Style

1.Controlled mise-en-shot

M.Night Shyamalan always plays with the camera movement to control the visual that watch by audiences. This technique may create the anxiety feeling from the audiences or it also grabs the attention from them.

Signs - The scene where Graham and his family escape into the basement and the electricity cut off and they have to rely on torchlight, the camera will follows the direction of the torchlight points.

The Village - This method can be seen at the scene where Ivy get chase by the monster in the woods and the camera follows Ivy’s perspective.

The Happening - There’s a scene where the phenomenon happens on traffic and some people start to suicide using a gun, the camera follows the feet of the victims by sequence without showing they pull the trigger.

2.The use of sound

M.Night Shyamalan uses sound to direct the camera movement in order to lead the audience into the situation.

Signs - It happens when Graham and his family hiding inside his house to avoid encountering the aliens. They still can hear the sounds created outside the house and the camera tracks the sound source.

The Village - One part of this technique shown is where Lucious heard something weird near the forest and the camera pan towards where Lucious is looking.

The Happening - Mrs. Jones get affected by the gas and she start banging walls outside the house, camera viewing inside the house n follows the bang sound to the right side.

3.Cameo appearances

M.Night Shyamalan frequently makes cameo appearances in his films.

Signs - He acts as Ray Reddy, a veterinarian the one who cause Graham’s wife dead in a car accident. He appears in several scenes such as he is going back to his car when the Grahams eating pizza inside the restaurant (Fig 3.1).

3.1

The Village - He acts as a guard at desk named Jay. He appears in a grief-counseling clinic reading newspaper (Fig 3.2).

3.2

The Happening - He only did voice over as Joey in this film.

4.Reflected Images & Mirroring Effects

M.Night Shyamalan uses objects such as television, glasses and side car mirror for a swing of dramatic reasons. This is a steady visual motif across M.Night Shyamalan’s trilogy.

Signs - The television reflects the alien when Graham is pulling the television out from the storeroom. Plus, Graham uses the knife to peek inside the pantry and the image reflected on the knife.

The Village - It happen when the ranger who found Ivy is trying to steal medication in the clinic and the reflection occurs on the container’s glass door.

The Happening - The reflection happens on a side mirror of the car where Julian car-pooling to find his wife across Princeton.

5.Flashback Editing

Most of M.Night Shyamalan’s films use flashback as a cue to complete the whole story.

Signs - There’s a lot of flashback of Graham’s wife accident screen pieces by pieces along the film. From start the flashback shows the conversation of Graham with the police until the end the flashback showing his wife is pinned to the tree and leave last word to Graham.

The Village - The flashback happens when Ivy climbing the borders and the scene jump to Edward opens the black wood box to reveal those secrets.