Rocky, a film by John Avildsen, shows Sylvester Stallone while it is dark outside. The streetlights are the only light in the scene. The lighting describes his life at the moment, conflicted and sad. He is a failing boxer that everyone criticizes as a low life. The light outside is used further as the plot progresses. There are scenes in the morning, showing the sunrise which signify a positive progression. The use of these lighting techniques serves to capture the movie’s certainty because it helps to set the mood of the story. This enhances theme as it shows Rocky, an average person, who finally gets a once in a lifetime opportunity to fight for the Heavy Weight title.
As Rocky is on the boxing arena, the noise the crowd makes starts fading.
Avildsen uses the crowds declining voices as a way to portray Rocky’s concentration before the fight. The fight is about to start. The loud sound of the radio in the background enhances the tone of the entrance of Apollo Creed. Creed shows up as this unbeatable figure. As the camera focuses more and more on Rocky, it pans onto his face. A bell rings and they start swinging; the crowd gets louder. This shows the emotions going through the heads of the boxers. There are numerous instrumental sounds that mimic a powerful fight. Finally, the fight ends as both Rocky and Apollo wait for the announcer’s final decision. There is confusion within the end of the scene, where everyone starts screaming but it slowly hints that Rocky is indeed the winner
In the movie Edward Scissorhands, a lot of different cinematic techniques are used. This movie mostly focuses on lighting, usually using darker low-key lighting throughout most of the film to create a darker, creepy tone. Low-key lighting is used mostly in scenes with Edward scissorhands in them, not as much with the girl. A good example of these low-key lighting scenes are the beginning ones, when the girl first enters Edward’s castle. The atmosphere inside is dark and creepy, adding to the already mysterious and dark tone of the movie. Another example of a scene with low-key lighting is the very beginning of the credits screen. The words are displayed in white with the rest of the background as a dark and evil setting. This already gives
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:.
I was raised on the movie The Sandlot. My my dad played baseball through college and my brother has played since he could hold a bat. My mom, sister, and I also played softball when we were little. One could say that we are a “baseball family.” My dad first introduced this movie to me, and I was attracted to it not only because it is a fun film about baseball, but also because it has an entertaining soundtrack. The music fits well with the storyline and makes you feel like you are playing baseball and hanging out with the boys in the sixties. I also was raised listening to this genre of music and more songs from some of these bands. Throughout this paper, I will critique the main songs in The Sandlot that make it popular, as well as give a short biography of each band.
The motion picture Belly explores the ghetto and the characters that live in this dark and obscure world of violence and criminal behavior. Tommy or "Bunz", and Sincere, who both live in New York, have differing views of criminal life. Bunz lives a mixed up, drug-run lifestyle, while Sincere aspires to be a law-abiding family man. To help the audience get the full effect of evilness portrayed by the character, the scenes are very dark and gloomy. There are, however, lighter scenes in which the good heart of one man is represented. The lighting in Belly helps with the characterization within the movie. One character is shown as a dark figure, and one as an almost holy figure, plus disillusionment is brought out nicely through lighting effects.
The noir style is showcased in Sunset Boulevard with its use of visually dark and uncomfortable settings and camera work, as well as its use of the traditional film noir characters. In addition, the overall tone and themes expressed in it tightly correspond to what many film noirs addressed. What made this film unique was its harsh criticism of the film industry itself, which some of Wilder’s peers saw as biting the hand that fed him. There is frequent commentary on the superficial state of Hollywood and its indifference to suffering, which is still a topic avoided by many in the film business today. However, Sunset Blvd. set a precedent for future film noirs, and is an inspiration for those who do not quite believe what they are being shown by Hollywood.
In cinema, lighting, blocking and panning drastically influence what an audience will notice and take away from a scene. Orson Welles’s 1941 Citizen Kane has numerous examples of effectively using these aspects within mise-en-scène, cinematography and editing to portray the importance of specific events and items in the film. The scene where Kane writes and then publishes his “Declaration of Principles” (37:42-39:42) in the New York Daily Inquirer after buying them focuses on important elements of the film, aiding the audience by combining lighting, blocking and panning to define significant roles and objects that further the movie as a whole.
The road movie embodies the human desire for travel and progression. The vehicle of journey is a contemporary metaphor of personal transformation that oftentimes mirrors socio-cultural desires and fears. Thomas Schatz believes that one “cannot consider either the filmmaking process or films themselves in isolation from their economic, technological, and industrial context.” This statement is especially applicable to the independent American films of the late sixties, a time of great political and social debate. Easy Rider (1969) was considered a new voice in film that was pitched against the mainstream. In the 1960s, there was a shift to highlight the outsiders or the anti-heros in film. This counter-cultural radicalism seems to have also influenced the 1991 film, Thelma & Louise. The characters of both films act as figures of anti-heroism by rebelling against the conventional and unintentionally discovering themselves at the same time. Despite their different backgrounds, the protagonists of Eas...
In the film, The Big Lebowski, Joel and Ethan Coen use their resources to add to the film aesthetically. The Coen brothers are known for their art with films like Fargo and True Grit. The Big Lebowski is no different. Although the genres may differ, the amount of details in each of these films is well thought out and placed carefully. With “the Dude” as the protagonist, the story takes wild turns that are enhanced by the camera and the script.
There are many techniques used in films that help to strengthn the plot and rmphasize a certain theme. Usually, to most viewers, these camera techniques go seemingly unnoticed. Yet, this ability to fly under the radar ensures the success of the style, as smooth transitions and clear storytelling are hallmarks of the editing process known as continuity editing. One approach of continuity editing is known as point of view editing. Basically, the viewer is able to see a scene from a character’s perspective. Notably, point of view editing plays a significant role in the film Notorious. With the repetition of point of view throughout the film, Notorious utilizes point of view as a vital aspect of the film, as it provides clues to the viewer, heightens
From there on the story’s most important scenes take place at night. For example when Michael hits the person in the middle of the road at night when it is pouring rain. He still shows some what of a conscience to bring him back to the hospital. There is some comic relief because every time he leaves and enters the town they show a sign of either entering or leaving Red Rock. No matter how hard that he tries to leave the town he just can’t do it, something always comes up. The most symbolic settings would have to be at the end when they are in the graveyard digging up the money that Wayne had buried. It was dark with fog coating the ground and they are driving up in a completely black car. The audience can see that this will be the climax of the movie because all of these elements are coming together.
Motion pictures have been utilized throughout history to bring forgotten world events and issues to the attention of the viewer. Filmmakers utilize real life scenarios along with unique dialog, lighting, and camera angles to give the viewer a life-like depiction of the many real struggles people face around the world. Movies like Straight Outta Compton and Menace II Society both depict the ongoing struggles and tribulations that are widely present in many black communities. Both movies use mise en scène in a entertaining and powerful way in order to display certain contexts and emotions to the viewer.
“Raging Bull” (1980) is not a so much a film about boxing but more of a story about a psychotically jealous, sexually insecure borderline homosexual, caged animal of a man, who encourages pain and suffering in his life as almost a form of reparation. Martin Scorsese’s masterpiece of a film drags you down into the seedy filth stenched world of former middleweight boxing champion Jake “The Bronx Bull” LaMotta. Masterfully he paints the picture of a beast whose sole drive is not boxing but an insatiable obsessive jealously over his wife and his fear of his own underling sexuality. The movie broke new ground with its brutal unadulterated no-holds-bard look at the vicious sport of boxing by bringing the camera into the ring, giving the viewer the most realistic, primal, and brutal boxing scenes ever filmed. With blood and sweat spraying, flashbulbs’ bursting at every blow Scorsese gives the common man an invitation into the square circle where only the hardest trained gladiators dare to venture.
In the opening scenes of the trailer, already the audience is exposed to the dystopian atmosphere of chaos, social anarchy and oppression. This is promoted by short fast paced montages and high angle shots of the swarmed streets, close angle shots of people in terror and military forces. This also conveys the magnitude of chaos this “dilemma” has caused. A short scene of the main protagonist Robert struggling through the crowd has also been visually constructed to enforce to the audience that he is the main character of this movie. The visual construction of this scene is utilised by a close up slow motion focused shot on Will Smith with the background blurred to completely draw the audience onto him. What is more unique is that this combination of effects acts as an inference that Will Smith is the solution or only hope in settling this anarchy as he swiftly makes his way through the congested street. The explosion of the bridge also informs the audience the narrative is set in New York implied by being a landmark of the city. Already in the exposition, the visual conventions have provided an engaging and well informed construction of dystopian qualities and information about the plot itself.
The extraordinary film The 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut, 1959) skillfully uses cinematic devices appropriately within the context of the theme. Part of the underlying theme of this movie as explained by Truffaut himself is, “... to portray a child as honestly as possible...”(Writing About Film, 1982). It is the scenes in this movie that are most helpful in disclosing the overall theme of the film. Within the scenes, the camera angles in this film play an important role in accentuating the emotions behind the scene. The camera angles used in this film will be the primary focus of this paper. The high angle shots utilized in The 400 Blows are effective in helping to develop the overall feel of a scene. This movie uses the high angle shot in three different scenes to evoke three different emotions and it still works extremely well.
The Godfather is most notably one of the most prolific films of its time. This "gangster" film displayed many transformations of permeating color to give the viewer observable cues in its mise en scene that drew one right into the movie. The dramatic acting set the tone of the film with a score that lifted the viewer right out of their seat in many scenes. The directing and cinematography made The Godfather ahead of its time. The nostalgic feel of family importance and the danger of revenge lets us into the life of the Mafia. Even though no other techniques would have given the viewer a feeling of inside the mob like the mise en scene of the power the godfather held, the characters are reinforced literally and figuratively because the story views the Mafia from the inside out, and the cinematography of the film gives it a dangerous and nostalgic feel.