Sunday 8 November 2009

House of Saddam

Mise-en-scene:
In the clip we can denote a man in an army uniform being led to a car with a chauffeur, this to me connotes that he is important and has a role or it could mean he is a leader or a dictator, however there is not yet any anchorage and so it is still polysemic. We see explosions on the horizon which signifies threat or danger or warfare. In the clip we also see armoured vehicles like tanks, helicopters, trucks, etc. and these signify militaristic prescence this is anchored by the soldiers we see walking around. The geographical setting of the scene looks like barren land or dessert, maybe the middle east or west asia, this is anchored by the text subtitle over the shot saying "Tikrit, Iraq". It looks like a very run down, poor area and there is binary opposition between this mis-en-scene and when the man is on the phone to the woman who is in a very clean, lavish house.

Editing:
The editing is clever in this clip, one bit being with the helicopters as you only see them briefly however you can constantly hear the sound of helicopters in the background which creates the impression that they are constantly there in the background.
Also when the two characters are talking to each other on the phone they use shot reverse shot to it continuation during the phone call.
There is also natural lighting which emphasises the overpowering sunlight in the dessert.
They is also a lot of tracking in the clip as if the characters are being followed which adds realism to the scene.

Camera Shots:
High angle shots are used to connote vunerability when the characters are walking away and they also zoom out to long shots to show the background, like an establishing shot showing tanks and vehicles in the background and also the explosions. The camera tends to track the characters a lot to give it a realistic feel .
When in the phone box, it has a mid-close up on the man's face to show his facial feature so that we can see his emotions. When the woman on the other end of the phone walks to pick it up, it starts with a mid-close up of her bottom and legs, which connotes that she is a bit of eye candy and she has sex appeal and is rather feminine, and this is binary opposition to the very scruffy, masculine man on the other end of the phone. There are also quite a lot of two-shots used to show the clip is revolving around these two men, the man and his servant.

Sound:
There is quite a lot of non-diegetic music used in the scene, which takes away realism but gives it emotion and feel and it connotes it is quite a serious clip as dramatic and quite scary music is used. Also the sound of the helicopters and tanks in the background are predominate to give the impression and realism that they are really there. These die down when the man is on the phone to the woman and more sad, sombre music is used to connote romance or heartbreak between these two characters.
Another important aspect of sound in this scene is the new coverage we can hear over the scene, it is non-diegetic as we never see a television or radio but this gives the impression that it is being annouced as we see what is happening on screen, it is also gives us exposition and anchorage about the character we have seen on screen being Saddam Hussein.

Representation:
The representation of ethnicity in this scene shows characters who look as though they are from the Middle East or West Asia, this is supported by the accent of the characters sounding like people from this part of the world. Anchorage is given when the subtitle appears on screen saying "Tikrit, Iraq". People in the clip are wearing traditional dress and head scarf and the men have beards, they also come across in attitude as being quite aggresive and threatening which seems to back up the stereotype of predominately Iraqi people, certainly the ones you see in the media, this is of course based on your own knowledge and beliefs.

1 comment:

  1. generally good analysis here george - plentiful use of terminology, which is good to see. some of your denotation could be more detailed, to make sure you're picking up equal marks on use of evidence as well as analysis and argument. its worth going back into the editing section, and applying as much terminology as you can - the best way to learn this

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