Thursday, February 2, 2012

BW: Technical Analysis


Lord of War (Niccol, 2005)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHn1zogeyO4




 Camera technique and Mise-en-scene
Duration of shot
Low angle
13 seconds
Zoom
10 seconds
Medium close up
18 seconds
POV
2 minutes, 53 seconds
Ruined town in what looks somewhere like Cuba
37 seconds
Man in very neat suit contrasts his messy and ruined surroundings
14 seconds
Munitions factory
1 minute, 23 seconds
Shipyard in somewhere like Russia
4 seconds
Shipyard in Africa
28 seconds
In a jungle on a rebel truck in Africa
7 seconds
High angle
13 seconds
Nicolas Cage turns to the camera to directly address the audience
17 seconds
Pan/establishing shot of the factory
15 seconds
African village
15 seconds
Camera shot through the barrel of an AK-47
8 seconds
Fast tracking shot of bullet flying through the air – slow motion as it nears target
3 seconds
- slow motion, 1 second


Soundtrack
The song used is called 'For What It's Worth' and is by Buffalo Springfield. I feel that it's the lyrics of this song that really go with the scene and displays the arms trade for the shame that it is. Lyrics such as "Battle lines being drawn" and "Nobody's right if everybody's wrong"
"There's somethin' happenin' here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a mun with a gun over there
Tellin' me, I got to beware"
You can see how the lyrics of this song complement a thought provoking examination of the arms trade as shown in the opening clip.
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> I've learnt that in the Lord of War clip the way the audience follows the life of a bullet is very effective at hooking them because it's something different in films, and makes the audience feel more involved. Another way the audience is made more involved is how Nicolas Cage directly addresses the audience, giving them a  fact and then asking "How do we arm the other 11?".

1 comment:

  1. Great pov shots in this opening. You could add to the soundtrack analysis by commenting on grain of voice in the voiceover. This is good work Ben

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