Yogita Anbuchezhian ( 46197591) MMCC1005 Introduction to the Cinema: Film Log Assessment 1: Mise - en - scene & The Bling Ring Soft lighting from the key sidelight, which is the natural sunlight, gives the room a faded and sundrenched illumination. In this scene with four people, our attention is immediately drawn to Chloe. She is positioned in the center, closest to the camera, wearing a blue flannel, which is the most prominent colour in the frame. She is also wearing a gold watch, go ld bangles and leopard print shoes, all of which she owns as a result of the nights she spent burglarizing celebrities. Chloe’s parents are dressed in white and beige, and they almost blend in with their suburban beige kitchen. All the elements are some va riations of the beige shade, making even Chloe’s parents look like fixtures. Chloe’s outfit stands out against the drab setting of her surroundings. Coppola uses sharp disparity in the colours of the scenes of the main characters’ normal lives, which are usually made up of bland colours, and the bright colours and dazzle of the celebrity homes and clubs they experience outside their family homes. This portrays the difference between their mundane everyday lives and the exciting secret lives they create fo r themselves. Blocking in this scene ensures that none of the characters make eye contact with one another, which suggests a sense of disconnection between them. The characters’ interactions with one another lack any emotion and their attention is elsewhe re. The one - time Chloe’s mother tries interacting with Chloe, she is dismissed rudely by the latter, which points to her indifferent and spoiled nature. 2: Cinematography & Destroyer Kirkwood uses a 2:40:1 aspect ratio throughout this neo - noir crime dra ma film and it gives an intimate feeling to Erin’s story. This ratio has a wide field of view and is suitable for the establishing opening shot of this scene, where there is a slow zoom shot of Erin’s car in the middle of two sprawling freeways. This scene acts as a transition, giving us context as to where the protagonist is heading. It constructs a feeling of isolation, making Erin seem small and insignificant in her surroundings. The scene shifts to Erin entering a dark storage unit, contrasting the pre vious scene of the sun - drenched, bleak Los Angeles and the film often traverses from well - lit exteriors to dingy interiors. The only source of light here is the open door, and the low - key lighting creates high - contrast images which dramatize the situation and build an air of mystery around what Erin is up to. Later in the scene, a handheld camera tracks Erin’s movements shakily to better express her frustration at finding the dye - stained bills. The overhead shots of Erin looking down at the bills emphasiz e her helplessness in that situation. The following closeup of Erin’s face shows her pulling herself together and the same overhead Dutch angle from before shows her picking out all the unstained bills, determined to make do with what she has. 3: Editing & Clueless Continuity editing is used in this scene to maintain a consistent narrative. It starts with a master shot that reveals to the audience the location and the characters in this scene. It then cuts to a wide shot of Dionne veering to the side, wh ich emphasizes the passengers’ panic. A shot - reverse - shot is used to show the dialogue between Murray and Dionne which gives a sense of continuous action and allows the conversation to flow smoothly, making it seem like it is happening linearly in real - tim e. Following this, Murray tells Dionne that she is getting on the freeway and an eye - line match is used here when the shot cuts to show the freeway that Murray is looking at. Rhythmic editing is particularly obvious in the following 45 seconds of the clip . In this sequence, Dionne, an inexperienced driver, has entered the freeway, which causes everyone to panic. Footage taken from multiple camera angles of the same scene is used. The editing pace changes with the growing chaos of the scene, and it becomes more fast - paced with more cuts, emphasizing the escalation of danger and panic. On many occasions, the camera zooms in on one of the characters screaming and then cuts to what caused them to scream. For example, there is a medium shot of Murray turning aro und to see the truck behind them and this is followed by a close - up shot of Murray’s face as he shouts. Through point of view cutting, we realize that Murray is shouting at the truck nearing them, which allows the viewers to experience what he is feeling. A pan shot is then used from the truck to the car, which shows just how close the truck has gotten. As the chaos dies down and the car exits the freeway, a cut to a medium shot is used to emphasize the characters’ relief. 4: Sound & The Hurt Locker The scene starts with the sound of gravel crunching and James’ loud and heavy breathing and grunts as he kneels on the ground to uncover a bomb. He reports the situation over the radio and the sounds we hear in this scene places the audience in James’ poin t of view. The non - diegetic background music slowly creeps in as he discovers that the bomb is a part of a daisy - chain bomb, which builds up the tension. James nonchalantly reports that there is more than one bomb to which we hear Sanborn swearing. He te lls his men to immediately take cover, suggesting to us that he feels threatened by James’ reckless behaviour, a theme that is prevalent throughout much of the movie. The music continues to increase in loudness and pitch as the camera focuses on the insurg ent, who is watching James disarm the bomb, which creates a sense of foreboding. The movement of the daisy - chain bomb as James pulls on them is heard at the highest focus and intensity, even with the background music that is continuing to get louder. The harmonies sound dissonant and escalate tension that is unsettling before they come together in a single note, which sounds similar to an emergency siren, before it decreases in loudness and fades away as James stops pulling on the wires. Tension builds u p again as the non - diegetic foreboding music and the diegetic call to prayer, which establishes a sense of place of wartime Baghdad, is heard as the two men race against time to complete their mission first. The sound of James disarming the bombs is just a s loud as the footsteps of the insurgent as he rushes down the stairs and keeps the viewers on edge. 5: Narrative & You Were Never Really Here You Were Never Really Here is about a man who is a closed system of trauma from an abusive childhood and his c ombat experience, both of which we see glimpses of through his vivid and visceral flashbacks. Joe attempts to exorcise his own demons by extricating others from troubling situations and in this clip, he is preparing to rescue an abducted child. We see him renting a car and stalking the target location, which is followed by a disturbing shot of a child’s foot twitching in the sand. Ramsey makes use of sudden, unsettling visual motifs like this one to portray what someone who suffers from severe PTSD goes thr ough. Another repeating motif that we see is the ball - peen hammer. Joe uses it to punish child abusers and he is unreflectively emulating his father and his traumatic childhood by doing so. In the hardware store, his eyes are hypnotically drawn to and fix ed on the hammer. Ramsey’s repeated use of the hammer in the film suggests Joe’s unconscious fear of becoming like his father as he struggles to free himself from his influence. This scene is also a part of the arrangements that build tension for the next scene in the way that we understand that he will be using the hammer as a weapon soon after. Joe’s flashbacks are juxtaposed with and triggered by the non - traumatic events in his life. Something as normal as a girl asking him to help her take a picture ca uses his mind to spiral. He has another flashback after this to a truckload of dead bodies and this shows once again how he sees ghosts of his past everywhere. The audience must put together these pieces of information as the movie progresses, his trauma n ever being addressed directly in the narrative.