When Gordy first acknowledges that a train is coming he shouts ‘train’, but when he says this the camera is focused of Gordy’s face and everything is in slow motion making the audience know that there is a lot of action about to take place, which makes the audience far more interested in what is about to happen. When the train is approaching the boys, the camera focuses on Gordy and Vern’s legs, which are running at a steady pace so they don’t fall through the gaps of the slats on the track.
But when the train gets even closer to the boys the camera is still focused on their legs running but, the boys aren’t running at a steady pace any more, they are running as fast as they can in order to save their own lives. This is highly effective because the camera swaps to looking at the boys running to the train catching up the boys several times, making the tension build up even more. The sound during the train scene is used in a very clever way. When the boys are walking along the track approaching the bridge, there is happy, jolly music in the background.
As soon as they are at the edge of the bridge the music fades away into complete silence for a few moments, which shortly after is broken by Teddy saying that he has no fear and he is going to cross the bridge. During the whole bridge scene there are few words spoken by the boys, all the sounds are sound effects. When the boys start to cross the bridge all that is heard are the boy’s footsteps on the wooden slats on the bridge, and wind is also heard. The wind implies that the boys are high above the ground making the tension grow.
Also birds are chirping occasionally, but this brings the effect that they are in wild life and has no dramatic effect of the scene. Before the train arrives at the bridge, the colours are very bright and eye catching, for example the sky is light blue and the trees that that we can see are all very ‘exotic’, being very bright and effective shades of green. The sun is also reflecting off the river, which makes the scene to look very bright, and makes it far more effective than if the weather was ‘dull’ with clouds everywhere.
As the train enters the scene all the colours have changed from bright colours to the dark, dull colours from the train. The train is all black, this makes the scene seem far more dramatic because the cameras are all focused on the train and the boys running, the screen is covered with the blackness of the train. If the screen had some bright colours in it, such as the blue sky then the impact of the train chasing the boys would be no were near as effective at it was, were all the screen was covered by the train.
The smoke coming from the train was dark grey, this made an even bigger impact with the colours because the colours before the train arrived were all bright colours and as soon at the train came along the colours scheme totally change so there were no bright colours to be seen. This changed within seconds of the train been there. Throughout the whole film it shows Gordy to be a very bright and clever boy. When he checks the track by his ears and hands you get the impression that something exciting is about to happen and the tension start to build up.
The tension rises even more when the comb drops out of Vern’s pocket because he is wasting time watching the comb fall to the river. If Vern hadn’t of wasted valuable seconds then Gordy and Vern might have had an easier escape from the train, without it been right behind them. The bit in the scene, which creates the most tension, is the bit were Vern falls over when the train is approaching the boys. This created the most tension because Vern was so scared that he didn’t want to get up, giving his life away in a way but Gordy’s ambition was far from letting his friend die like this.
Gordy helped Vern up and stayed with him right until they got far enough along the bright to jump off were it wasn’t that high and the train flew past them. When Vern is wasting all the time in the bridge scene the viewers immediately think that something bad is about to happen which makes the tension at its highest point. Question: Is the director of stand by me successful in creating tension in the bridge scene? I think the director is very successful in creating tension during the bridge scene. He does it in many of ways, such as, the black train and smoke, Vern wasting time, the sound of only footsteps and no voices etc.
The audience respond really well to this scene, they do this because the tension keeps building up during the start of the scene and finally has enough tension to keep you on the edge of your seat whiles watching the film. When the film starts some people could class it as boring, but as soon as the bridge scene takes place the audience who find it boring begin to enjoy the film. I think that the director was highly successful and made the scene very effective and the tension was abdominal for a film that was made decades ago and captured the audiences’ attention very well.
