Scene Analysis

1) View the "Visual Focused" page to see my first visual analysis of Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining".

2) "Prisoners" 2013- Sound analysis

Prisoners, The Denis Villeneuve crime, drama, mystery spectacle was released in 2013 staring Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal.  

Dialogue- 

The dialogue in this scene is simple yet extremely effective due to the outstanding performances from Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal, This scene carries a lot of tension and suspense as we see Hugh Jackman's character get increasingly more agitated and aggravated throughout the scene until he eventually bursts out into a fit of rage. The line delivery is so good, just by using dialogue we as the audience can feel tensions rise to a breaking point. For the dialogue in this scene I believe that the audio was recorded on set without using any added ADR.

Ambience-

Set on a rainy and stormy day the use of added ambience sound disguised as the rain drops hitting the car roof and the sudden bursts of thunder add to the already tense scene. The sound of rain helps add to the bleak and miserable atmosphere and to put in literary terms, its a great use of "Pathetic fallacy" as the weather reflects the characters moods and mannerisms. 

SFX/Foley-

Even though the scene is dialogue driven, there is a great chance that the audio was edited in post production to add certain effects, for example; The post production team may of added additional Reverb to the characters voice, and they possibly created the sounds of rain and thunder by using Foley techniques such as frying a piece of bacon to create the illusion of rain.

Diegetic/Non-Diegetic-

Every sound we the audience hear in this scene is completely Diegetic apart from the short snippet of music at the very beginning, after the music stops the whole scene is diegetic which means all sounds are heard in the story's universe, so the rain, thunder and dialogue are all heard by the characters on screen.  

Soundtrack-

This scene is perfect example that sometimes music isn't needed to make a scene suspenseful, The way the audience is left with only the sounds of rain and dialogue really helps to desolate atmosphere, whereas if music was playing in the background, I don't think the scene would of been as emotionally effective and hard hitting.

Post production alterations-

Now, all audio in movies are looked over and re watched in post production to ensure that they remove any unwanted sounds or add certain sounds to enhance the scene, For this certain scene I believe they only added Foley sounds in post such as the rain and thunder but apart from that the audio is "Raw" (Straight from the microphone).

3) The Dark Knight- Sound analysis 

Arguably one of the best films of the 21st century, Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" is an intense action packed movie released in 2008. 

Dialogue- 

Within this 4 minute clip there is is about 25 seconds of spoken dialogue from the characters, first with Bruce Wayne and Lucius Fox and the other is from Lau and his henchmen, but when Lau is speaking, he speaks in Japanese and subtitles appear on screen. I think it would be safe to assume that the spoken dialogue was actually spoken on set instead of in a studio, even though they definitely would of added effects into the scene in post.

Ambience-

The start of the scene is set in Hong Kong during the day and the post production team have added ambient sound in the form of a crowded city with civilians speaking and car horns going off but the scene shortly shifts to night time where there is much less ambient sound used.

SFX/Foley-

I assume that the post production team added Foley sound effects into this scene in the following ways;

At 5 seconds in when Fox shows off the sonar to Bruce and it makes the high pitched sound.

At 50 seconds in when Batman assembles his gun and it makes the mechanical sounds.

Roughly about 2 mins and 5 seconds into the scene we hear Batman's cape flapping in the wind as he soars through the Hong Kong skyline.

And finally when Batman starts fighting the henchmen they most likely used Foley to create the sounds of Gunshots, glass breaking and Batman's heavy hitting punches.

Diegetic/Non-diegetic

During this clip there is a mixture of diegetic and Non-diegetic elements in play. For starters, any music that is playing within the scene is non-diegetic whereas everything else within the scene is actually happening and can be heard by characters within the segment.

So any character interaction is diegetic and the music that is there to enhance the mood is non-diegetic.

Soundtrack and Music

Two words... Hans Zimmer.

Probably the most famous sound and music composer of all time is the man who is responsible for creating the Dark Knights soundtrack, It has so many layers to each separate "Leitmotif". The definition for Leitmotif is "a recurrent theme throughout a musical or literary composition, associated with a particular person, idea, or situation."-Google.

For example the joker and Batman each have a separate leitmotif and within this scene you can hear Batman's very easily recognizable theme tune.

Post Production alterations

I'm certain that this scene was looked over and reviewed many times by the post production team as they help source together the best sounds that fit for the scene, roughly 50% of the audio heard in this scene alone was done and edited in post production!

4) Taxi Driver- Visual analysis 

The 1976' timeless classic, Martin Scorsese directs this movie about a Taxi driver gone rogue, Staring the great Robert De Niro.

Aesthetics-

This is one of the more famous scenes from the movie, here is why it stuck with me through all these years...

Straight away this scene takes place at a governor rally in broad daylight, our first glimpse of our protagonist Travis is shown in an odd but remarkable way, The camera pans into Travis's torso and clothing and lingers there for 12 seconds, showing off his worn down clothes and his "We are the people" badge.

The camera then shoots up to reveal Travis's face and mannerism.

Space and Composition-

Travis is shot more towards the right hand of the screen instead of the centre of the screen (using the rule of thirds), I believe this was intentionally to visually represent Travis's unbalanced mind. 

This scene has many great and iconic shots that really allow the audience to see their surrounds. The two shots below are amazing and giving off different perspectives and emotions. 

The first picture we see a crowed of people cheering but then you notice Travis is kind of moulding into the background, looking like he is a part of the scenery instead of a participant in the event. The second picture is an over the shoulder shot but Travis is centre frame this time, as if we are in his shoes and are seeing the event from his own twisted perspective.

Acting-

Robert De Niro is a very well known and well rounded actor, he does an impeccable job of performing the role of a mentally deranged outcast that seems like he could blow into a fit of rage and any second. His acting in this scene is very composed, calm and collected but as we see later throughout the scene this isn't the case as he tries to assassinate Palatine.

Truly masterful display of acting skills from Robert De Niro.

Narrative-

At this point in the movie, Travis has already met his turning point of insanity, Just through this one clip alone however, we the audience can deduce what is going through his mind and how he is feeling, its sort of got a 3 act structure to this one scene;

1- Travis watches his prey from a distance while putting on a happy and supportive face.

2- Travis then begins to stray towards Palatine, hands in pockets, knowing what he is planning... The tension is building.

3- The breaking point! Travis messes up his opportunity and gets spotted by the security guards, he then escapes shortly after.

Editing-

This scene is very slow and fluid with its pace as it allows the audience to take in everything that is happening on screen but also that time is used in a great way, when the camera lingers on Travis without cutting away, the audience is constantly thinking about what the character is thinking, the editing style is as if we are directly in Travis's shoes and are seeing at the same pace as him.

Sound-

The post production team decided to not add any music in the scene and to only include ambient sounds of the crowed and of Palatine doing his speech, I think the use of no music is a great choice and is a way to ease the tension and dread in but by doing it in a subtle way. If some horrific music played as Travis looked on then the audience would instantly know that something bad was to happen, but by leaving the music out it leaves the audience in suspense.

Technical Aspects-

Martin Scorsese used a basic camera setup for this scene by using one camera and doing multiple takes instead, by filming this way, Scorsese knew exactly what camera movements he wanted and how to execute them without the possibility of getting the crew in frame.

Representation-

Taxi Driver as a whole has a huge underlying theme of insanity and perspective. Travis Bickle in the film was an Ex army veteran turned taxi driver, but as he sees more and more trouble in the streets he sees himself as the good guy trying to do the right thing by taking the "bad" people out. But that's only from his perspective. From other perspectives, people see Travis as an unhinged, psychotic and deadly killer.

The whole movie is about how you perceive people and how they look back and retaliate towards you.