Film response Writing about film
Step 1: Identifying directors purpose
- Record the scene you have been given to study
Step 2: Identify the visual and/or verbal production techniques in the scene. Remember to include specific examples/evidence
Visual technique: (Camera shot, angle and movement (cinematography), costumes and props, set design, editing, lighting and color, characterisation and bodylanguage or performance
Step 3: Link visual and verbal techniques to the director's purpose. Copy and paste information from other places in your mindmap so you don't have to re-type information
Visual or verbal production technique two - Lighting
Example from scene: The little amount of light in the dark cave in the night even with several torches inside the cave and with a full moon blazing down on the sea outside.
Explain the effect of the technique. How does it link to the director's purpose?
Example: Visual or verbal production technique one - Camera work(medium shots/close-ups)
Example from scene: The many close-ups between Jack and Barbossa
Explain the effect of the technique. How does it link to the director's purpose?
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What do you think the director's main purpose is? Ask yourself: What did the director want to achieve with this scene?
Did he/she want to give important information about:
Character
Setting
In Isla del Muerta
Relationship: Jack was former friends with Barbossa and his crew before the mutiny.
Conflict
The enmity between Jack, Barbossa, and Barbossa's crew
Jack, Barbossa
The director’s purpose in this scene is to:
Show that the other pirates can be just as crafty as Jack himself and even though Jack is enemies with Barbossa, he is clever enough to convince Barbossa into making a deal that would be his undoing even in a tense scene. This shows how calm Jack is under pressure.
Example: Low angle shot - Low angle shot of Coach Boone as he is speaking ot the team. The position of the camera makes him look powerful and dominant, as though he is in control
Verbal techniques
Visual techniques
Dialogue
Lighting
Camera shots
Example from Scene:
Example from Scene:
The little amount of light in the dark cave in the night even with several torches inside the cave and with a full moon blazing down on the sea outside.
The many close-ups and medium shots between Jack and Barbossa
The many close-up and medium shots changing quickly between Jack and Barbossa shows how tense the situation is. The camera is rapidly switching from Jack to Barbossa with occasional close-ups of Will being held prisoner and wider shots of the other pirates watching like an audience at a speech.
The lighting is very different from the scene in Port Royal when Jack get's introduced. There, it's the middle of the day, it seems warm and tropical. The lighting is very bright, and it feels safe. In this scene however, the lighting is almost non-existent. Only a few torches(which for some reason never go out), a full moon shining outside in the sky and occasional glints of treasure when light from either the torches or moon hits it and is reflected off it provide all of the vision in the cave. Altogether it makes the atmosphere quite eerie and the presence of a full moon may symbolise bad luck. But the main point of the lighting is to make the pirates seem evil and scary, since this is their main home and base, as well as make the scene more tense. This adds to the audiences minds about how clever Jack is in tense situations because darkness is usually associated with fear and the fear makes the scene tense.
Visual or verbal production technique three - Dialogue