The day after (1983)The end of the familiar- the beginning of

the end

director: Nicholas Meyer

My “favourite” scene

• to watch this scene press here

• it ends on 3.27

But my task was not to write about the whole film ( what I wish I could), but to write about my favourite scene in it ( and again, I would like to replace the word favourite to the most impressive one). Why does my “favourite” scene end on 3.27? Because everything what is happening after is too cruel even for non-sensitive people like me.

Well, I can’t say that this is my favourite film. It would be just the wrong word. This is the film, that impressed me. This is the film, that shocked me. This is the film, that covers my body with goosebumps every time when I hear about it. This is the only film that really scares me…

It is about consequences after a Nuclear Attack or, honesty speaking, after a play between two persons in which everyone is a looser. Especially simple people, who suffers mostly.

Critics tended to claim the film was too tame, but still, being directed by Nicholas Meyer, it received twelve Emmy nominations and won two Emmy awards for an Outstanding Film Sound Editing and for an Outstanding Achievement In Special Visual Effects.

Why do I like it?

• The naturalness

• Cleanliness

• Structure

First of all, I must point out again that I don’t like it. I am impressed by it. Why? It shows us peoples reaction to a disaster! It shows us the end of their world and how they are trying to survive. But do they have a chance? Most of them definitely not! And the audience see it and wholly understands… how terrifying is that? So, this piece shows the naturalness of emotions. My second reason is cleanliness of the shots. They are very straight and senseful. The picture explains what it has to, but avoids too much drama. Yes, it is very dramatic scene, but everywhere have to be a measure. People are still hoping and I see it, I understand it, I believe it and I am worry about it. My third point is talking about a film structure, which includes several things like: great use of the sound, camera, different angles, colours and how genius everything is put together! Each movement, gesture, posture, appearances, spatial behaviour… everything what is happening on the screen puts and keeps you under a pressure.

B• The sound

1: The tense silence at the beginning is telling you that something terrible is surely going to happened.2: and this is the one of the most

intimidating moment of the film! The diegetic sound of the emergency siren, which basically means the end. This particular sound will come into your nightmares for sure (at least, in my case)

3: the sounds of fear: screaming, shouting, different illegible words. Their terror fully transmitted to the viewers.

4: how does sound decrease- this sound effect repeats in this film ( maybe not so obviously) many times.

! Reverse zoom here

• But I should tell more about my last point, because, obviously, there is what to pay attention for. Firstly, the great sound work that really adds even more tension to this scene.

• The camera work

1: different shot types: extreme long shots, long shots, areal shots, wide-shots, medium shots, close up shots, short-reverb shots.

2: different uses of angles: high angle( to provide a complete picture of action) , low angle ( so these soaring bombs are seen more clearly).

3: difference editing techniques like: parallel editing= spill screen ( a lot of actions are happening at the same time) eye line match.

4: camera movements: pan ( I noticed that one of them moves from right to the left [1.23] crub, crane, handheld( at the end), zoom/ reverse zoom.

4: all scenes are deep focused and have no obvious transitions, all shots are very straight.

! The colour changes to the red here.

• So what can I say about camera work in this scene? It’s spectacular! I identified a lot of different methods of what I had learned and I want to tell about several of them.