The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

     

                                                                                        

Country: United States

Language: English
Directed by:  Frank Darabont
Produced by: Niki Marvin
Based on :Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King
Starring:  Tim Robbins
                Morgan Freeman
Cinematography:  Roger Deagins

Editing by: Richard Francis-Bruce
Music by: Thomas Newman
Release dates: September 23,1994 (limited)                        
                         October 14,1994( North America)
Budget: $ 25 million
Box office:  $28,341,469
Duration: 142 minutes

The Shawshank Redemption tells the story of Andy Dufresne, a banker who spends 19 years in Shawshank State Prison for the murder of his wife and her lover despite his claims of innocence. During his time at the prison, he befriends a fellow inmate, Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding, and finds himself protected by the guards after the warden begins using him in his money laundering operation. 

This movie is about hope and freedom. Freedom is important because it has been taken away from the prisoners who spend whole life in the prison, suffering beatings from the cruel wardens and having a hard time. It is significant that they are still able to feel free, when being trapped behind bars at the same time. Hope is needed to survive, according to Andy " Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and good thing never dies".

The Mozart Opera scene

This Three-minute scene is my favourite scene in one of my favourite movies. It happens when Andy has briefly barricaded himself in one of the prison offices and decides to treat his cellmates to some music over the Shawshank loudspeaker system, and the music is Mozart's opera "the marriage of Figaro".


"It was as if a beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made those walls dissolve away, and for the briefest moments everyman at Shawshank felt free." explained by Red. The music echoing in Shawshank evokes the awareness of pursuing better life among the prisoners who will be jailed for the rest of their life. It is very touching when everyone stop their work and conversation, without moving, listening to the music sang by two Italian women, even none of them can understand the meaning of the music, they still enjoy it. That's the magic of music, and also the magic of hope.

As Red narrating:

"I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don't want to know. Some things are best left unsaid. I'd like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can't be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made those walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free."

Cinematography

It starts when Andy is choosing the disk from a box full of disks. The camera tilts from the box full of disks to Andy, selective focus and medium close up shot shows the importance of the main character. Then he chose a disk and put it on a phonograph, the shot is close up, and selective focus. After that, the camera focus on the key when Andy comes and use the key to lock the doors to ensure no one can come in.

Then the camera follows the string and focus the loudspeaker( selective focus), when Andy turns on the buttons and broadcast the music to the whole shawshank through the loudspeaker system.

It is rack focus when showing the prisoners and the guards stop what they are doing, leaning to the window, trying to find out where the beautiful music is coming from. Using wide angle, the whole square full of prisoners can be seen. The camera height changed from eye level to high angle, then finally, birds eye, then the loudspeaker is slowly revealed  high above the sky. The scene is deep focused, everyone is paying attention to the loudspeaker and enjoying the breathtaking moment. The close-up shot of the prisoners faces reinforces the feeling.

Andy, however, lying on his chair, enjoying the music and his 'masterpiece', ignoring the slammed door and the fiery warden outside the door. When the warden shouting "open the door, turn that off!" and "I am warning you Dufresne!" outside, Andy leans forward and turns up the volume instead, there is a zooming shot and extreme close up to the button, which emphasis the silent resist against the warden and the shawshank jail. In the end, the screen on the door is smashed by the officer and the warden comes in the room. The shot is medium close up, which allows the viewers to notice his angry facial expression. Low angle makes the warden look bigger, threatening and empowered.

The Mozart Opera scene available here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bjqmg_7J53s

The trailer available here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hB3S9bIaco

The Cinematography of Raging Bull (1980, Martin Scorsese)

Walking to the ring

Camera work: eye level, tracking shot, steady cam 
Focus: selective focus

Tracking shot(steady cam ) is used to follow the movement of the main protagonist, it invites the viewers to be more involved in Jake's feelings and emotions. The camera turned around from the  front position of the character to behind him, which firstly shows the feeling of Jake, then turn to show the excitement of the audience.

Selective focus is used to make the main character stands out in the scene, so that the viewers' attention is attracted.

Entrance to the ring

Lenses:
Wide range is used to show the scale of the ring, and the large number of the audience.
Telephoto is used when Jake is walking along the corridor.

Panning: 
The first time is from the audience to the ring, it takes the viewers to the ring, which makes the fight more real.It shows the relationship between the spaces.
The second time is from the referee to Jake, follows the referee's finger( pointing at Jake), it draws our attention to the main character, and shows the connection between the referee and the competitor. It is very dramatic and exciting because it panned very fast.

Shot: close up, medium close up, emphasis the significance of the character, allow the viewers to focus on his face and feel his emotion.
       

During the fight

Camera angle: low angle mostly, high angle
Shot: extreme close up, close up, handheld
In most time of the fight, the camera angle is low angle, and using close up and extreme close up shot allows the viewers to see the expressions on the faces of the competitors.
During the fight, the camera is very close to the action and apparently hand held. Handheld shot is used to convey a sense of realism.

End of the fight

Angle: canted angle

Canted angle and slow motion is used when some water is poured down, showing a dramatic atmosphere and exaggerate the exhausted feeling. 

Celebration

Shot: tilt

There is a tilt shot from Jake's medal belt to his face, it shows the connection between them and emphasis his happiness and proud. 

Extreme close up is used to shoot the medal belt. It is a symbol of winner and power.

Camera angle: low angle

Low angle is used to exaggerate the size of the object, in this scene, the use of low angle makes Jake look more powerful and dominated, and emphasis his proud of winning the competition.

How does Fritz Lang use the devices of miss en scene to develop the characters, themes and narratives at the beginning of "Metropolis"?

Location 1

Setting

It is in a city which is deep below the surface of the earth, where the workers live and work. There are machines working to provide the power for the overground metropolis. The buildings in the underground city are all look the same. The colour is a bit blue so that it makes people feel cold and depressive. Then there is a scene of shift change. The workers travel down to this underground city by huge elevators. The buildings and the gates are like jail or cage, which suggests poor living conditions and working conditions of the underground workers.

Human figures

In the scene of shift change, the workers are walking in alignment, moving slowly in the same rhythm, with heads down and blank facial expression. They look numb and feelingless, just like slaves or machines. They transform into human robots in order to operate the cold machines. Their life is in everyday  routine and have no freedom. That is not what they want.

The workers are placed very small in the scene , and they are put together as a group of people instead of individuals, as if they don't have any feelings or personalities, they are just machines rather than humans who can talk and walk normally.

Costume

They are all wearing the same dark uniform with the same hat, so that they all look the same, which makes them more like feelingless robots rather than humans with different personalities.

Lighting

The lighting is very cold and artificial , because it is in a underground city without sunshine which can bring natural light. It creates the feeling of depression and dehumanization of the workers.

Location 2

Setting

In contrast, the upper class live in a metropolis which is high above the surface of the earth. The stadium and the garden are built for the sons of the ruling class for leisure. The stadium is vast and gorgeous, the colour is bright so that it makes people feel free and comfortable.

There is a fountain in the garden, and there are plants and flowers which make the garden look like a paradise, and there are peacocks, which symbolizes beauty and immortality. All of them create a pleasurable atmosphere.

Human figures

The people in the second location are all from upper class, we can tell from their beautiful clothes and luxury accessories. They all look happy and relaxed when they have a running competition. So that we can know that it is not a real competition but just for entertainment.

In the garden, there is a man and a woman look happily together, they are moving freely and playing around the fountain. As we can see from their face, they are smiling and laughing all the time which indicates that they don't have any worries or pressure. They enjoy their lives very much.

Costume

The people appear in this scene are all wearing beautiful clothes, men are wearing spotless shirt and tie, women are wearing delicate dress and accessories, and they are wearing make-up, suggesting they all from upper class.

Lighting

The lighting is soft and natural, which shows freedom, happiness and living in a dreamland. It makes us to believe the upper class are bathed in a comfortable natural sunlight and have no darkness to fear.

The main protagonists

In the first location, the main characters are the workers. However, they are seen as a group rather than individuals.

In the second location, the main characters are the man, and the beautiful woman with children, because they are in the foreground and the middle of the scenes which shows the importance.
The woman is a daughter of a worker, and she is wearing simple dress with no decoration on it., which suggests she is from lower class.

The man Freder and the woman are from different class. There may be stories between them as the narrative develops.

Narratives

In a future metropolis, the surface of the earth separate the two class, the underground city where the upper class live, and the underground city where the workers live and work. Freder, the son of one of the ruling elites idles away in the stadium and the eternal garden of pleasure, until one day, he saw a beautiful woman from the lower class and fell in love with her immediately . He followed her to the underground city in order to find her. In the underground city, Freder witnesses one worker failed to operate the machine and then the pressure rises and cause an explosion.

Development

Following the explosion, the image changes. The machine changes into a horrible monster face with its mouth open, the workers are led to its mouth, and there are some injures and death afterwards. Freder witnesses all of these happen and he is shocked by the scene. Then, the image changes back to normal, the machines are working again just like nothing happened. It represents that the workers are not important at all, they are treated as machines or robots, and it doesn't matter if they are dead, there will be new 'robots' replace his position, and the ruling class will show no sympathy for them. It is tragic and pathetic because nobody care about the workers. They should be very important and treated well for providing the power of the metropolis by operating the machines, but the reality is nothing like that. The machine is a monster which destroys their lives, just like the social system which imprisons their freedom and personalities. It makes me feel sad.

The new setting(Last scene)

In the last scene, we can see a picture of the overground city. There are skyscrapers everywhere, connected by highways, and numerous automobiles and airplanes are traveling around.

It reminds me of manhattan in New York where the few upper class and the elites live and work.

I think the purpose of showing this setting is showing huge difference between the two class,  the towering overground city of metropolis hints the endeavor of the underground workers, it is their work which provide the power for the overground metropolis. However, the workers are controlled by the ruling class, and they can't get rid of them because of their enslaved personalities.

 

Reading a scene in "American Beauty"

Character
There is a man in the foreground and the middle of the scene, which indicates that he is the main character of this movie. He is kneeling on the ground, picking up some pieces of paper from the suitcase in front of him.

Costume
This man is wearing a suit with a tie, which suggests that he is conventional and  in working class.

Facial expression
He is looking directly at the direction of the camera, no smiling, looking quite serious and scared, which means he is vigilant or nervous.

Background
In the background, we can see a typical middle class American house because of the white fence, manicured lawns in the garden and the big house with small trees and flowers.

Setting
It is in a garden in somewhere in America.
It is in the 1990s because of the grey suit the man wears and the house in the background.(It reminds me of the houses in "The truman show" and "Edward Scissorhands") I don't think it's the man's house, he is just visiting, for some work reasons.

Genre
This is probably an American drama or comedy.