The 400 blows is a masterpiece of the French new wave era. The moviemaking skills, as well as the literary and dramatic aspects of the film combine to make a prefect artwork. The shots in The 400 blows are edited together smoothly using the first person perspective to tell the audience a powerful story, which Truffaut did a great job doing that. The scene that stands out to me is Antoine’s jail transfer scene of the movie. It evokes a lot of power with little dialogue. It allows for the images speak for themselves as the film intended to be. The director also uses tracking shot a lot in The 400 blows. The camera sort of flow along throughout the movie almost like it is on a cloud. Same as Fube said, “the perfect lens choice, when combined with …show more content…
a free movie camera, for conveying a feeling of unbounded freedom”. (p. 128) Truffaut also used the music very smart during Antoine’s transfer, instead of depressing music, he used beautiful happy music behind it. It allows the audience to focus on the visual images and also appreciate the beauty of the movie. The other scene that also really stands out is the final scene, but since it has been well known, I want focus on the editing process of the first scene more. In the first shot of this sequence, Antoine’s best friend René staring around the city street by himself and then the camera pan to the corner of the street where Antoine’s father and Antoine come into the frame.
In this sense, Antoine’s friend serves as a link. The next shot, Antoine remains silent when his father is threatening him. And they say final goodbye to René. They keep walking down to the next shot, a crowded marketplace, the movement shows us the surrounding environment as well. In shot 3, they walk into police department follow by a short transition. Shot 4 is a full shot of Antoine’s father, Antoine and the officer sitting together, discussing the future of Antoine. Shot 4 is a reverse shot of the officer’s reaction. Shot 5 is a reaction shot of Antoine. He looks away and seems not care about the conversation at all. With this shot, there is not only a conflict between Antoine and the authorities in his life, but there is also an ongoing conflict between his mother and father. Shot 6 is a cross-cut to Antoine signing the paper and follow by a long take of Antoine walking to the jail …show more content…
cell. Shot 8, however, the camera zooms out from the window of the jail cell, which serves as a linkage movement from signing the paper to getting inside the cell. Another point of view shot in shot 9, through movement, the eyes of the boys moving through, seeing those girls behind bars. It’s a tight medium close up shot, which Truffaut is trying to emphasize the sad fact about those girls. Shot 10 is a subjective point of view shot through the eyes of Antoine. Truffaut used this shot as to give the audience an emotional shake by letting us see where Antoine is now. We see the faces of other inmates then pan to the police and in shot 11 camera finally pull back to see how helpless and isolated Antoine is. And the camera movement is also well designed. “Antoine’s face is enframed by a segment of the imprisoning grid pattern, creating the effect of a noose tightened around his neck”. (p.128) In shot 12, Antoine is leaving with the officer, and he looks grumpy on his face. The shot quickly switched to outside when the Antoine gets into the car. Shot 13 is a point of view shot from Antoine’s view. It focuses on the outside view and blur out the cell as a symbol of seeking freedom. In the shot 14, camera turns around and we see Antoine grabbing the bars of the jail cell. Camera movement, also triggers the emotion when the car itself drives away from the camera, so that we get closer to Antoine, to show him to us closely—a boy in a cell, which Fabe describes it as “increasingly obscured”. This long take lasting twenty seconds until Antoine notices something on his right side. After he turns right, the camera quickly switches to the next shot. Shot 15 is Antoine’s view of the amusement park, where he and his friend René had been there before. This shot serves as a comparison between the free happy life with his friend and the life at juvenile detention. The next shot is a short transition, where the police bus is driving towards the camera. And here it comes one of the most powerful moment in this movie.
In shot 17, it is a jump cut to a blurry close shot of Antoine’s face. The tear is running all over his face, but he is trying his best to suppress his emotional break, but he still cries out. All but his face is immersed in a dark, displaying his loneliness in the world. As his face turns, we can see tears shining on his cheek, enhanced by the contrast of light and dark. It’s a breakout moment of mental depression, he had suffered and how an anti-social loner on the brink of rebellion. Shot 18, another point of view shot, Antoine looks away, seeing the night streets and neon lights. It evokes the feeling of beauty in the outside world that is now locked off from Antoine. The last shot of this sequence goes back to shot 17, where the audience sees Antoine’s crying face. The director also extended this shot to add some anxiety and thus letting the audience into the mind of Antoine. At that moment, the movie is silent, except for the dramatic music playing in the
background. Fube said in her book, “Throughout The 400 Blows, Truffaut’s camera stylo visually expresses the film’s over-arching theme—that children’s natural desire for spontaneity and freedom is continually stamped out by social forces that entrap and constrict them”.(p. 128) This sequence definitely stands out as an example of a powerful first person perspective scene, which offers audiences a great introverted look into the emotional conflict inside of Antoine.
The next shot (shot 4) is composed so that we see Annie and Karin on the porch swing as if the narrator is standing out in the field watching them from afar. The following shot (shot 5) begins similarly, looking down on the corn field, but dollies and turns to follow Ray (indicated in shot 5.1 and 5.2) for a close-up amidst his crops as he first hears that famous line. He quickly looks around: shot 7 consists of a quick pan across the skyline — there’s nobody there. The movement of the camera in these opening shots makes it very clear that the camera is acting as a watchful and knowing presence, and it can easily be argued that the camera takes the point of view of the spiritual figure guiding the plot’s events. Shot 14 in particular, in which Ray exits the frame entirely and re-enters at the sound of the voice, reveals the camera to be a narrator with omniscient knowledge. The camera doesn’t follow Ray because something else is about to happen right where he was standing. It’s also important to note that in shot 5, the camera begins high above the landscape and then delves into the field so that the shot is almost overrun by the corn growing through the edges of the frame — the spiritual
Spike Lee does many fascinating things from a directorial standpoint, which makes his film (dare I say, joint), Do the Right Thing so interesting to watch. Writer, director Lee makes much use of the high and low angle shots. He does this to draw clear contrasts between the two elders of the block, Da Mayor and Mother Sister and to make conflict more apparent.
The film director uses sound as a film technique to show the sadness she feels under the great amount of makeup that covers
The sound used in this scene are all diegetic, the sounds of gunfire and explosions show that the characters in this scene are in very real danger of being shot or blown up, this helps the viewer develop a more personal connection with the characters since the scene is towards the end of the film, the viewer has developed a personal connection with the characters and do not want them to die. The diegetic sounds of military personnel can be heard, this is used to show the urgency that the military personnel have to get The Sapphires and Dave out of the dangerous situation. This scene is used to emphasise the danger that Dave and The Sapphires are in very real and very lethal danger, the mixture of sinister camera angles to emphasise the visual danger that the characters are in to the inhospitable sounds portrayed by the scene to highlight the explosive danger that the characters are in. The lighting used features the darkness and the difficulty to see due to the night sky.
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
In the very first scene the audience views there is a man shaving and has radio blaring in the background. An alarm clock goes off in a different apartment and the viewer is trying to find out where the noise is coming from which makes them engaged in the film. The setting creates depth because the audience only sees what Jefferies is viewing. At the dinner party, the music playing in the background set a tone to audience making them feel what he is missing out on. There is an alleyway shown from the window and it very crowded. The alleyway represents Jefferies being isolated
Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, released in 1989, takes place in a predominately African American neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, located in Brooklyn, New York. Lee, who wrote, produced, directed, and acted in this film, tells the story of an African American community that is filled with racial tension on a hot summer day. The heat takes a toll on the members of the community and tragedy strikes with the death of an African American man named Radio Raheem. Lee uses many techniques in the film, allowing the audience to explore central themes and provoking them to react a certain way. Through the use of mise-en-scene, montage, and camera angles Spike Lee is able to highlight the message of racial intolerance in the film.
Niccol uses long-over-the-shoulder camera shots of Vincent looking up into the sky at rockets leaving for Titan when he is working at Gattaca to showcase his ambition as he is metaphorically ‘reaching for the stars’. This humanizes Vincent making his character more relatable to the audience and allows them to feel empathetic towards him as having ambition is a human ideal. Subsequently, Niccol utilizes close-up facial shots and unfixed camera movements while Vincent is swimming against Anton for the time. The close-up shots of Vincent’s face highlight his struggle as the audience can see the pain and tiredness on his face, causing them to empathize with him. Continuing with this the camera is unfixed, therefore it is positioned to be follow the chaos of the waves and ocean. This positions the audience to experience the same chaos and struggle, Vincent must power through, making them feel as if they will also drown if they do not swim, furthermore making the audience empathize with his character. The non-diegetic sounds of orchestral music using crescendo and layering the texture, builds the tension further and emphasizes Vincent’s struggle and his determination to overcome the obstacles he must face. This causes the audience to experience tension and empathize with his plight.
...ley’s admiration towards ‘Drover’ with their desirable love developing over time. Luhrmann contrasts the audience with the emotional expressions and differing body language, which is significantly visually depicted The non-diegetic music tempo speeds up, creating a dramatic tension and signifying the importance of the couple’s connection and emphasises on their emotional intensity.
... like Szpilman is gradually getting into that becoming a pianist phase and how the film overall has increased his confidence. The camera then zooms into his hand playing the piano showing the audience what to focus on. One hand has a lot of light towards it whilst the other hand is dark, which could mean that maybe his other hand will be in the light as he continues to play the piano, which is his lifelong dream. Then the camera zooms out showing us what else is in the frame. The director does this to show the audience that we should focus on where the light is coming from. The curtains have quite a detailed pattern on them which suggests that the room might have belonged to a professional and wealthy pianist. This might suggest that Szpilman is almost as if he is bringing the room back to life. This is shown with the different parts of the room covered with light.
What do you think about when watching a film? Do you focus on the characters' good looks or the dialogue? Or do you go behind the scenes and think about what made the film? Maybe, it's even a combination of all three. No matter what comes to mind first, an important part of any good movie will be what you see. A camera and good director or cinematographer is needed to make that possible. Different directors and cinematographers will use different camera techniques to make you focus on what you see. Camera techniques show emphasis in films, because they make you focus more on situations and people. They are especially important in Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream.
The use of jump cuts within Breathless and Contempt was an unconventional technique during the French New Wave and still is today because it violates one of the rules of Classic Hollywood Style. Jump cuts create “…discontinuities that the perceptual system will not ignore because the stimuli fall outside of the accommodation ranges for perceptual continuity, then spatial coherence breaks down” (Berliner). Even though jump cuts are not aesthetically pleasing, Godard uses them for the deeper meaning of the films.
In the opening scene of The French Connection, a man is seen following the drug lord, Alain Charnier. The camera angles change as the man follows Alain Charnier through the French city of Marseilles, and the viewer sees the man following Charnier, the surrounding environment, and Charnier realizing that he is being followed. As the man follows Charnier, some of the camera angles focus on what he sees. For example, before Charnier shoots the man, the camera focuses on the gun and the bullet being shot out of the
Antoine has an argument with someone called Nicholas. Ravolati. Nicholas stabs Antoine and runs away to Sardinia that night. His mum promised the "Vendetta". She has an idea of what to do.
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 ...