Messing with Layers and Attempting a 'Hitchcock shot'

My initial plan was to matte paint the background of each shot. I rendered the right perspective in Maya in preparation for this but didn't take into consideration how long it'd take me to create a passable painting in Photoshop. Therefore I used the same layers for the wide shot and adjusted them to fit a mid shot (adjusting scale and position). This meant I had to mask and duplicate the camera-pile layers in order to gain more control and create an element of depth.

Since I had created the environment on a number of layers I wanted to experiment with shifting the position of them and faking a zoom effect of sorts. I thought I'd try a 'Hitchcock' type shot as seen below. 

I did this by scaling the foreground environment layers but keeping the background relatively static (along with Jeff). The shift in the movement of these layers is keyed quite slow and seems to lack a fluidity therefore being less effective or believable as a zoom shot. However I still think it adds a sense of unease to the shot and, due to the design of the interior, could also be seen as a 'telescopic' element of the Ship expanding and detracting.

Hopefully with adding sound will add an element of dread. Though I don't think the composition is that effective as a 'Hitchcock' shot it gave me an opportunity to experiment with animating the setting and adds a little bit of diversity to this shot, something which I think I need as I don't have many 'interesting' camera angles or movement in my film.