This is my poster which signifies the falklands war, this is one of the main key contexts exemplfied in the film this is England we had to research. Learning from this had allowed me to understand the key struggles conveyed during the falklands war and why it happend, also how it affected Argentina and the UK after the war.
After getting my result back for my shawshank redemption essay and reading the feedback I made a few errors and also a few good points.
what I could improve upon after reading the feedback:
After looking at the feedback when I do my next essay I will focus on giving examples with some key points. And rather than making my essay in chronilogical order, I will need to relate it to a particular subject. Also when describing the story I need to always link it back to the question and the key themes.
British social realism focuses more on social class and signifes how particular people cope within the enviroment.
shown below is some features and descriptions of the repertoire of elements:
There are two ways in documentaries which signify meaning to the audience, these are distance and present.
Distance is when they can sometimes be signified giving a birds eye view which gives an overview of the subject matter. This gives the audience a sense of control and an overlooking view with what’s going on.
Present is when we are placed right into the action and at a personal perspective. This makes the audience feel they are there in the moment.
This is England is based on the story of Shane Meadows the director of the movie and tackles the particular events about his youth. It follows the events of Shaun who had lost his father during the falklands war, along the way we see how Shaun gets teased at school and then a group of skinheads see him upset and begins to earn the recognition of the skinheads.
British social realism is about particular narrative themes these include poverty, tough family dynamics, unemplyment benefit systems, and crime/ illegal activities.
Bellow signifes some elements in this is England that links with social realism:
An expository documentary is a type of documentary which puts forward a particular point of view about a subject matter where a commentator speaks directly to the audience. The narrator usually comments on what is happening in the film which is intended to strengthen the point of view being expressed. There are two types of voiceover, these include “the voice of God” which is where we hear the voice of the commentator but don’t see him. The other voiceover is “the voice of authority” which is when we can see and hear the commentator speaking.
This is a news report on the wildfires happening in Maui in Hawaii. It includes a voiceover by the news reporter as commentator and several interviews with residents, including the mayor, about police blocking the roads as they believed the powerlines were being energised. We hear recordings being played from Hawaiin electric, telling the police that the powerlines were not energised. The police however denied this statement. There are interviews with people who experienced the fires.
The clip starts of with a voice of authority explaining the situation. It then changes to a wide shot of all the destruction that happend in the wildfires (the “voice of God” is used during this particular clip) this directs us to have sympathy with the victims and to blame the police. The clip then changes to an interview with a woman who tried to escape from the wildfires, while rescuing her neighbours who got into her car. This allows us to experience it from her point of view. There is a short video of people trying to escape from the wildfires and who had to go in the sea because of traffic jams. The news reporter puts forward a strong view that more should have been done to warn the people of Maui and that the authorities are to blame.
In this lesson, we learnt about particular elements found in the prison genre and how similar elements are used in shawshank:
Using the table above as a summary of the features of the prison genre films detailed above, we see how The Shawshank Redemption (“Shawshank”) has similar conventions compared to the typical prison genre.
Story– In Shawshank, Andy the protagonist is sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his wife even though he says that he is innocent. We don’t know whether he is. As Red says “everyone is innocent in here “which we know cannot be the case.We also see his day to day life working, beatings for instance with the sisters and the prison wardens. This therefore lead to Andy developing a few enemies. Andy also develops a lot of friendships in his time in prison, this is especially exemplified through his relationship with Red and Brooks. Andy is able to better his life in prison by providing financial advice to prison guards. This provides him with a special status and an element of protection. This is signified when Andy gives the wardens free financial advice, in exchange for a new library for the inmates and protection. Later in the story we find out that he was in fact innocent, but he is not listened to. During all this time he is plotting his escape, which he manages to pull off and escapes to a life of freedom in the sun.
Characters- particular characters are portrayed as having different status. For instance, the wardens have power over the prisoners and are often violent towards them but then there is also a different status between the prisoners. For example. the “sisters” are very violent and prey on prisoners whom they consider to be weak. The key focus is Andy the protagonist and his friend Red who is the primary narrator in the film. Even though they are convicts, we identify them as being morally better than the wardens as ironically they seem to be the “good” people.
Setting- The film is set in the period of 1947 – 1967 in Maine in the US. The prison is portrayed as a dark, damp unappealing place with high walls and everything is grey and there is little colour. This is the same in the particular rooms like the dining hall, cells and a courtyard. The contrast to this is the warden’s office which is light and has warmer colours and then when Red leaves the prison and goes in search of his friend which is brightly coloured and full of sunshine signifying the key theme of “hope”.
Mise-En-Scene – The film immediately places us in a 1940s prison and progresses over 20 years. During the court scene at the beginning, the men wear typical clothes of the time. Small details such as the cigarettes smoked help to place the film in history. The Inmates wear grey jumpsuits and the prison itself has is an old building, surrounded by barbed wire, metal bars making it unmistakable as a prison setting. Even the clouds/ bad weather link with the depressing atmosphere portrayed in the prison. We see the passing of time through the change of the pin-up posters on Andy’s wall.
Production techniques – Much of the film uses low key lighting which creates a sense of depression and oppression. High key lighting signifies more light hearted and hopeful moments, such as when Andy plays the music on loudspeaker and when Red is reunited with Andy. The use of low angles such as when Andy arrives at the prison and the camera pans up to the high walls of the prison entrance this gives the sense of vulnerabiltiy and oppression. High angles, such as when Andy escapes and looks up to the sky with the rain falling intensify the sense of freedom. Particular shots are used such as mid shots when Andy and Red are talking together and panoramic wide shots to signify the expanse of the prison. There are also close ups of characters which build intensity.
Narrative:
Red (Morgan Freeman) does most of the narrating in the movie. Red tells the story of particular characters rather than himself, primarily the story of Andy. We therefore see Andy’s story from Red’s first person point of view rather than Andy’s own perspective which means that we do not know what Andy’s intentions were until during the end of the movie. This builds suspense and enables the audience to be as surprised as the other characters when we discover that Andy has escaped.
Red narrates in first person, which means that either Red or Andy could be seen as the main protagonist. We see Red’s point of view on how Andy copes in prison and it is therefore Red’s interpretation which leads to how Andy is portrayed in the movie. In my opinion I think Andy is the protagonist, as Red is mostly telling a story on how he eventually escapes prison, which is forshadowed later in the movie.
Having Red as the narrator in Shawshank makes it seem less depressing as his voice is soothing and matter of fact. This means that the darker moments in the movie are not as melancholy and help to feed into the theme of hope.
An observational documentary is a non-intrusive way of making a film without interfering with what happens to the people in the documentary. This means that the camera is purely observing what people are doing in a particular situation without direction from the film maker. An observational documentary is used to observe people’s real life activities and to represent the experiences of people that they have around the world. An example of a observational documentary is Baraka which is a non-intrusive documentary on cultures around the world. The movie has amazing cinematography with no dialogue in it. An example of Baraka being non intrusive is when it conveys different cultures and signifying what they’re doing without interfering.
Below is my observational documentary I made of the Les Varendes sixth form centre, which uses framing and composition to convey a sense of unease and discomfort.
below are a few of my favourite shots I made which connote different emotion:
This is one of my favourite shots as it creates a sense of edginess and disorientation as the shot is a canted angle/long shot. The shot also reflects how long the school really is due to the long corridors which almost makes it look endless.
This is also one of my favourite shots because the picture is taken in a depth of field while also signifying a wide shot, which creates a sense of isolation and remoteness in the surroundings. Reinforces the sheer size of the school. I also like the contrast signifed in this shot with the shadow and the light exemplifed as it creates a nice image.
Another one of my favourite shots was this shot, because it has a macabre image which creates a creapy and horrifying look to it with the close up shot. I also like the fact bright colours are signifed in this image, as it makes it stand out and makes it even more unsettling.
In this task I had to study different shots, which can portray meaning and signify something important in a movie or conveying a particular emotion.
From what I have learnt in the first slide, I have used particular techniques used and portrayed this in my short documentry I created, with adjectives to see what they connote.
For this we had to write an essay from the Pale Man’s lair scene and how Mise-En-Scene is used to connote this.
What I could improve on:
I needed to refer to the mise-en-scene terminology, as it wasn’t very clear. Some of my sentences weren’t clear, as they were to complex and needed to be more simplified. In one sentence, I had to improve on using symbolism rather than context. I also need to link back to more of the historical events.
What I did well:
I had a good understanding of the parallel narratives. Also I had some good descriptions and had some good sentences linking back to the context.