City of God
During the opening scenes of the film the overall perspective of life in the favelas is represented. The opening shot is a extreme closeup of a knife being sharpened. In a mainstream film you are usually shown and establishing shot but urban stories shows a completely different side of life, City of God decided to focus upon the violence in the favelas in Rio. The short quick paced cutting of different shots at the beginning show the pace of life when living in this environment, they exaggerate how life is short in the City of God due to the violence. The overall anarchy of these shots are here to confuse the fewer and give an element of confusion to where the films shot and whats happening much like what day to day life is in the favelas. During the main shot of the chicken the camera is at a low angle and follows the escaping chicken in a tracking shot from the back, this restricts the viewer to what they can see, as you can not see the sky it gives a feeling of being trapped with not chance of freedom or escape. Throughout the first few scenes in the film versimilitude has been used to create a documentary style, this is developed by a hand held camera and used to show the reality of the films message and show a link to the film and the stories it is based upon. A shot reverse shot is used to show the difference between Lil' Ze and Rocket, this is further developed through the mise-en-scene, rocket is holding a camera whereas Lil' Ze and his gang are holding guns, althought both guns and cameras 'shoot' one is violent and the other isn't. This furthermore represents the divide in rural Rio and the choice of either being a 'hood' or a 'worker'.
No comments:
Post a Comment