Scenes from Sweeney Todd

Opening Scene 

• Opening Scene 
• Everything is black and white except for the blood dripping through which is bright red
• close up shots, if we want to get away from the gritty bits we can’t because we are right close up
• It’s not as scary if the music is taken away, the music makes us uncomfortable.
• Vibrant color for the flashback, there is a juxtaposition between him singing and the flashback. The music. We can see it didn’t last as he uses past tense as he sings about barker, his old life doesn’t exist anymore. Something sinister is going to happen between him and his wife. His singing sounds like sorrow.
• Two different names for the same person, barker and todd, we can tell the difference between the names with the lives they come with, Braker is happy with a wife and kid, this is where bright colours are used to show that he is happy and flowers everywhere, wearing brown which is softer than black and she is in white as well as the baby, while Todd, has pale skin with dark eyes, looks unhappy and the colours are dull, he wears black which is harsh.
• Throughout the film, his dark eyes and pale face gets worse and worse because he becomes more and more obsessed with revenge.
• White streak in his hair can be shown as a scar, the past has scared him, and he carries the scar around with him for life and is driven by his past and doesn’t take notice to the things around him
• Light and dark shadows, makes his eyes look darker and they are shadowed

Joanna bird scene

• Reminds of us the witch from sleepy hollow
• The feeling of being trapped, physically as she is trapped inside the house, She is in a very small room, windows look like cages as Joanna and Todd are both trapped behind windows, while Sweeney Todd is trapped mentally, but is still represented by the barber shop window
• Singing about a bird stuck in a cage, she is singing very cheapy like a bird, she is the bird herself. The bird is trapped inside a cage and can never get to its full potential as its stuck just like her.
• In a dress, looks beautiful

Looking into a smashed window

• To show that he himself is broken
• He always comes back to looking into this smashed mirror
• He is broken by his past and needs for revenge

Judge vs Todd

• The song is happy but something bad is about to happen.
• We can see his whole self in a mirror, this is because he is about to fulfill his goal of killing the judge, so he is his full self.
• We are expecting todd to kill him right now, suspense and tension are being built up during as the scene goes on.
• Todd’s facial expressions don’t match what he has against the guy
• Singing to his blades that their purpose is now being fulfilled
• Makes s uncomfortable as the blade is so close to his neck and the sound of the blade scrapping his neck
• Birdseye view is also knowing as gods eye, offering this view makes us sure that he is about to reach his hand over and slit his throat, continues to build tension.
• The music got very very fast at the moment he was about to finish it, then it stops and reality comes in.
• The whole scene just causes suspense, our ideas are defined by the camera shots and sounds 

Alone in the attic, building the chair 

• Black and white pictures of his family, overtaken by revenge mean no more colored flashbacks, The past becomes blurry for him because of his focus for revenge and his past he can no longer look at it as a happy place with lots of colors 
• Camera shot behind a part of the chair signified him trapped behind his revenge, A bird in a cage again. 
• Sinister music 
• Looking angry and determined
• The storm is coming in as he finishes the chair, an external storm means an internal conflict or anger 
• Lots of close up shots