Monday 7 October 2013

Gladiator Opening Scene Analysis

I have watched the opening 12 minutes of the film Gladiator and I will now analyse the Sound and Cinematography in depth.

SOUND 

At the start of the section that I am analysing, there is a hand running through some crops. The main sound in this part of the opening is the slow music. There are other quiet background noises such as footsteps and wind blowing. The quiet, slow music creates a peaceful atmosphere that gives no sense or danger or urgency.

The next part of the scene shows a man standing in battle clothes. At this point in the opening section, the music is still the main sound and it is getting a little bit faster. The background noise does not change much at this point. As the music is getting slightly quicker, we get a slight sense of urgency building up as if something is going to happen in the very near future.

The next shot shows an army. At this point in the scene, we are getting a more tense and adrenaline filled atmosphere. The music once again gets quicker and louder and the background noises become a lot more intense. In the background we now hear shouting and screaming in excitement and rage. When the music and background sounds get more intense, we start to feel a sense or urgency and excitement.  

The next part of the section we watched included a lot of action and loud noises surrounding a battle. There are many sounds in this part but the music is quieter. The sounds include swords and shields clashing, people shouting and a motivational speech. The shouting and the clashing weapons noises make the audience think that the pace of the action is increasing but the speech breaks up this adrenaline filled part of the analysed section. During the speech, there is very slow music in the background to add tension and a sense of passion to what the leader is saying.

After this part, there is a long period of action. During this period we hear a mixture of war cries, clashing of swords and shields, arrows being fired and horses running across the war zone (with soldiers on the back of them). At the start of the long war, the music is very energetic and also very noticeable but the sound effects are also very loud. The mixture of two loud aspects in this part of the opening scene build a tense and energetic atmosphere surrounding the start of the action but the music gradually changes to become dramatic. When the music changes to become slow and dramatic, the whole atmosphere changes and this makes the audience feel calmer and in a way, sympathetic towards the soldiers. Although the scenes stay similar when the music changes, we still get the change in emotion due to the music changing in speed. 

The music stays slow until the battle has finished and we get a view of somebody watching over the scene. In conclusion, the start of the section that I have analysed has a lot of non-diagetic sound and we feel a lot of emotion surrounding just the music but it gradually changes to include more diagetic sound. When more diagetic sound was included, we felt more part of the scene, mainly due to the speeches and the sound of the weapons.


CINEMATOGRAPHY

At the start of the sequence I am analysing, there is a close-up of a hand running through some crops. The camera at this point is on a dolly, we can tell this because it uses a very smooth motion and does not shake.

We are then shown a close-up still shot of the leader and this helps us see his emotion. The close-up mixed with the music helps us to see that the leader is getting ready and is anticipating action.

The next major shot is a long-shot and a wide-shot of the surroundings. The use of a long-shot and a wide-shot give us a sense of the scale of the surroundings and therefore a scale of the action and this also makes us realise the severity of what is about to happen.

The next main shot of this sequence is of the leader of the romans looking over the war zone. We have a close-up of the leader to show his emotion surrounding the fighting that is about to happen and this also shows his emotion surrounding the fact that some of his soldiers will lose their lives. This is also a still shot.

Before the battle starts, we have a lot of medium-shots on a dolly across the soldiers/army and also a lot of point of view shots of soldiers to show what they see and how they see the war zone. The medium shots show the soldiers and how they are positioned in their part of the war zone and their stances as they get ready to go to battle. The point of view shots show the severity of the war zone and also gives us a good view of what the soldiers see. The camera is on a tripod and a dolly throughout this section.

Just before the battle starts, we get a lot of shots with the camera on a tripod showing the start of the battle. These shots show the arrows being fired across the air and the soldiers starting their movement towards each other. At this point we also have some aerial shots of the war zone to show the scale of the war.

When the battle starts, the camera changes to handheld. Most of the shots used in this section are close-ups and point of view shots. The use of both of these shots shows the emotion and the severity of the battle as well as the tragedy of the death and injuries. The use of a handheld camera helps to show the movement of the soldiers through the war zone as it moves around fairly randomly.

We then see another close-up of the leader of the Romans. This shot shows the leader's emotion after the battle has finished. The leader is looking over the war zone so we get the impression that the leader's emotion is surrounding the battle zone.

One of the last major shots in this sequence is a wide shot and also an extreme long shot of the battle zone. This shows the scale of the battle and also the consequences e.g the death and injuries of all people involved.

The last shot we see is the leader of the Romans again. The camera is still in this shot and and is a close-up. This shows emotion in the character.













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