Sunrise - J. Miley

This particularly screenshot is, obviously, extremely dark. The brightest parts of the image are the moon, the reeds, and the Woman form the City’s face. But in contrast, the Woman’s face is far darker than the moon. I think this is significant. The moon is not a great source of light (things are often distorted in its light) but despite the fact that the Woman is much closer than the moon, it far outshines her, showing how dark (i.e. evil) she is.

Despite how dark the shot is, I would not say that it is high contrast. It differently does not have the extreme contrast of the following image. The swamp scene has much lower key lighting.

I like how the Woman from the City almost blends into the background. It further lends to that vampiric quality that she has (this is in addition to that fact that she only meets with the Man at night and even the position in which they kiss is not to far removed from the way a vampire drinks blood).

The shot is a medium-shot with an obvious void to the left of the Woman, this emphasizes the fact that she is waiting. You do not have to see her face or body language to understand that she is waiting to the meet with the Man as the specific shot is even waiting for the man to fill the empty space.

I think these three elements (how dark the scene is set, how the Woman blends with the background, and the empty space) are the most important elements of this shot because even still, they help tell the story. They not only give you insight into the Woman’s character, it shows you the darkness that is predominant in the first act and gets you ready for the Man’s entrance.