areas like the tree, the
labyrinth.
COSTUME- Mercedes. She is
represented with the costumes
being, rugged, dull. She wears lots
of brown.
Ofelia. she has her nice green dress
which was given to her by her
mother. But normally she wear's
and is dressed in earthy and dull
dresses. Some of the clothes she
wears are often similar to her
mothers.
Vidal. He wears his
Captain's uniform,
which as the film
progresses it is a
different colour, at the
start it is blue, middle it
is green and then at the
end he is just in a top to
show the struggles he
has been through along
the way.
MAKEUP- Carmen wears makeup when
she starts to get ill so this represents that
she is still trying to live up to what Vidal
wants her to be like even though she is ill
as she is the lesser character and he is the
dominant one.
There also are other elements of makeup used, for example.
When Vidal holds his dinner party, we see two upper-class
women, wearing jewellery and posh clothing which also is
combined with makeup to add to their appearance and the way
we are shown them as being a different class to the other people
in the scene, as an example comparing them to Carmen - the
mother.
STAGING- proxemics, Ofelia is always close to her
mother than the army. She is mostly shown closer
to the Faun than Captain Vidal too, this shows the
relationships between them and how she prefers
the fantasy world figure of the Faun to her
stepfather.
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Eye level matches for Ofelia. Showing her relationships with the
characters, for example her and her mother Carmen are an eye
level match, where as her and Vidal's representation through
camera is from a high angle to show the different level of authority
and that he is more dominant.
First time we meet Captain Vidal is shown by his watch which
symbolises his father's watch wehm he died.This also suggests
his punctilious personality.
Two shot= Carmen and ofelia
to show the mother and
daughter realtionship
We meet the Faun in the Labyrinth as a
close up zooming out, we see him a lot in two shots with Ofelia.
SOUND
LEITMOTIF- There is a leitmotif in this film of the
lullaby, this is with the character Ofelia which occurs
when things happen to her. It is placed at the start
of the film when we see ofelia dying and then at the
end when she actually dies. Also at other moments
like when her brother is born
NON DIEGETIC - Narration at the start, telling us about the
parallel worlds,it is told in a fairy-tale style voice. This
impacts the story by us being aware of the things that could
occur in the film and by it being told in this style it gets us as
the audience engaged.
The ‘fairy’ that is Ofelia's guide through the Labyrinth continuously sounds like the insect it
originally appears as (its change in shape appears purely a way to reassure Ofelia after scaring her
in the dark, for she already knows it’s true nature) and it makes mouse-like sounds when it
communicates with the faun, while the faun itself has an overall sound built of the sound of lions
and creaking wood beneath its ‘human’ voice.
Pale man scene - when the pale man is
awakening, his hands, each finger at a time
are tapped on the table, creating suspense
and horror thrill to this scene as we know
that he is
The timer in the pale man scene also creates tension as the time is ticking
meaning time is running out and so is presented as a close up and then we learn
that ofelia will run out of time
Sound is mostly created by
objects in this film which
effectively would show the
different worlds.
EDITING
Conventional editing, cross dissolves to and
from black showing the link between the real
and fantasy world.
Real world - is given a blue/green colour to also show the difference
and the connotations are to show, cold and bitter environment and
that its real by the green connoting the earth which represents the
forest and is used in the clothes the real people wear.
Fantasy world - is given a yellow and golden colour
to show the difference between the two world and
these colours would represent like heaven and the
under world