A Scanner Darkly:How did i get here scene.

The very first thing I noticed was the fact that the film had special effects to make the picture cartoon-like. My first thought was that it was made to look like a video game, yet the use of easily recognisable actor Keanu Reeves questioned whether the creators wanted it to represent an alternate reality that the audience could perceive as their own(but with a few changes). The score is the first thing you hear. A slow, continuous hum of a string orchestra that continues throughout the 2 minute scene. This captures the melancholy nature of the scene We first see a run down looking house with low key lighting, and a long shot to establish this. The character walks towards the mirror and a close up of his face looking at himself takes the camera for a few seconds. I feel this represents a contemplation period which begins the exposition of the voiceover. It begins with - ‘Where am I?’ By tracking the character with the camera shows the transition into the dream world - The low key light house pans and fades into the high key lighting of a tidy family home. the sinister music is accompanied by simple scales on a xylophone. The fact that the sinister music continues suggests that this is not only a figment of his imagination, but foreshadows that aspects of the grotty reality may seep through into this pure dreamworld. All shots are neutral mid shots indicating peace and calm - until the character hits his head and there is a close up of the blood on his hand.at the same time that the voiceover begins again - ‘The pain’. I feel that this indicates the association between reality and pain, as the voiceover only ever speaks in the reality section. The blood on his hand represents going back to reality. The character begins to list the things he hates within his dream-life: mise-en-scène is important here as he describes the yard as it pans across the stereotypical American ideal garden with a swing set and perfect grass. Pan and zoom (along with a sinister eerie choir noise) on the yard, house and lawnmower indicates That these otherwise inanimate objects pose some kind of threat or are seen as incredibly negative objects to the character specifically due to it bing in HIS dream world. It reverts back to reality with an abrupt - ‘It had to end’ While he says this, he stares at his hand quizzically, in the same way he looks at himself at the beginning. This evokes the though that the scene describes an inner character conflict between the personality in is head and the personality he is. Back lighting creates a silhouette as he walks towards the back yard and the music is getting louder and broader. This makes me think something terrible is about to happen due to the sinister phrases he says: ‘Dark world where i toil’ ‘ugly things and surprising things’ ‘i can count on nothing’. A single viola becomes louder and the scene ends with him looking at his previously ‘perfect’ garden which now has what appears to be 3 mentally unstable people hanging from a tree, holding their head, and wielding a gun. I feel that this represents what he mentioned he had to go through in order to not have to live like he used to, with his family that he ‘hated’.

*I've never seen this film other than this scene*