FILM STUDIES

 Discuss how key elements are used to communicate themes in your chosen films. Make detailed reference to particular sequences in your answer.  OPENING / CLOSING SEQUENCE  Themes: - Poverty - Violence  - Government corruption  - The cycle of crime  MOTEL MASSACRE SEQUENCE Themes: - Violence  - Youth  - Morally corrupted  - Masculinity  First time quickly editing ; part music; overhead shots, we don't see the whole thing (innocent youth crime / comedic)  The same location; no sound, slow moving, see what Lil' Ze has done; corrupted and violent youth revealed. Absence of sound becomes part of the horror  MOVING TO THE FAVELAS SEQUENCE  Themes:  - Outcasts, population of the favelas  - Poverty - Government corruption - Abuse of power  Non-diegetic music and VoiceOver - upbeat and melodic tune, juxtaposes the position and landscape, ironic seeming their situation is rather dire (underdevelopment of pla...

 HOW CAN A DETAILED ANALYSIS OF THE OPENING AND CLOSING SEQUENCE IN CITY OF GOD INFLUENCE THE SPECTATORS UNDERSTANDING OF THE FILMS CONTEXTUAL AND REPRESENTATIONAL ISSUES? SIMILARITIES   DIFFERENCES   KEY ELEMENTS   - blue tinted lighting in the day time - colourless  - Repetition of the chicken escape, yet much faster in quicker editing  - Set of the favelas  - Handheld cinematography  - Performance: Lil Ze' and Ned die a very similar death, not grand, by a young child - Rhythm of the music, mirrored by the camera movement and editing  - Music integral to culture of favelas - The sequence slows down when Lil' Ze emerges when he spots Rocket, when Otto kills Ned the same slow motion occurs - signifies danger  - Both repeat motifs - danger and violence knives and guns         - POV of the camera  lens  through Rockets eyes - we end the film maintaining our faith in Rocket, trust in his perspective  - Slo...

- Filmmaking can certainly be shaped by the filmmaker's approach. Regarding this genre of film, two main contrasts of documentary would be the well utilised approaches of observational and participatory. Observational technique being moulded by Kim Longinotto's classic form of "fly on the wall" - both the director and audience being voyeurs upon a story, reaching our own conclusion. Participatory filmmaking reflects the physical involvement of a director within the documentary, perhaps being a more "flawless" presentation of a narrative, shaped in a desired way for the audience. This theory stemming from Nick Broomfield's active participation in his own documentaries, constantly shifting perspectives with his own involvement. In the case of this essay, I will be discussing how Kapadia shaped the documentary "Amy" through the approaches he considered, majority being observational, though the end product may influence a certain suggestion of the ...

  CITY OF GOD (LUND & MIREILLES, 2002) Outside of Europe:  Shift away from European o filmmaking genres, history and identities.  Geographical cultural and linguistic differences.  Social and cultural contexts engage with issues of world development and poverty.  OVERVIEW: Non-professional actors  Real places and spaces - importance of location in world cinema  Narrative structure is complex - three major strands  Spans the 1960s-1980s  The cyclical nature of the narrative parallels the idea of the cycle of crime, the repetition and even hopelessness A male world - representation of masculinity  Power and corruption Discussion points - first 35 mins Initial starting point - gang chasing a chicken who is caught in between the narrator and the police The flashback to the 60's  The context of the favela's - the governments neglect, the lack of essential resources in the housing projects The motel massacre - Lil' dice (shoots G...

 COMPONENT 2 SECTION A - Moving away from more conventional, familiar and dominant strands of filmmaking.  - Examination of how film and cinema is shaped outside of mainstream.  - Influence of time, place, spaces, culture, tradition.  - Film and cinema from Europe and beyond offer narratives and stories which are a window on to other worlds.  IDA (PAWLIKOWSKI, 2013)  Influence of European tradition in terms of style and film movements: Italian Neo-Realism, French New Wave - the "new" wave in Polish context, with traces of film noir as a genre - the lighting and use of monochrome At the same time the narrative emanates from European history (dark history) and specifically from the perspective of Poland and the Jewish Community A narrative which has re-located the past at a time when the movement towards an integrated Europe has tried to heal the painful individual and collected memories of the recent past.  CITY OF GOD (LUND & MIREILLES, 2002) Outsi...

SEQUENCE 3 - Younger Amy - after parents divorce Demonstrates Longinotto’s ideas as the clip is compiled of home videos of Amy Winehouse as well as narration about her childhood from Amy Winehouse herself. Home videos really meets Longinotto’s theory as the director doesn’t have any interjection in the video at all as they’re filmed previously. They let you see the raw personality of Amy Winehouse as a child without others giving their opinions on what they thought she was like. By using Amy Winehouse her self for the voice over, you get the truth about what she was like rather than hearing how other people perceived her. This completely links with Longinotto’s ideology as you’re getting the story straight from the main subject. Longinotto's approach would be to unravel the narrative by giving "space" to the parents' point of view - which is what Kapadia does by keeping the footage  However, Kapadia was not conducting the interview used as the voiceover so who’s to sa...

  Second hand footage - fly on the wall filmmaking.  Filmmakers theory on documentary - Broomfield vs Longinotto  RECORDING BACK TO BLACK: Switches from diegetic to non-diegetic and back sound to emphasise the importance of the Back to black album. Uses footage to show Amy has an awareness of how sad the song is - also uses VoiceOver to show that despite the potential tumultuous attitude Amy has she is still fairly professional able to work cohesively and with a purpose.  WINNING THE AWARD: Showing a mixture of footage of her winning the award and performing on stage and contrasting it with Juliette's interview in which Amy had said "This is so boring without drugs" both highlights and understanding of how deeply her addiction affects Amy and also plays with diegetic and non-diegetic sound to give us a sense of how contrasting the reality is from what's being played out on camera.  AMY'S FUNERAL: This sequence shows raw footage - at first with her friend and bod...