AS Film Studies – Scene Analysis
The scene I will analyse has come from Marvel Entertainment’s 2011 film X-Men: First Class. Directed by Matthew Vaughn, the film starts with the main antagonist, Sebastian Shaw, murdering Erik’s mother. This gives Erik motive for the rest of the film, find and kill Sebastian Shaw. In New York, a young Charles Xavier meets a new mutant, mystique, and invites her into his house. Charles then dedicates his life to be a professor on mutations, upon graduating Oxford he is met and recruited by CIA agent Moira MacTaggert where he is need to help against a mutant threat to the USA, Sebastian Shaw. Through this common enemy Erik and Charles meet and recruit various new mutants to a team in which they will fight the opposing Shaw whilst also preventing the break out of a world war three. The scene I will analyse is when Erik travels to Argentina in the hopes of finding Shaw, or Schmidt as Erik knows him. Erik goes to a bar to which he notices a picture of Shaw and two men, these two men are with Erik in the bar. Upon engaging in conversation Erik sits with the German men and slowly reveals to these assumed Nazis that his parents died during the holocaust and he is a survivor. The men try to kill him but by using his magnetic powers Erik kills them instead.
Microfeatures are the features within a film that work together to communicate the meaning of a film to the audience. One of the main microfeatures is mise-en-scene as in includes so much such as the props and the scenery, the costumes, lighting, the positioning of everything within the scene and body language of the characters, the other microfeatures are cinematography which focuses on the camera work, there is also editing, the alteration and arranging of the filmed content and finally sound, the noise, score or soundtrack.
The Essay on Theme Development in the Film 12 Angry Men
In the movie 12 Angry Men a verdict of not guilty was given to the boy after the fact that apparently all the jurors except one thought that the boy was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. All of the key evidence presented in the court was rejected by the jury, which led the jurors to have a reasonable doubt about the boy's guiltiness. I will present this evidence in chronological order and support ...
The mise-en-scene of this scene holds great significance. The setting is a bar in Argentina; this setting is perfect as it is well known that after world war two many Nazis fled to southern America, especially Argentina making this setting perfectly believable. Setting it in an isolated bar in the Argentine countryside with only four people inside, including Erik, lends to the notion that they are trapped with Erik, this mutant, shown to be a monster in the previous scene where he threatens a man and uses his power to control metal objects to pull a filling out of the man’s mouth, their entrapment is shown as Erik spends a lot of time standing whereas the others are seated, giving him the appearance of greater power, and their chance of survival is very slim. The setting could be seen as inviting to the audience as a bar is a social place that one might meet friends, however the film manipulates this by doing the opposite and killing people inside of this bar and the exterior Argentina looks luxurious, however what is going on inside is not. Personally, I feel this is effective as I am brought into the scene upon its opening. As Erik enters the bar he can be seen behind bar apparatus which is steaming, this can be thought to resemble Erik’s rage as we know by this point his anger is the key to unlocking his power, the ability to control metal objects. The next significant prop seen is the photograph of Shaw and the bar patrons, this holds major importance as it lets the audience know that these people are useful to Erik as they might know where Shaw is, upon seeing this photograph is when we know that the atmosphere contains slight hostility as Erik may hurt these people to gain information, personally this brings great effect to me, it’s made very clear that it is Shaw in the photograph and with Erik’s unpredictable character the patrons of the bar are in a very dangerous situation, making me begin to fear on their behalf.
The Essay on A Single Man Mise-en-scene
How has the mise-en-scene been constructed in the opening of A Single Man in order to communicate particular images to the audience? In the opening of the film, A Single Man, mise-en-scene has been used to communicate different images and messages to the audience. This has been done through the use of setting; performance and movement; and props and costumes. There are four different settings in ...
The third and final prop that holds value is the Nazi knife owned by one of the patrons, it is clear that is a Nazi knife as it has a swastika and the German for blood and honour engraved into it, upon seeing this the audience will have their beliefs confirmed about these Nazi patrons, allowing the audience to continue rooting for Erik as he murders as he is murdering Nazis, much greater villains. Detail in Erik’s costume plays a large role in this scene, the tattoo of the number 214782 his reference number in Auschwitz, this is the exact moment in which the tension in the room reaches its maximum level and the patrons realise that they may be in danger so they try to retaliate. This is important to the audience as it is almost set up like a game of cards and upon showing what he possesses the audience can see that Erik has started to win the game. The set up of the room is significant also, making the characters sit around a table is quite intimate so they seem friendly, but not too close so they seem squashed and uncomfortable, making the audience feel comfortable also.
The sound is quite significant throughout this scene, the score of the scene does a superb job of extenuating the tension throughout the scene, as it goes on the score becomes more and more powerful with a large part played by string instruments, this give the impression of building up to something, which is ultimately released in the form of Erik fighting and killing the bar patrons. This effects the audience as when the music builds up the audience is likely to be drawn in, the longer the music builds up the more the audience is drawn in, waiting for the inevitable pay off at the height of the score. I personally greatly enjoy the soundtrack during this scene as it builds up a huge amount of tension, which affected me to a large extent. This made the pay off more satisfying. As it is a conversation the rest of the sound is standard, synchronous, diegetic, simultaneous sound however it goes through three different languages. When Erik first enters the bar and greets the barman he is greeted in Spanish as this takes place in Argentina where they speak Spanish, however on the discovery of the German beer he speaks to the two patrons behind him in German, this gives a friendly feel as they are miles away from their home yet they share a common language, although they don’t know each other they beckon him as a friend. After Erik kills the three men he reverts to English so the audience can understand without the use of subtitles, he says “Let’s just say I’m Frankenstein’s monster, and I’m looking for my creator.” as it’s the only sentence spoken in English in this scene this is likely to stick with the audience keeping the idea of Erik as a monster in their minds as the film goes on.
The Essay on Shoulder Shot Devlin Alicia Scene
The 3 rd Major Scene in Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious 1. The scene begins by fading in on the back of the silent man's head (Cary Grant) in Alicia's bungalow. Then the camera zooms out while sweeping right to give the first full shot and view of both of the main characters. They are shown seated at a table, with many empty bottles of liquor and glasses. 2. Then a tight reverse over the shoulder ...
The editing for this scene is continuity editing, this gives it the illusion of linear time; the scene goes on without anything disturbing the “reality”. With the exception of a single quick cut from the hill outside the bar to the inside of the bar, the majority of the scene it is a conversation, therefore the shot reverse shot process is used to show this dialogue without confusing the audience to where each character is at any given time.
On the cinematography side, the scene opens with the establishing shot of the Argentine landscape, giving the audience the idea of where the bar is in the scene. Then a long shot from behind the bar when Erik enters the room this shows us the surroundings of Erik and makes the audience feel far away from him. Another long shot is used as Erik walks up to the bar and greets the patrons, from this shot you see Erik walk from the lighter side of the room into the darker, giving the impression that Erik is shrouded in the darkness. Then a medium shot is used to show Erik sitting at the bar, from this shot we can see the patrons sitting in the background, this shows the audience the distance between the patrons and Erik before he is able to infiltrate them. This then turns to zoom in on the photograph of Sebastian Shaw and the other patrons, it zooms as this item is of importance of this scene and as Erik notices it he begins to build up inside, this is evidenced as the next shot is a zoom in/close up on Erik’s face, this shows us his emotions at the time as he is getting close to the person who murdered his mother. After Erik drinks his beer a two shot is used to show the two patrons sitting down behind him.
The Term Paper on Court Scene Shylock Audience Money
Throughout William Shakespeare's play, The Merchant of Venice, there is a strong theme of prejudice. Portia has to deal with prejudice against her sex, the Prince of Morocco has to deal with prejudice against his race but the character that is most discriminated against is Shylock. He is hated for being a Jew and a money-lender, but Shakespeare has not made Shylock a character easy to sympathise ...
This is important as it allows the audience to see that these were the men in the photograph with Shaw, therefore a target for Erik. A long shot is used after this to show Erik’s approach to them, him closing in on this distance allows the audience to see a level of intimacy between them. As Erik goes to sit down a medium shot/close up is used on his face to show his emotions upon using the line “they didn’t have a name” referring to his parent’s identities taken by the Nazis. A two shot/POV is used after this as the patrons look to each other with worry as they are unsure of the intentions of Erik; the POV side of this is used to show the audience that these patrons are Erik’s targets. A medium shot of Erik and the two patrons is used when they all drink their beers as it builds up the tension of the scene, and makes it seem like the patrons are trapped in the frame with Erik. Close ups are then used on each patron to show the fear as the tension rises, the close up on Erik shows a still face, personally this gives me the idea that he knows what is to be done and is willing to do it, he has no fears about this. It then shows a close up on Erik’s arm, the arm that has the identity code, this is the very height of the tension, it then tracks up to the closest patron to get a reaction, and this tracking shot is used to extend the tension before ultimately showing what the patrons will do next.
A long shot is used after to show the barman coming at Erik with a gun pointed at him, this is used to show all of the characters in the scene trapped within a single frame with Erik, the monster. A POV tracking shot is then used at the pistols aim is moved across the bar by Erik’s powers and pointed at one of the patrons, the POV shot clearly used to show a target. An extreme close up is used on the trigger of the pistol as it is pulled without the use of the barman’s finger, this allows the audience to see that this is Erik’s doing. A long shot then used to show Erik using his powers on the knife to kill the barman, this is used to show that although there may be a distance between the two of them, Erik is still the most powerful, personally this is largely effective I feel oddly impressed by Erik’s ability to murder someone from a distance with minimal effort however it also adds a level of concern, if distance cannot keep you from Erik then what can. A zoom is used on Erik to show his corruption building up as he has murdered people, and to shows that he is satisfied by this. It then pans across the room following Erik as he walks to the photograph of Shaw, to deliver the final line hinting at his plan to find Shaw.
The Essay on Stage Directions Tension Scene Characters
Tension, the suspense and drama of this play, is created and built up to great amounts and in various ways during Act two. This was most likely influenced by the events taking place at the time Miller wrote the drama. McCarthyism was a large part of Millers life and the comparisons between the unfair and unjustified trials of Salem and America greatly affected the play, for instance: the tense ...
All microfeatures works fantastically together in this scene to deliver a believable experience, I believe that the sound, more specifically the music, does a spectacular job in this scene showing the build up in tension and how it is finally released with rage.
