In 'The Third Man' sewer scene, how is claustrophobia and disorientation created?

Brief summary of The Third Man
The Third Man is a great example of a Noir film. It characterises all that is Noir with the stereotypical shadows, the dark story line, and so on. The plot to The Third Man is:
'An out of work pulp fiction novelist, Holly Martins, arrives in a post war Vienna divided into sectors by the victorious allies and where a shortage of supplies has lead to a flourishing black market. He arrives at the invitation of an ex-school friend, Harry Lime, who has offered him a job, only to discover that Lime has recently died in a peculiar traffic accident. From talking to Lime's friends and associates Martins soon notices that some of the stories are inconsistent, and determines to discover what really happened to Harry Lime.'  With actors such as: Joseph Cotten, Orson Welles and Alida Valli and a director of Carol Reed, it has a famous cast, making the film a popular success.

There are six different aspects in which the techniques can be categorised into, these are: sound, location, lighting, editing, camera and action. It's with these different aspects in which the atmosphere is dramatically controlled, and therefore can project the feeling of claustrophobia and disorientation towards the viewer. 
Below is the full video of the sewer scene taken from 'The Third Man': 

Sound
Sound is a very key aspect to the claustrophobia/disorientation effects that are being made in this scene. Sounds are constantly around us, and in this movie the dramatic extent to which they use this technique is to quite a phenomenon. The different sounds that we can distinguish from the clip are:

• water running
• banging/echoed voices
• wind
• feet pounding on the floor
• German/English accents

For a first, when within the tunnel, the constant sounds of the crashing water from the waterfall surrounds the scene and over powers all other noises. Claustrophobia is created using this technique as the characters are metaphorically trapped by the sounds constantly around them, echoing off the not so distant walls, whilst creating the realism that running away from the sound is much more difficult than running from each other. This also accounts for disorientation as Harry (the man running from all the police) can't distinguish the water running to the men's voices, to the feet running with the water being so loud it drowns out the more important sounds that are more vital to his escape.
Disorientation is also made by the different accents being used. On the outside of the tunnel we here distinct German accents, calling for the police to go into different entrances to the sewers and then on the inside of the tunnels we here English accents. This contrast in different languages is enough to disorientate any normal person in a perfectly simple situation, so when you put the cross of dialect to a man running from police in a completely unknown setting? Then disorientation is quite obvious.

There is a great extract from the clip where Harry is near to freedom and his hand is stretching out from the drane. Here, all the other noises are cut from the scene and just the sound of wind blowing on his fingers is left lingering in the scene. This gives a sense of freedom to the character, although this freedom is short circuited . However, still enforcing the claustrophobia concept as his fingers are being squeezed through such a small space and such little of his fingers are being shown making it a very tight shot and the feeling of being very enclosed.

Another great extract from the scene is where harry is in the middle of the tunnel and is surrounded by different openings, one of which will be sure to lead him to freedom, however sounds are coming from every direction of people shouting and running and talking that either entrance could lead to a fatal disaster. Referring back to the video, this can be scene at the time of 6:19 minutes - 6:48 minutes. This is disorientating in itself, as each entrance brings another voice, as well as another accent, and of which entrance it's even coming from he's unsure of. The thought of the voices closing in on him also can bring about the claustrophobia concept.

Editing
Editing helps with the disorientating of the characters with the scene mentioned above in the sound section. Through the time of 6:19 minutes and 6:48 minutes the editing of the film helps to create the illusion that all of these people are saying these different things through different openings, making disorientation a key aspect.
Also, the constant changing of overground to underground shots makes the whole scene contrast. By showing the overground scene as very open and free, when they cut to the underground scene everything becomes a lot more enclosed and inevitable. 

Camera
The use of different angles and shot types within this sequence leads to a most intriguing sight. the first technique i'm going to be focusing on is the use of tight shots. All through the clip we see multiple characters in tight spaces, as the camera focuses in and makes everything seem claustrophobic. 

Above are a few examples of the tight shot I mentioned. In nearly all of these shots they are using a close up or mid shot. This in itself is used to show emotional responses, and in this situation using a mid shot just enhances the panic harry feels and the urgency the policeman feel to try and get this man. However, in the bottom left hand corner, they don't use a mid shot but yet use a long shot. Even though it's shot from further away it still gives the feeling of entrapment as it's only given a little space for the character to be seen in. This gives a sense of little space in the setting, enhancing the whole claustrophobia effect.

The next technique I'm drawing focus to is the movement of the camera. Throughout the scene the camera doesn't actually move, but stays still for the most of it. This allows the characters to run in and out of the shot. This doesn't create an effect of claustrophobia as such, but can make the viewer disorientated as we will see one group of policeman running in and out of the shot, to another group of policeman doing the same etc. and it may be hard to keep up with who we are watching, and in which direction they're all going. However, the camera does move at certain points, a rather abstract shot that is used is when Harry jumps onto a ladder. Here, they shoot it from almost a worms eye view and make a semi circle motion, swooping underneath him as he jumps onto the ladder. Almost imitating his movement with the camera. This is a very odd shot to use, however works fantastically with the disorientation concept as we're so used to the camera action being still and non-moving (well, with the odd slight movement) that when this is shown, the viewers are left baffled.

Another type of shot they use is a tilted shot. To the left is an example from the sequence. As you can see they used the tilted shot only so slightly, not enough for you to notice that something is somehow awkward about the setting, but enough for it to look unusual. With this slight tilt, it makes the shot disorientated in itself, and complimented with all the confusion of the action in which this shot is sandwiched with, disorientation is a major factor. 



Action
Throughout the sequence, the feeling that there is a lot going on all at once comes across very strongly. However, action wise? There really isn't much in variety to comment about. Although! It isn't about quantity, it's about quality and this video is packed with it! The main actions that we see throughout are:

• Running
• Shooting
• Searching
• Stopping and breathing

Although minimum amount of actions are used, they are used quite effectively. To create disorientation within the scene entrapment is used, this sense of trying to find a way of escaping and at each turn there seems to be less hope. Also, the aspect of trying to escape helps with the claustrophobia. For, to see a man constantly searching, in what seems to be such an open wide space can make it seem very small.
The searching of the character Harry compliments the action of the running, enhancing the agitated state in which the police and detective seem to be in not being able to find this one man among nearly a hundred policeman. As well as enhancing the disorientation, we can also use the searching action to compliment the claustrophobia effect. Elaborating on this idea, by using a lot of characters to search for one creates this image of lots of people in small spaces, therefore creating a claustrophobic effect.

 Lighting

Due to this being a noir style film, we can tell instantly that lighting will have a fantastic effect on the mood/atmosphere of the scene and ultimately adding to the disorientation/claustrophobia affects I'm discussing. First we notice that a lot of artificial light is being used from the torches of the policemen. This luminates a specific spot in the scene making the image seem fragmented and therefore disorientated. This effect can also make the illuminated image seem enclosed and quite tight, bringing in also the claustrophobia effect. An example of this is shown on the right. Here, we can see the flash light acts as a vanishing point, allowing us only to see the edges of the tunnel around the shaft of light that is at the opening of the tunnel. This makes the scene seem very claustrophobic as we can't see the whole surroundings, putting us out of our comfort zones. The aspect of the darkness makes our eyes strain, also putting us outside our comfort zone and therefore making us more disorientated as we try to focus on images in the dark.

Dark/dim lighting surrounds the images all the way through the sequence, creating dark shadows across the tunnel walls from the characters as well as shadows across the characters faces. In relevance to the shadows across the characters faces, this creates moral ambiguity within the scene as well as helping to disorientate us into who the character is. The deep/dark lighting (as well as being a key noir feature) makes us disorientated as our eyes are not capable of adjusting fast in the dark as quite obviously we live in the light of day, therefore (as mentioned above) the usage of the dark lighting and dark shadows confuses our eyes as we try to adjust. 

Above are some great examples of the use of shadows and lighting to create more of a claustrophobic state than disorientation. In the bottom two, we see the shadows line the walls of the tunnels only allowing us to see parts of the tunnel. This is claustrophobic as it gives a sense as in the walls may be closing in or getting smaller due to the lack of sight with them. In the middle picture on the top row, disorientation takes place as we're shown a shadow however we have no body to match it with, therefore it could be that of a policeman's, harry's etc.

Location

Finally, we come to the location/setting of the whole sequence. There are only two locations used, and these are: underground and overground. In the overground scenes we see the city life: the busy buildings, cars moving everywhere. To the contrast of the underground scene: the sewers, tunnels, water running etc. The switch from the open air and the freedom of being overground makes the sewers seem much more closed and trapped, really putting into place the claustrophobia. 

From left to right: Overground, Underground