BLK Homework 2 - Film Opening analysis

For this Homework, we were given the task of analysing a film clip and listing all the Film making conventions and cultural codes used in the scene, the clip I choose was from the start of the second film in the Christopher Nolan Batman trilogy "The Dark Knight." In this scene 5 people rob a mob's bank while talking about 6th person who supposedly masterminded the whole thing.
Here is a list of all the Film making conventions which I could spot being used in this scene:

• The Shot of the Gotham skyline, setting the seen.
• The Smashing of the windows a shooting across the zip line, shows action or espionage
• The running into the bank shooting shows action.
• The criminals shooting each other shows there is some mysterious elements to the scene
• The long shot of the back of the person wearing the mask shows that this man is in some way mysterious
• High angle shots of the zip line show the danger involved in this act
• The Low key lighting in the car contrasts the high key lighting outside, on the roof
• The use of mostly long shots inside, contrasts the close up over the shoulder shots on the roof

And Here is a list of all the Cultural codes:

• The masks show that the robbers are criminals not wanting to show their identity
• When they run into the building shooting the audience understands this is a heist, despite it not being explicitly mentioned.
• The mobster wearing a suit indicates he is quite important.
• By giving the civilians grenades the audience understands how they are preventing trouble

Film Stills Analysis

In order to find some stills to analyse. I decided to watch the 1955 black and white film "The Night Of The Hunter." I was surprised as to how good it was, Robert Mitchum's performance was particularly great. While watching this film I saw at least 20 great stills to analyse, but I managed to choose one:

This still really shone out for me as the best one to analyse, there is so much juxtaposition and so much meaning to this. Here are some of the things which I picked out as what makes this great:

• The shadow, which is cast over Powell's face represents the character as evil, which completely juxtaposes the rest of his body, as he is dressed as a reverend, who should in theory be good. 

•  Powell is looking up raising his left hand as if to reach out to God, however his left had is the one which represents evil and hate, causing irony.

• The light cast on Willa's body represents her as peaceful, which contrasts Powell's evil representation. 

•  The shadow cast on the door gives a sense that there is no escape, and give a hint as to the tragedy to come.

Those are my top 4 reasons, however I feel that this post wouldn't be complete without me putting in what I think is one of the most haunting shots in the film:

The brilliantly portrayed Powell is chasing after the children. This is a great shot as it gives a great sense of the doom impending the children, as Powell is quite literally the monster in the basement.

BLK Homework Week 1

This is my favorite picture we took in our practical lesson, heres some of my thoughts about it:

• This picture was meant to be a homage to the horror genre. 
• The frame in frame style of the shot gives a sense of an outsider looking in
• It being a low angle shot gives a sense of empowerment to the character.
• The character's face being covered creates mystery
• The bars connote entrapment, a prominent theme in the Horror genre
• Its probably my favorite out of the shots we took because I feel that it portrays the genre the best, and is the best framed

There are however a few things I would change if I could do it again:

• I think the red fire extinguisher stands out in this shot, if that could be taken out the picture would have been better
• The dust on the rail at the bottom isn't constant, I would rub it off so it was consistent
• The lighting is quite good, but if it was darker it would be better
• I would probably try to cut out the bottom step while framing, then the focus of the shot would be bigger.