ABSTRACT
Selective focus can help visualize a character's emotional or psychological connection to a physical space, by varying the degree of blurriness used to show it during key moments of a story. One could even show a change in the way a character feels about a place by gradually adjusting the degree of blurriness used to show it, from completely out of focus to tack sharp or vice versa, as long as these looks are applied only in situations that support the meanings assigned to them within the film’s image system. Elephant , director Gus Van Sant’s unsettling drama about a group of high school students in the hours leading up to a shooting spree by two bullied teenagers, features a thoughtful use of selective focus to convey the differing ways they feel about and deal with the social rituals of adolescence while at school.
