:Film studies

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962)

its about Colin, a poor Nottingham teenager from a dismal home, with few prospects in life, and few interests beyond petty crime. When he is caught for robbing a bakery, Colin is confined in a prison school for delinquent youth. There, he finds a hidden talent in long-distance running, attracting the notice of the school’s warden, but, during an important cross-country meet, which his prison school is winning against another school, he stops running short of the finish line to defy the authority figures of his prison after all the special treatment they gave him.

In this film you have to watch from the beginning to understand probaly as there is numourous flashbacks of his life before prison. in some parts of the film you cant help but to smile at some of the parts in the film you feel sorry for the main character Colin as when his father dies he feels that nobody cares except him his mother only seemed to care about the pay from her husbands previous employees. Colin does petty crime such as stealing a car and putting it back where they found it. In the end he is put in prison for robbing a bakery.

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Gladiator

The chosen extract is from the opening scene of Ridley Scott’s Gladiator. In this scene (04:09-08:01) Maximus (Russell Crowe) has led his legion to a Germanic forest to fight a little resistance of what’s left of the Germanic tribe. As the long awaited diplomat returns (trying to resolve the situation without bloodshed) his horse is racing back and on the horse a rider without a head. As this happens the Germanic tribal leader appears and throws the diplomat’s severed head on the floor, the scene that is analysed shows the preparations of the two armies before the battle with the roman’s archers and catapults preparing to release their devastating missiles and the roman cavalry ready to charge at the tribes flank. The scene that I’m analysing finishes when the first volley of arrows and catapult missiles have been fired.

The framing and camera work that is used in the sequence makes the spectator feel that they are actually part of the film the first establishing shot is of the white horse riding towards the Roman’s their is a sudden close up shot of Maximus showing his reaction “their answer is no” straight away we hear diegetic sound of the Germanic tribe chanting, the voices echo throughout the whole sequence until the final sequence when “all of hell is unleased”. Other than this diegetic noise playing there is also non diegetic music playing in the background this also plays though the whole sequence. As the horse rides towards the Roman army the camera tracks the horse as if someone is watching the horse, as it moves towards the army in that sequence it uses many shots such as tracking, panning and dollying and finishes on a low tilt angled shot of people trying to calm down the horse the shot making the horse look big and powerful. As the Germanic leader steps out of the foggy mist and the camera tracks him until he stands on the cut down tree a low tilt shot to show his authority within that tribe there are close low tilt shots and medium tilt shots, he throws the severed head of the roman diplomat on the floor a symbol of the blood that has been spilled building the roman empire, after this there a numbers of mid shots and extreme long shots of the barbarian army. The director also uses a lot of POV shots (point of view) and two shots it gives the viewer a point of that the soldiers had. 

In the following Maximus reaches down to rub the dirt in his hands, the non-diegetic music which is referred to as the “earth theme” made by the musical director Hans Zimmer it plays each time Maximus rubs dirt into his hands this is an indication that Maximus is first and foremost a farmer. As Maximus rides off to meet his cavalry unit a sequence of low tilt angles and tracking shot as Maximus rides past his men on a horse they rise this is an induction of Maximus authority and respect that he his between him and his men.

An editing technique that the director uses is rapid cutting, as the roman’s are loading catapults and ready to fire their arrows the camera moves from person to person at their faces of the different types of authority figures preparing the army for battle from the top authority figure of the emperor Marcus Arelius who is set on the highest hill top in the sequence looking down at the armies, all of the following are sort of like reaction shots. This certain type of editing is used to build up tension and suspense for the upcoming fight that is about to happen.

As Maximus rides into the woods he is accompanied thoughout by his loyal dog. The dogs loyalty to his master is a symbol between the dog and the loyalty is syombolic of the loyalty of his men. He meets his cavalry unit behind the enemy ready to flank the Germanic tribe. There is a series of shots such as tracking shots, long shots and panning to see the size of the cavalry unit. There is also numerous POV shots and over the shoulder shots to make the spectator feel as they were part of the cavalry unit listening to the general’s speech to hype up the men before they go to battle.

After this sequence the director uses more rapid cutting of the roman rushing around loading weapons and getting ready to engage the enemy, the non diegetic music gets louder to build tension this makes the spectators aware that the battle is about to commence. An extreme long shot which shows in the shot the roman army watching an arrow on fire (the signal to attack) fly into the air. There is numerous amounts of cuts between the main battlefield with the main roman infantry and catapults and the woods with Maximus and his cavalry ready to flank the enemy.

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The film that im going to do is an ending sequence to a crime drama genre.

This film is about a dective John Summers who is trying to catch a serial killer which murders all over the state in Florida were a young girl is murdered the detective is given very subtle clues which lead to the murderer.Thourghout the film he travels around the state from Miami to the everglades trying to catch the murderer with his understudy Sally Mcceady trying to find the connection between the murders all over the state. As this is going on the detective John Summers is having trouble at home his wife is leaving him (a flawless hero), his son is a drug addict but the parents do not know this until later in the film. In the ending sequence there is a chase scene where John and the murderer is running though the streets Miami, the murderer stabs the detective in a dark alley as this happens armed police take the murder down. Later John is in the hospital the murder is revealed as Harry Jacobs a convict who was released on parole. The following sequence is the begining of the film.

Sequence starts in a small subarban town outside the city of Tampa the camera long shot of a subarban house. establishing mid shot of parents leaving a house leaving a teenage girl homealone the phone rings the girl is distracted picking up the phone and talking to a friend unaware that she has left the door open, the camera zooms in to show the door is ajar. After talking on the phone she makes her way to the lounge and starts watching Tv shot shown of a high tilt shot of her sitting on the sofa. POV of the murderer making his way towards the window from the outside to look inside. the girl makes her way upstairs from a low tilt shot of her walking up the stairs there is a creak downstairs rapid cutting from the door slightly more open to a reaction shot of the girl walking up the stairs high angled this time. She walks into the bathroom a panning shot to the right in the shot you can see a shower a low angled shot of the girls leg getting into the shower and sudden cut to the bathroom door as the door handle slowly opens. final shot a shadow of the a knife raised towards the girl, a long shot showing the girl and the a image of the murderer. This film will be called “without a cause”

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The semi-comical story is about Billy Fisher, a working-class 19-year-old living with his parents in the fictional town of Stradhoughton in Yorkshire. Bored by his job as a lowly clerk for an undertaker, Billy spends his time indulging in Walter Mitty-like fantasies and dreams of life in the big city as a comedy writer. Billy is 19, and living with parents and his grandmother, Billy lies compulsively to everyone he comes across. Billy works as a clerk for undertakers Shadrack & Duxbury. He is engaged to three girlfriends in the play, and is always talking about a job offer writing scripts in London for “Danny Boon”, a comedian. He is lying to three different women about living different lives with each of them one to move to Devon, the other he gave the engagement ring to the other girl which belonged to the other girl and the other is adventurous and always going places and that is the girl that Billy is really interested in but at the end when she tells him to come with her he gets cold feet and runs away from her at the end of the film.

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Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama, History

Director: Ridley Scott

Starring: Russell Crowe

                 Joaquin Phoenix

                 Connie Nielsen

Scene sequence

I have chosen the scene in the film at the beginning when Maximus (Russell Crowe) and his legion are at the last Germanic fort. I have chosen this certain scene as it has a wide range of all the things used in a film analysis. Camera work is extensively used throughout the sequence eg panning the battlefield and long shots to show the size of each army.  

Mis-en-scene plays a big part in the sequence the setting in a snowy Germanic forest, the props used such as weaponry swords and shields, ballista’s and catapults and also the blood used in the fight sequence (this could be used put in the special effects category also).Costume such as the Germans fur clothing and the roman’s armour and tunics.

The sound used in the fight sequence is non diagetic even though it is very faint and the main sounds used are noises from the battlefield

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The film is set in the mid 1800s during the civil war era when immigrants from all over Europe where starting to migrate to the US the Irish immigrants were singled out by the original pioneers and founders of America for there religion (Roman Catholic) and cultural differences. The scenes that I’m analysing starts in a snowy town square two gangs are standing either side of the square.

Camera:  At the start of the sequence there is a establishing tracking shot of the Irish gang walking out towards the town square, as the native gang leader walks out there is a low tilt angled shot of his feet (this builds a tension to scare the audience) this also shows his authority with the camera looking up at him.

Mis-en-scene: The setting is a mid 19^th century New York city the scene is set in a snowy town square in the city. The costumes used in this film are used during the Victorian era eg waistcoats, top hats, braces etc especially with the protestant native gang, the Irish gang mainly wear more of a 19^th century labourer costume. The props used for the scene the weapons used for the native gang would be more handy tools such as knives and swords the Irish gang used weapons more to do with there labouring job such as a shovel or an axe.

Sound: At the beginning of the scene there is a build up to the fight sequence it starts with just a dead silence background noises of the wind and certain animals. When the fighting starts it begins playing non diagetic music.        

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