Film Studies, Micro Elements



The first film I have decided to analyse for my Film Studies coursework is Jack's entrance in Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Mans chest. Gore Verbinski directs the film, it was released in 2006 and is an Action/adventure film which is the second instalment of the films. In this Analysis I will be looking at the sound used in the film.
Men are heaving coffins into the water. As they float into the ocean,(which will be a diagetic sound as the characters will hear this sound) a crow lands on top of one and starts pecking with its beak. A gunshot is heard and the coffin lid is blown off in the spot the bird was once stood. A hand holding a pistol emerges and proceeds to “look around” with the gun in case any danger. The hand is pulled back into the coffin and Jack breaks through the coffin top. He checks on his favourite hat and puts it on. With a "Sorry, mate," to the corpse inside the coffin with him, he breaks off one of the skeleton's legs and uses it as an oar to steer the boat. The lighting in the scene is dark with bits of light coming through- to show that it is possibly late night/early morning. This is no music in this scene but there are added effects, such as the gunshot and the bird squawking for added realism. There is also an added sound effect of the skeletons leg being ripped off and flowing through the water.

The second film I am analysing is The Descent by Neil Marshall. It was released in 2005 and is a horror film, I will be analysing the lighting and use of location used and the proxemics in the group near the start of the film.
The scene starts with the characters walking through a lush forest; you can see that the location has been used because of the vibrant green colour that is coming from the background. The character proxemics shows that they are a group of friends but also shows a hierarchy as the person in the front is leading the way and also doing all the talking. Lighting in the first part of this scene is bright, to show they are out walking on a nice sunny day. After this part of the scene it jumps to the group walking down a bank, the colours have changed as there are now lots of leaves on the floor and you can see the contrast as the mud appears to be getting darker the further they travel downwards. One of the group stops to talk pictures and is met with sarcastic comments by another group member, this shows that character relationships may not exactly be perfect. The lighting in this part of the scene is darker than before, there is now a background music accompanying the scene, it is a slow and almost sinister sound to it as the camera pans and shows the dead animal that the group member has been taking the picture of. The area around this is blurred out, this technique is used to make the viewers focus on a certain part of the frame, the camera stays on this until the last group member has the left the shot. I believe that the lighting used in this part of the scene is ambient lighting, we get bits of light coming from the sun through the trees. This gives the film a more natural look, as the lighting used in this sequence would not be possible in a studio.

The last film I am analysing is Lord of the Rings (Bridge scene) in the “Fellowship of the Ring” by Peter Jackson. It was released in 2001 as the first film in a trilogy. The Genre is fantasy. For this analysis I an focusing on camera shots and the use of background sound and sound effects and what effect it provides the audience with.

The scene begins with the group sprinting through a large, dark hall in an underground cave, the director is using an extreme shot, this shows the audience how large the space is that they are in and also shows the audicne the emergency of the situation as they need to get to the other end of the room. The only lights are those of Gandalf's staff and torches held by other members of the group. There is a large blanket of darkness- they can see only a short way ahead of them in all directions, and they know they are being chased, we see this when the came changes shot to a close-up of the two main characters in the films, as the look back we get a point of view shot to what they see; an army chasseing them. The size of the hall is shown to the audience through the use of long establishing shots and high angled shots. They show us that there are hundreds of orcs chasing the group, but they cannot see them. As they run, we can hear the theme tune playing of the “Lord of the rings” films. This piece of music gets played throughout the trilogy of films whenever the Fellowship is about to do something heroic. It tells the audience that something important is about to happen. We can also hear the orcs shouting/cries as they chase the group. We also see the sense of emergency as the camera pans to the running group, it also shows the audience that many of the creatures begin to join the chase, they seem to appear out of no-were and are covered in the darkness, this could be to suggest the evil that they are. When the group is surrounded by the orcs the background music is predominant in the sequence as we cannot much of the sound from the actual scene taking place, we get many point of view shots in this section of the film, we see the orcs point of view and also the heroes point of views, the shot after this is another long shot and we see that the group is surrounded by darkness, we also see how the small group is vastly out numbered as they appear as a small dot in an ocean of creatures.

When the group stop running, the music stops playing. There is almost complete silence, but we can hear the heavy breathing from the members of the group, and the rustling of swords on armour from the hoard of orcs. There's a pause, no one makes the first move. The director gives us close ups of several orcs and of one of the characters of the group, to express their anxiousness and tension.

A non-diegetic roaring sound from deep within the caves breaks the pause. It is loud and echoes through the large empty halls and corridors. A bright red light fills up one of these corridors, as we look at it through the use of a long establishing shot. The light is red to represent danger and possibly death. It is enough to make the orcs panic and run, shrieking as they go. We get another set of close ups, this time showing fear terror on the groups faces. He whispers to his friends, explaining what the sound is, and then they run off again. More music begins to play – this music is darker with a choir humming loudly in it. The music begins to fade and we hear a “swoosh” noise and arrows hitting close to the group. We can see that this is danger before we can even see the evil creatures and once again they are surrounded by darkness and the audience knows they are in danger as we can hear the sound effect of the arrows being fired and the sound of the ricocheting off the broken staircase the group are descending. We see even more danger soon after as the way the group has just come from is being lit up by a bright red light, meaning that whatever was in the tunnels earlier in the scene is chasseing them and suggests immediate danger, we see a close-up of one of the characters faces as they turn to realise the danger they are in.