When watching a film, I am often pulled into its story and plot, paying little attention to the great effort and art that is put into it. I"m sure this is the same case with many people. Little to some of us realize that everything put into a film, down to the smallest shifting of the camera, usually has a meaning. It's the obvious things, as well as the small things that trigger our emotions and this is what makes our movie-going experience so memorable. We may watch a film and like it or hate it, but it is the elements and techniques used that determine how we feel. A great example of how everything seen on the screen has meaning and can trigger our emotions comes from Phillip Noyce's, Rabbit-Proof Fence. .
Set in Australia in 1931, Rabbit-Proof Fence tells the story of a government policy that required children that were half white and half aboriginal to be taken from their homes by authorities to be trained to work as servants for the whites. This is based on a true story about three young girls who decided to escape from this training facility and they used Australia's long stretches of rabbit-proof fences (the longest fence in the world designed to control the rabbit plague) as their guide to make the long journey home. From its mise-en-scene to the brilliant cinematography, the scenes in this film made sure the viewer could share the feelings and the atmosphere that the characters experienced.
After the three young girls had escaped they came across a farmhouse hoping to find some food from a chicken coop. Unlike most of Australia's dry land in this movie, this farm seemed to have very lush vegetation as it was surrounded by acres of soft green grass with green trees to match. As one of the girls walked into the coop very cautiously, the camera shook and followed very closely. This probably happened so that the viewer could feel tense not being able to see if someone was behind them.
