One of the first things you'll notice about the film is the odd coloring throughout the whole motion picture. Within the multiple worlds, they use tints to evoke certain emotions and moods, while at the same time establishing a setting.
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As you can tell from the images above taken from the movie, the Matrix has a heavy green tint throughout the film to add an electronic and virtual feeling to match the ever-so apparent theme of technology throughout the film.
The technological and conspiracy themes that underlay this movie were very relevant to the time it was made and released. Around the turn of the new century there was a heavy amount of paranoia centering around Y2K and the end of the world. With all this going on, the release of the Matrix was perfect and intrigued viewers everywhere. Accompanied by the stress of Y2K, computers were still a fairly new household item. Around the time the Matrix was released, household computers were just becoming a prominent item.
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Many scenes within the matrix utilized specialized camera angles to evoke emotions from the audience, and to give them perspective as to what the character in the film was experiencing at that time. Toward the beginning of the movie when Neo first receives contact from Morpheus, there is a very suspenseful sequence that takes place. As Morpheus is instructing Neo throughout the office they use crafty camera angles to reveal the struggle that Neo is going through with the agents.
First when he is informed about the agents, Neo peers above his cubicle and the camera cuts to shot directly from his perspective.
Then the camera cuts back and forth between Neo on the phone and the agents walking toward his cubicle to build up suspense while also portraying how short of time Neo has to make a decision and take action towards evading the villainous agents.
After Neo crosses from his cubicle to the empty one next to his the camera uses a creative shot from Neo's perspective to show how close he is to the agents, who are now searching his cubicle for him. Which ultimately proves that, as Morpheus suggested, the agents truly are, in fact, there for Neo.
Once Neo escapes the cubicle area, it is revealed that the only way out of the building is by climbing out the window and on to some scaffolding. To give a glimpse as to what is running through Neo's mind, the camera cuts to a facing down shot from the window Neo is being asked to climb out of. Shortly after looking down he gets discouraged, and the audience can empathize with his hesitence due to the shot from his perspective.
Works Cited
The Matrix. Dir. Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski (credited as Lawrence Wachowski). 1999. Warner Home Video. DVD.
Barsam, Richard. Looking At Movies: Fourth Edition. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 2013
(All the pictures analyzing the 'office scene' I just took screenshots from the movie itself on my computer)
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