...costume, lighting, framing, photographic aspects, characters, editing, and cuts of the shot. Together these specific fundamental elements partake in the films that we watch providing dimension, mood, and style. The Big Combo is the epitome of film noir. Film noir’s visual style conceives a mood in a film with instability, double identities, and somewhat shifting values by using it’s techniques of darkness in shadows and night time scenes. In The Big Combo the main characters seem to have double identities “shadowed” upon them throughout the movie through silhouettes, shadows, and reflections, and not only do they have these double identities through mise-en-scene but also in the narrative. In the opening hospital sequence in The Big Combo, just as detective Diamond comes up the stairs and through the door we have a horizontal angle very slightly looking up (a low angle) into the hallway. As detective Diamond steps into the door past the officer the camera angle stays the same, both Mr. Diamond and the standing officer are in medium long shot. With the medium long shot we are able to make out the two nurses and reception desk in the back. In the hallway of the hospital the high-key lighting makes the contrast between the dark and lighter areas somewhat minimal but still noticeable. The two nurses in the back are standing in what seems to appear as a strong backlighting; in the medium long shot the nurses have attached shadows among them stretching down the floor of the hallway...
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...Billy Elliot Analysis template |Description of scene: Opening scene: Mood, direction of plot and characterisation is established. | |Scene numbers: One, two, three | |Link to Into the World focus: Billy’s natural world is established | |Action |Film techniques used |Meaning conveyed | |Billy puts record onto record player. He |Extreme close up. There is no sound. |There is a sense of anticipation. The | |begins playing the song. |Costume: Billy is dressed simply, |audience is waiting for something to happen| |( to 1 min; 14 secs) |predominately in a bright yellow singlet. |and wondering what it will be. | | |The singlet symbolises both childhood | | | |(children wear singlets) and his working | | | |class background (‘working class’ men | | | |stereotypically wear singlets). It is also | ...
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...Threshold Of Revelation By Christopher A. Johnson Scene 1 FADE IN on a long shot of New York City, approaching from the south. It is dusk, and the lights of the city are beginning to twinkle against the backdrop of the vibrant city. Quick cuts to street level scenes of well-known locales between title cards naming the cast. These scenes and title cards are cut with a moving shot of the George Washington Bridge (span, cables, deck, towers, etc.) from different angles and perspectives. . The credits end on one continuous shot as we approach a figure standing on the south side of the bridge, staring out over the Hudson River and the lights of Manhattan to the south. This is DECKER JONAS. He is tall and striking, wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and a hoodie. The camera then circles behind Decker going from left to right, catching Deckers view of the city at sunset. As the camera completes its half circle to the right and comes to a complete stop at DECKER’S ¾ profile we see he is holding a piece of paper, it is folded, he unfolds the paper and begins to read, a voice over begins. It is Decker’s voice. DECKER: Mom. Dad. I feel as though I’m losing myself again. [ 1. PAN to OS Right showing the letter] I know I am. I can feel life spinning away from me, and this time I have nothing to hold on to. Its as though I’m on one of those tacky carnival rides that Dad would take me on at Edgewater Days when I was a kid, although now he’s not there to hold...
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...How far do the narratives of love actually and notting hill communicate similar values and messages 40 marks 50 mins exam Love actually is a film directed by Richard Curtis and is a Working Title film, released in 2003 and is presented as a romantic comedy. The film is set in London and follows a period of five weeks and outlines the story of eight, intertwined people and aims predominantly to explore the complexities and importance of the most important emotion of all: love. Some of the characters touched upon in this film are David (Hugh Grant), the classically attractive newly elected Prime Minister, who controversially finds himself falling for his newly appointed young maid Natalie (Marine McCutcheon). Mark (Andrew Lincoln), a dedicated photographer who falls in love with his best friends newly wedded wife Juliet (Keira Knightly), who takes no interest in him and Harry (Alan Rickman), a married man tempted by his attractive new secretary. Similarly NottingHill is also a Working Title film presented as a romantic comedy, released four years earlier in 1999 however. This film is also set in London, with much of the same cast being used, however this film is centred around the story of two characters love in particular, not focusing on every other story line within. The pair of lovers focused on in this film are William (Hugh Grant) and Anna Scott (Julia Roberts), who find it increasingly difficult to form and maintain a relationship due to such a difference in their lifestyles;...
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...Design Elements: Set it Off ENG 225 Design Elements: Set it Off From the beginning films have helped pinpoint different elements of design. Through these elements, both film critics and viewers have been able to identify with what the director is trying to convey. According to this week’s assignment, we are to choose a scene from movieclips.com and in a three to five page paper, analyze the mise-en-scène through the elements of design. This leads me to my chosen film, Set it Off. This movie is formed around an extreme bank robbery in which reveals the dwells upon the lives of four women. This film takes place the streets of Southern California and helps give inside as to how these women do any and everything just to get by and make it on their own. Because tragedy and poverty strikes the women’s’ lives, they matters into their own hands and turn to robbing banks to make an escape from the city and lifestyle they have been surrounded by for years. The key actors in Set it Off are the following: Queen Latifah played as Cleopatra Sims (Cleo), Vivica Fox played as Francesca Sutton (Frankie), Jada Pinkett played as Lida Newsom (Stony), and Kimberly Elise played as Tisean Williams (T.T). These four childhood friends felt that the series of unfortunate events that have constantly occurred in their lives were just enough to push them over the edge and into the world of bank robbery (Polluck & Gray, 1996). This story is set to touch those who have been...
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...Sequence Analysis Work Sheet NARRATIVE 1. Describe briefly what you see in the selected sequence. I saw Clarice trying to get the name of the killer from Hannibal while he distracts her by asking about her painful experience as a child. In which he pries from her the secret to why she left her extended families house and got placed in foster care. This is an eerie scene. 2. What is the filmmaker trying to communicate in this segment? He is trying to communicate the fear that Clarice is feeling while she is still trying to hold on to control and retrieve the information they need to catch the killer. He also portrays the confidence and arrogance that Hannibal feels through the sequence of close up face shots in which Hannibal is seen as wild and in control at the same time. He wants the audience to feel Clarice’s fear and see Hannibal’s dark side. 3. How do the five channels of information in film--visual image, print, speech, music, sound effects---work together to communicate the message? Which channel is dominant in this segment? They work together to create an almost creepy atmosphere in which the viewer can feel Clarice’s fear and worries as well as Hannibal’s curiosity to her present situation. The dark eerie music and the sound of the lambs allow the viewer to feel more involved in Clarice’s dark position. 4. Try to determine what function and significance this segment has for the film as a whole and your understanding of it (foreshadowing, climax...
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...Flowers in the Attic Wendy Lupton ENG 225 Introduction to Film Jonathan Beller March 25, 2012 Flowers in the Attic Introduction The movie in this essay will be on the 1987 movie the Flowers in the Attic by Jeffrey Bloom. It is a movie where you will feel very suspenseful with all the drama that is happening to the children and what their mother does to stop it. Their grandmother treat’s them very awful when their mother is not home. Storytelling The story of the Flowers in the Attic is four children that fight to survive when slowly forgotten about by their mother played by Victoria Tennant. The mother of four children, who loses her husband and father of the kids, returns to her mother’s mysterious family mansion hoping to regain the love from her father to receive an inheritance. But when the children are imprisoned and abandoned by their evil grandmother, the children must find a way to survive a nightmare of brutal cruelty, forbidden passion and final shocking discovery that will shatter their innocence forever. The children consist of Chris, Cathy, and the two younger children, Cory and Carrie. Little do the children know, their mother has essentially given them over to their abusive, religiously-fanatical grandmother (played by Oscar winner Louise Fletcher), and they are locked away in the attic and kept there, while their health deteriorates and they are abused constantly. All the while, their evil mother conspires to receive the inheritance from her...
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...movements in the frame. Shot Types The amount of visual information included in the image depends on the distance of the camera from the action and on the focal length of the camera lens. Throughout the history of cinema, filmmakers have favored certain combinations of camera distance and focal length, or shot types. * Extreme long shot: Captures a scene in its entirety; used for establishing location in exterior shots. Used frequently in epic genres such as westerns and war films, it reduces human beings to mere dots on the screen. * Long shot: Accommodates at least the entire bodies of figures (if that is all the shot includes, it is called a full shot). Captures movement, background, and broad gestures and expressions. * Medium shot: Contains a figure from the waist or knees up. It is a functional shot, favored in classical Hollywood editing, often used for scenes with dialogue. * Close-up: Includes very little if any background, concentrating on an object or, if an extreme close-up, a fragment of an object, such as the human face. Close-ups often accord great significance and symbolic value to the objects they portray. * Deep focus shot: A variation of the long shot that keeps objects in the foreground, middle ground, and background in focus all at once. Realist filmmakers favor it because it preserves spatial unity and lets the viewer scan the image for meaning. * Shot-reverse shot and over-the-shoulder: Two types of shots used during dialogue scenes...
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...his relationships with Madeleine, who is the wife of Scottie’s class mate Gavin Elster, and Midge, Scottie’s old college friend. Hitchcock uses camera work such as profile shots of Madeleine and full shots of Midge to emphasize on the fact that even though one is secretive, she dictates the main character while the other is like an open book, yet she has no genuine power over him. Madeleine is beautiful and a glamorous woman who comes from a wealthy background. Scottie becomes attracted to her in the very first scene at Ernie’s restaurant. He watches her as she sits and walks out elegantly, while he is sitting in one corner. Hitchcock captures the scene with by taking a tracking shot of the restaurant to give the viewers the feeling of the romantic ambience. The tracking shot zooms out of Scottie to the other side of the room on Madeleine, whose back is facing the camera. This suggests that Hitchcock wants to continue with the theme of suspense throughout the movie, which is why he first takes shots of Madeleine’s back to the camera, followed by the profile shot from a distance. The profile shot is marked by a wooden doorway that frames Madeleine as if she is in the spot light, which she is for Scottie. The camera then zooms in for a close up shot of Madeleine’s profile. The sharp feature of the profile shot highlights her beauty and suggests that there is a mysterious side to her because of which Scottie has fallen in love with. In contrast, Midge is portrayed as being simple...
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...camera angle/movements and editing techniques, in order to capture the characters' motifs, expressions and esteem. The coming of age is a significant message conveyed in the film Stand By Me. This is scrutinized through the young boys Chris, Gordie, Teddy and Vern. This climax-near end scene is the convergence of the 'gangs' , where the two gangs are on the site of Ray Brower's body, a boy who was hit by a train. The scene between Ace, Chris and Gordie is imperative as it creates suspense, accumulated by the high-pitched diagetic sound of a violin, and has also transformed the rites of passage of each character. A diagetic sound of a gun blast was emit in the scene, and the camera cuts to a close up shot of Gordie holding a gun - "I'll kill you, I swear to God". This close up shot of Gordie holding a gun enforces that Gordie has purged himself of all child-like innocence and gullibility. Gordie and Chris have entered a new and...
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...city on its side. There is a large mansion built upon it. The dim lighting gives off a creepy, unapproachable vibe. There is a long shot with a dark tone. The music is eerie and is like a warning to stay away from the mansion. 2: A close shot of the mansion shows that the building is not completed. There is still dark lighting except the glow from the windows. Dark tone, long shot. The foreboding music continues. 3: Zooms into a close up of a lady completing a puzzle, she turns to look at the voice calling out to her. Her clothing suggests she is wealthy. Low lighting, medium tone, with a glossy quality. 4: A man walks into the room to converse with the woman. Low lighting makes it hard to make out the set, besides the various statues. Long shot with a dark tone and high contrast. 5: Medium long shot not a very high tone, glossy. You can make out the woman’s details better. 6: The camera returns to the man who walks towards the woman. You can see more of the mansion as he moves. The man and woman talk about a trip to New York. He walks from low lighting to the medium lighting of the woman can see him better. There are many statues in the house, giving off a vibe of wealth. Long shot dark tone with high contrast. 7: The woman is still doing her puzzle. There is low lighting and you can see the expensive jewelry she is wearing. Close up shot, even contrast glossy. As the time slowly passes you can only hear the rhythmic ticking of the clock. The puzzle progresses. 8:...
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...typically captures events as they happen, similar to how a person would view the events in real life. The portrayal should be depicted with a minimum of distortion. Realism attempts to preserve the idea that the world of film is unaltered, as if viewing the world through a window. A documentary film is an example of extreme realism. The style of formalism shows scenes as they can be imagined. They’re deliberately stylized and / or distorted using methods such as slow motion or adding colors into scenes. For example, in Shcindler’s List, a scene is shot in black and white except for a little girls red jacket. The viewer is forced to watch this little girl because we assume that she is important since she is the only color in a washed out scene. Formalism depicts scenes in a way that a person can not see with the eye in real life. Avant garde films are an example of extreme formalism. In the movie The Matrix, color, shots, and angles are used to illustrate the idea of formalism. Throughout the movie, color is used to add depth and help establish the mood in the scene. In all of the scenes inside the matrix a lens filter is used to cast the scene in a green tint reminiscent of the green numbers of the matrix code. In all of the scenes in the real world there is an overwhelming bluish tint. The color blue depicts the feeling of a cold and depressing world, since in this real world the humans destroyed the skies. In...
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...scenes that must be mentioned is when Emmy’s guests are toasting to Uncle Charlie, which is considered as one of the most important scenes as it helps to put an end to the long-term drama of the Uncle. This analysis will provide insightful ideas about the movements and the framings of camera and its uses in conveying the messages, the thoughts of characters as well as the director and making the audiences live in the film’s atmosphere. The movie is about a young girl named Charlie (ACTOR)who always feels bored and not quite happy about life. One day, Uncle Charlie (ACTOR) (who is her mother’s brother and who she is named after) comes all the long way from Santa Rosa, California to visit. Behind his elegant, gentle cover is a killer who has taken lives and assets of three rich widows. Out of the blue, the young niece who loves her uncle so much discovers the truth, but hesitates to disclose it since she is afraid that her mother would not be able to bear the news. The drama hits its peak when the Uncle is hell-bent on killing his beloved niece to conceal his sins. The scene begins with the close-up image of Uncle Charlie passing glasses of wine to Herbert and from Herbert to two other people. Simultaneously he throws his glance to Mrs. Potter who is already looking at him with admiration. This shot reminds the audiences of Uncle Charlie’s past with a lot of affairs with rich widows and he is a serial killer, the drinks will...
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...psychological thriller that focuses on our main character “Teddy”. Portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio, our protagonist believes he is a U.S. Marshal who is headed to a remote island, which houses an asylum for the criminally insane, to investigate the disappearance of one of their patients. The harsh reality is that “Teddy” is one of those patients, and the opening scene sets the tone for what is to follow. The opening scene starts with a greyish screen and only the diegetic sound of the waves, symbolizing perhaps being lost at sea with nothing but water surrounding you. We then hear the horn of a ship, followed by a long shot of the ship taking shape as it emerges from the fog. At the front of the ship we see a person standing alone facing the direction the ship is heading. This symbolizes that whomever it is, they are gaining clarity of what is to come. Cut to a medium shot, showing the interior of the boat where we see someone leaning over a toilet and hear them throwing up, meanwhile we also hear the rustling of the chains shown hanging in the forefront. Cut to an extreme close up of our main character looking into the mirror and saying to himself “pull yourself together Teddy, pull yourself together.” This scene wreaks of split personality disorder. This could have a parallel meaning that while “Teddy” is fighting with himself to regain control, it is making him sick. The use of the extreme close up is to give the audience a first person view and help them feel what he is feeling...
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...himself strands on a small isolated island. He has all the time to figure out how to survive. In the film we can see the use of visual techniques in showing changes of the main character. Camera shots are used to demonstrate different aspects of character. A wide shot is used after the plane crushes, When chuck was struggling on the yellow life raft floating alone in the big ocean and at that time the weather was bad, heavily raining. This is shows us how small and how powerless he is. The director also uses a when shot when Chuck first arrive the island to show a empty place with no life, no ship and no technology so this means he has to finds water, food shelter and a way to prevent himself from being destroyed by loneliness. Another camera shot that the director uses is close up shots. The close up shots are focusing on his face and hand when he was making a fire to show us that it is huge progress from him because we can see he bites his lip, grills his teeth and there are some sweat on his face. He is concentrating very hard. There are other close up focused on his hand when he used his finger to draw eyes, nose and mouth and gives it a name ‘Wilson’ He shares his feelings with it. This is significant as the volleyball becomes his companion. The most important close up shot is focused on the pocket watch. The director was to represent to us that it is a symbol of Chuck’s love for Kelly even though it is broken but it is still important for him because it has Kelly’s photo...
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