In the social commentary ‘In Time’ by Andrew Niccol, humans stop ageing at 25, but there’s a catch; they’re genetically engineered to live only one more year unless they can buy their way out of it. The wealthy earn decades at a time, becoming essentially immortal, whereas, the poor, beg, borrow or steal enough time just to make it through the day. Throughout ‘In Time’, the Director aims to convey both the ideas of economic injustice and the negative implications of a capitalist society. These ideas are portrayed through the use of low-key lighting, set design, short-cutting and dramatic music, during the scene where Rachel Salas times out. Andrew Niccol has successfully used these four techniques to encapsulate these concepts and to help the …show more content…
Niccol uses low-key lighting to emphasise the ominous mood in the scene, by making it appear darker. When Rachel’s face is partially darkened, it shows the audience that something sinister is about to occur. By associating Rachel with a feeling of imminent doom, it challenges the audience to consider the reason behind her death. The reason being, that as Rachel was born into an economically destitute time zone, her death was unavoidable; due to the prices continually rising in Dayton. Niccol uses low-key lighting and set design to portray the idea of economic injustice. Here, the director’s use of set design helps the audience to understand the prevalent economic injustice throughout the time zones. Niccol uses set design to highlight what’s really going on in the poorer time zones. When Rachel is staring through the bars on the door, it symbolises that she is trapped in an endless cycle of poverty that she can’t escape from. The wrought-iron bars convey the idea of entrapment and how both Rachel and the rest of the Dayton citizens are entrapped and restricted, economically. By using these techniques, Niccol conveys the concept of economic injustice. Low-key lighting, paired with set design, is used to portray the fact that economic injustice is not just untoward, it is one of the main reasons as to why thousands of people die, each and every
This film captures this class distinction without subduing the atmosphere through the use of a variety of cinematic devices. “A good film is not a bag of cinematic devices but the embodiment, through devices, of a vision, an underlying theme” (Barnett, 274). The audience can see this theme of the realities of the oppression, poverty and despair of this time period through the use of the things mentioned, but also through the character development that is driven by the character’s hopelessness. Each of the characters associated with the lower class is motivated by the conditions, which are viewed through the cinematic devices mentioned above: color, spherical lenses, long shots, and high angle shots. Sources Cited:.
The lighting along with the music becomes dim and depressing when Doris reminisces because they also need to reflect her mood. There is also a great use of blackouts in the play. The blackouts represent a
Throughout the film, the filmmaker follows the three victims around in their everyday lives by using somber music and backgrounds of depressing colors. The documentary starts off with colorful images of the scenery
It is in conclusion of viewing Radiance that gave the impression that it composed such significant issues to the public. The delicate subjects that needed to be expressed were efficiently presented by Deborah Mailman, Rachelle Maze and Trisha Morton-Thomas. Such a modern approach concerning the issues was constructed for the viewer and this film and will be remembered by many as a masterpiece in Australian cinematography directed by Perkins. The movie itself, and is agreed personally, that it is perfectly clear that there is a strong cultural and political message demonstrated to the public.
Filming such a location at night provides the director with the opportunity to use chiaroscuro (a technique of strong contrast) to further convey the dominance of technology over humanity. For example in outdoor scenes the garish flickering neons are obtrusively visible but they fail to illuminate the obscure, dark, fogged surroundings, including the multitudes of faceless people. The prominent visibility of artificial things over human presence together with the qualities of the location indicates the degradation of human life under the rule of science.
would be unable to convey the main focus of the story, that of Rachel’s feelings within
Roman Polanski's 1974 film, 'Chinatown', revolutionized the film noir genre. Aside from the absense of voice-over, the film shares all the same characteristics with earlier noirs. That is, of course, except for the fact that ?Chinatown? is filmed in color. Because of this, it is more difficult upon the first viewing to immediately classify the movie to this genre. In movies such as ?Double Indemnity? even scenes that take place during the daytime are dark, and since it is a black and white film, this is easy to do. However, in a film with color it is much harder to create this dark effect, especially in scenes that are filmed outdoors. Polanski makes references to symbols that remind the audience that although ?Chinatown? is in color, it still belongs in the genre. For example, one of the first lines in the movie is, ?I just had [the venetian blinds] installed on Wednesday.? Venetian blinds are often seen in the genre, and the reference immediately makes the connection between this...
Many of our today as “normal” considered values are everything but self-evident. One of the most striking aspects in the novel is time; and our relationship towards it. “ We yearned for the future. How did we learn it that talent for insatiability. ” In this particu...
hits the lens. “The first consideration in lighting a set is the nature of the story… The mood
By using time as a symbol for humanity, the alarm clock and the weather as the symbols for time, Franz Kafka and Juan Rulfo demonstrate the readers that inhumanity is what makes everyone human through greed, love, interest, and even sometimes by turning into a bug.
It is impossible to talk about a Wes Anderson movie without acknowledging its stunning color palettes and quirky storytelling style. In one of his most exemplary works, Moonrise Kingdom, Anderson uses a warm color scheme that blends bright and desaturated colors that ranges from golden yellow, vermillion red, creamy beige, light brown, to even a hint of teal. His color scheme, which is reflected throughout the film’s props, sets, costumes, title design, and camera filters, effectively evokes nostalgia, establishes the summer-like, dreamy mood of the film, and creates a distinct contrast between the different moral values of his characters. However, in the chaotic stormy escape scene and in the costume of Social Services, the visual design deviates greatly from the film’s primarily warm color palette and instead, immerse their visual elements in a deep, dark blue color to show the contrasts in the mood of the story as well as the attitudes of the characters. Overall, Anderson’s visual
Can you imagine walking where the streets are dark and cold with no glimmer of excitement and joy as security cameras watch your every move? Alan Moore certainly could. In fact, he felt he was living in such a place. He saw 1980s England as a fascist society where the lower class were being oppressed. In Moore’s graphic novel, V for Vendetta, he depicts that point in history through the story of future London under the Norsefire Regime. History plays a very important role in Moore’s story and his ideologies about class distinction are very prominent. For these reasons, a cultural poetics and Marxist literary criticism analyzes the story of V for Vendetta in a very interesting and informative way. Using these two literary criticisms I will analyze how the historical time period and economic class Alan Moore was brought up in shapes his view of the class distinctions in his graphic novel and specifically how the Shadow Gallery, Evey, and Rose show how prevalent class distinction is in society and the way it stunts individuals and society as a whole.
The marxist lens reflects the gap between the rich and the poor during the 1920’s through the glass ceiling effect and female economic status. The glass ceiling is an unseen and unbreakable barrier that keeps one from rising to the upper class regardless of their qualifications or achievements. The different settings in the novel represent this effect: East Egg, the Valley of Ashes, and
generate moods, and have great psychological affect. This is just as true for the very first series of shots for the film, and perhaps more important since these first shots will give the audience the initial feeling of the film, and set a tone for the picture. The first shot is highly dramatic in its lighting method, and the audience is drawn in immediately to one single detail. A man begins revealing the details of a tragic incident that befell his daughter. We don’t see who he is talking to. There is a spotlight directly above the man, and this is pretty much 95% of the light used. This really lights up the top of his head, which is bald, but there is no hot spot or reflective element which is good because reflection here would be aesthetically displeasing. The lighting causes dark areas under the man’s eyes, which emphasize the passion and eventually the hatred of what he is talking about. The scene is lit so that the background is completely black, so that the only thing we can see is the man. Even though this is logically unrealistic, the stylistic decision to light in this manner is warranted, since this or any other good film draws heavily upon our expectations and imagination to convey a message or meaning. We as audience accept the unrealistic elements, if they assist in making the story ...
The mood of this film is truly captured in the lighting and the lighting plays a key role in the accenting the humor of the film. “Deep inky blacks and desaturated colors that characterized the look of Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro’s Delicatessen” (McGrath). The dark nature of the film is maintained using lighting. This helps to set the mood for many scenes and is what provide the juxtaposition. In the few scenes of the film that are purely comedy the dark moody lighting helps to provide contrast to the humor and makes the character’s actions seem even more out of place and