City of God

how far can it be argued that films you have studied represent a realistic representation of people and places they focus on?

To a certain extent city of god is quiet realistic in the way that it represents the people living in the favelas. this is because it is based in a real favela in rio where gang warfare is a huge problem. We can see evidence of this at the end of the film with the documentary footage that shows real interview with Knock Out Ned.

 Rio De Janeiro is host to a huge amount of youth crime. We can see an example of this youth involvement in the scene where the young boy, Steak n Fries, is forced by Lil Ze to shoot an innocent child. This act of violent dominant pier pressure is watch fuels the crime in the real Favelas.

 However it is this new blood which becomes lil ze's downfall in the scene towards the end wear the infant soldiers surround and shoot him. This is a perfect of example of a dog eat dog world

The mise en scene of City of God is very realistic...

Reflective Analysis

Aims and context

'No Redemption Without Blood'

• Opening scene from a Gritty, British, Crime film 
• Intended for mainstream Cine-literate audiences  
• Influences - Harry Brown (2009), London to Brighton (2006) and Casino Royale (2006) 
• Target audience 18+  Gritty Crime fans Mainly male audience. This is due to explicit violence and language from the beginning. The film could possibly be released as a 15 rating.  
• Apply Cinematography techniques commonly found in other gritty, British, crime film
• Explore key codes and conventions commonly found in British crime films, using genre specific mise en scene and lighting techniques.
• As Cameraman/Cinematographer, try to mimic the style of famous cinematographers such as Martin Ruhe 

Reflective analysis No Redemption Without Blood

 The film sequence that my group has produced is the opening scene to a British Crime thriller, called ‘No Redemption Without Blood’ which has taken influence from a number of films modern, british, crime films Such as ‘London To Brighton’ and ‘Harry Brown’. My groups original intention was to create a genre film which stuck rigidly to common conventions, however while creating an extract from the film we decided to change the style to be more challenging for our audience causing them to be more active. This means that the demographic changed and decrease so instead of our film being mainstream it now is more niche for independent cinemas and high brow film festivals

Our group’s original primary influence was ‘London to Brighton’ in terms of lighting, mood and cinematography this was because of how well ‘London To Brighton’ creates tension in certain scenes. We mainly focused on the cinematography and lighting in the main climactic scene, which is lit only with car headlights, we adopted this for the grand entrance of the character of The Chief in our production. Furthermore much of that scene is shot with handheld cameras, which led us to use this technique along with some extreme close ups to show characters emotions, another common aspect employed in the grave digging scene in ‘London To Brighton’.

Personally I felt that the work of Martin Ruhe in both ‘Harry Brown’ and ‘Control’ is what influenced me the most for the cinematography. After analysing ‘Harry Brown’ my group decided to film in a similar modern noir style. Focusing on his work inspired us to put the film in black and white, like in the film ‘Control’. Furthermore it meant that when we broke the 4th wall it was more obvious to our audience with the change to colour which helps make the film seem self-aware, also it is very jarring which furthers how it challenges the audience. Ruhe's cinematography style also inspired us to light the shots using a very small light source to create a tension through low key lighting, causing high contrast and shadows. Low-key lighting is a major part to the most dramatic and gripping scenes across Ruhe's work, which is why as cinematographer I found it to be very important to create the correct lighting effect for the scene, I also had to consider how it would look in black and white and whether it would have the correct impact on the audience. Moreover the interrogation scene in ‘Harry Brown’ is what inspired our opening interview, which helps to kick off the narrative with instant enigma codes of the missing mystery girl. I found that the close ups in and camera angles in this scene in Harry Brown really helped to emphasis the characters in the scene and how they react making it a very striking scene. This inspired my group to replicate this in the way that we shot it and edited it. 

Our group also decided to use experimental techniques to help challenge our audience. By using split screen like in ‘Requiem For A Dream’ we were able to break standard conventions of crime films to make a film better suited for a more active audience. The split screen effect is used to show the difference in what is happening in two different locations. Furthermore we took inspiration from David Fincher's work in the way that we chopped in single frames of figures that people would not notice fully, like the subliminal shots of Tyler Durden in Fight Club. We then decided to take this idea further by introducing screen tests of the actors in the film in homage to the work of Andy Warhol. This helped to distinguish the film from reality making the audience reflect on what they are seeing. Personally I feel that using Warhol inspired Screen Tests in our production really helps to show the difference between the actor and character, but also could show that in real life we all have to play a character. Hopefully a more active audience will be able to decode this and appreciate the meaning behind our experimental techniques. In my opinion No Redemption Without Blood would be a cult movie because it seems to target a very exclusive demographic and has taken influence from many different sources which cult movie fans would be able to identify, which would gratify them as film lovers.

Another influence is ‘Casino Royale’ there is a scene where James Bond is tied up to a chair and tortured, which is filmed in a neo noir style. This helped to inspire our scene in the way that we chose to light the hostages tied up to the chairs. Also in ‘Casino Royale’ you can see sweat shining on Daniel Craig we also recreated this in our own scene by spraying our actors with water. Light reflecting off water is a common noir convention, often sweaty faces or wet streets. It is typical to classic noir films such as ‘The Maltese Falcon’. Furthermore it is noir films like ‘The Maltese Falcon’, which inspired the slapping of the henchman in No Redemption Without Blood.

For the music in our film sequence we took influence from Tarantino films because he often uses music that doesn't necessarily fit the mood but still works well in the scene, this is what inspired the choice in music for our film. One example of how Tarantino does this is in Django Unchained with Who Did That To You by John Legend in the scene where Django rides away from the slaves in the cage. The Style of the song is not typical of the western film genre however in this scene it fits well and helps to add to the mood of the scene. This is something I feel that was achieved in the music selection for No redemption Without Blood.

 Also my group liked the non-diegetic sound used in Drive. Drive features dissonant drones to create a build in tension in the atmosphere of many scenes, for example when The Driver puts a bullet in Cook's mouth and threatens him with a hammer. We used tense drones in our film to add drama to the scene and we used them when the screen tests were introduced.

In my opinion what my group created worked well as an opening scene despite the way that the aims and contexts evolved. Its moved away from clichés by changing how we approached out audience. However I also agree that our film is massively postmodern and draws influence from a wide variety of sources. I felt that the film worked better than our original intentions as it evolved and I am happy with the final result. I feel that as Cinematographer I got some creative shots but I also wish that some could have had a better cinematic mood. More time at our original film location could have resulted in a more high quality production but this helped to inspire my group to think more creatively and develop a more challenging engaging film.

Experimental Film question

Discuss some of the ways in which the film or video work you have studied for this topic requires  different kind of spectatorship from which which spectators to their mainstream film going.

In the experimental films I have studied use many different film techniques and vivid imagery which attracts a different kind of spectatorship and audience. Experimental cinema often pushes the boundaries of conventional film and appeal to a niche high brow demographic.

In the Andy Worhol Film Eat, Worhol Challenges the common conventions of narrative and also becomes very personal and voyeuristic by focussing on a subject with steady cam while the subject carries out everyday tasks. This theme of scopophilia runs throughout wormholes films because of his own personal interest with focussing on the norm. This use of focussing on people causes people to feel uncomfortable  

Fight Club Question

How useful has a particular approach been in gaining a deeper understanding and appreciation of your chosen film?

The film Fight Club by David Fincher was released in 1999, a time where men were becoming more feminine and lacked many strong male role models. I feel that understanding the crisis of masculinity has helped me to gain a deeper understanding of the time that this film was made and how men were considered to be less manly. 

One example of how Fight Club represents the risks of masculinity is in the secs where The narrator visits the testicular cancer support group. This is good for highlighting the crisis of masculinity because the men at this group have had there testicles (their manliness) removed. Furthermore they are gathered in a basketball court where men often play sport, however these men are sat round in low-key lighting looking defeated and emotional. Also you can tell from the mens body language that the sat femininely. In Addition the fact that they are not playing sport could be a subtle nod by the director to them not having any balls. Moreover in this scene we can see an American flag hanging in the background, this helps to establish that this problem is rooted in the west. 

Another example of how the crisis of masculinity is shown is where Marla tells The Narrator that she has more right to be at a testicular cancer group than him. This highlights his own personal lack of manliness. This has helped me to develop a deeper understanding of Fight Club.

Another scene which conveys the loss of masculinity within The Narrator is where we see Jack on the   toilet flicking through an Ikea catalogue when he states that he used to look at porn but now its furniture mags. this shows that he has lost his male sexual desire and replaced it with an addiction to buying furniture.

Furthermore Later in the film we can see Jack look (in slow motion) at Tyler showing affection towards Angel Face and when the shot reverses to show his jealous face. This brings into question his own sexuality when he later beats Angel Face to a pulp.

response

'Experimental Film requires a different kind of spectatorship.' Has this been your experience? [35]

Experimental films are full of strange mixtures of images, situations, words and expressions that may not tell a cohesive story but, in the end, don't have to in order to achieve an emotional goal. This type of film therefore requires the spectator to shift their conventional cinematic expectations to accommodate more radical narrative techniques, themes and meaning construction. 

Un Chien Andalou, the infamous 1929 surrealist short film from Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali, attests to this. Now add your personal response and discussion of spectatorship issues
When I watched Un Chien Andalou I was first confused be the odd imagery of the film and was challenged by the lack of narrative and continuity but after the initial impact of the film I found that I could watch the film without the same feeling of confusion. I felt that I was starting to question the metaphors represented in the film. Although the film was serious I found myself laughing at certain parts that I felt looked weird, such as the woman getting ran over and the dribbling man as he gropes a woman. 



Chris Marker became known internationally for the short film La Jetée (1962). It tells of a post-nuclear war experiment in time travel by using a series of filmed photographs developed as a photomontage of varying pace, with limited narration and sound effects. Now add your personal response and discussion of spectatorship issues

For me, watching La Jatee was easier than watching the other experimental films because it was the most conventional as far as narrative goes. the series of pictures were so well taken it was like watching a normal film. However i did find it a bit slow paced. although I did like the paradox ending and the ideas behind the story which I thought was very thought provoking. I thought that the idea of the narrative where people get inserted into a dream world/ fake reality reminds me of the matrix and the story behind the game assassins creed.

Maya Deren’s Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) is a work that maintains all of the mystery, tranquility, unpredictability, and personal attachment that is ever present within the world of dreams. Now add your personal response and discussion of spectatorship issues
 I felt that I could not connect with this film and I was bored by the repetitive cycles in the narrative and felt that the soundtrack was unnerving. However I did like the camera work on the stairs which was both disorientating and unique.

Urban Story

For our urban story we took inspiration from the french urban story La Haine. We did this through the use of many different cinematography and editing techniques. Furthermore we also adopted some of the themes used throughout La Haine, such as the feeling of boredom and lethargic behaviour, We conveyed this by by showing how time passed by slowly with the use of long shots and the use of showing the time which is also a motif in urban stories. La Haine uses black and white footage which we have mimicked in our urban story. Also the characters in La Haine also loiter throughout the film so we got Ellis to loiter. Also in La Haine the main character are also influenced by American Gangsta Rap so we used none diegetic Gangsta Rap.

Good points

1. Good Cinematography 
2. Good Framing 
3. 
   

Bad points

1. Needs more reference to place 

City of god

Discuss some of the techniques used in your chosen films to provoke audiences into taking a particular point of view towards characters and key events.

Within the Urban Stories that I have studied there a number of techniques used to to help provoke audiences into responding in various ways and take a particular point of view towards individual characters and certain key events in the narrative. 

The first shot that the audience can see in city of god is a knife being sharpened and then a cut to black. This shows how immediately that the film is set in violent place. The knife is shown in a close up and the only noise is the diegetic sound of the knife as it is sharpened. then as the shot cuts to black we hear diegetic music of a Brazilian band playing this highlights the setting of film making the audience make a link between Brazil and violence. Also the shot constantly changes with a fast pace of editing which causes the audience to feel confused and disorientated. In amongst the series of shot we can chickens being slaughtered this represents what happens to people who live there, which is another way that the film causes the audience to take a certain view of Rio De Janeiro in the opening scene.
La haine - gun 

After one of the chickens escapes from the roof of the building where the chickens are being killed it is chased by a group of armed kids through the narrow alleyways of the slums. The use of fast editing and handheld tracking shots give the audience the interpretation that Rio is a barbaric, hostile place. This use of camera work makes the kids look like a pack of animals rather than a groups of children. However it is shown that the children learn their behavior from other the older "hoods" in the film by how Lil' Ze orders them to chase the chicken. This is also shown in the scene in City of God where Lil' Ze forces Steak n' Fries to shoot a child of a similar age to himself. Also in the film La Haine we see a child intimating Vinz smoking and shooting in the cinema scene. 

One of the themes of the urban stories that I have studied is that the characters are trapped by there environment and can not escape to start a new life. This is shown in City of God where .... tries to escape with his girlfriend but is instead gunned down by the police. This also an example of how characters in urban stories cannot sustain a romantic relationship. Both these themes are also present in La Haine, In the character Hubert. He talks to his mother about leaving but in the end he ends up shooting a police man, and he tries to chat up a girl but instead his friends ruin his chances with her entirely.