I am legend Deconstruction

AS Media Preliminary Task

Existing product analysis

Existing product analysis

 

In the opening scene of ‘City of God’ we as the audience immediately saw someone sharpening a knife at a fast pace to connote to the audience that he is sharpening a knife is about to stab someone or slash someone. This then brings fear and excitement to the audience because of the fast pace cut scenes and the pleonastic sounds of the knife being sharpened. But with the use of editing techniques they start to add in cut shots of people dancing, singing, cooking and enjoying themselves which adds verisimilitude to the scene and also is then presented to the audience as an sensational community in a wonderful environment but on the other hand, it has some shots that challenges the conventions of singing, dancing and the joy. An example of when it challenges the conventions is there was a shot of blood and people killing chicken and people walking around with weapons in their hands. This is then represented to the audience as foreshadowing something dangerous is going to happen. In the first minute of the scene there was diegetic sounds in the scene of people singing and tapping and drumming to present an image in the audience mind of a magnificent environment but later an in the scene the sound switches up and non-diegetic sounds are added in it. An example of this is when we see a close up freeze frame of the protagonist while a camera flashed in the scene, connoting that he wants to be a photographer.  

When we are then introduced to the main antagonist called ‘Lil Dice’ straight away there was a close up shot of his face giving orders to people to chase the chicken, which shows that he has power over people, and are one of the dominant characters in the movie/scene. The fact that they shot is a close up shot represents to the audience that the antagonist is in control of the situation making the audience know that he is the main antagonist.

During the scene there was also a graphic match shot of a flash back when he was also stuck in between two groups of people. This shot represents to the audience that the protagonist is scared and in danger because, whenever he is stuck in between two groups of people he as very hard decision to make. Which portrays him to be a weak character.

Another camera shot that was used in the opening scene was there was an over the shoulder shot of the main protagonist speaking to one of his old friends in a flash back he had whilst being in a dangerous situation. During the scene when the chicken escaped and started to run away there was a camera technique used to give more of a sense of action called tracking when the camera followed the chicken running away from the antagonist.

Another camera shot used was the worms eye view shot of the protagonist pulling out weapons to the police, which represents the hustle in a place like Rio. The reason why this is a main conventions is because, in a place like Rio where people are allowed weapons stereotypically they like to fight for their own rights so they have a specific hate for police officers. This is why they would pull out a heavy armed weapon to a police officer.

The use of quick cut shots entices the audience because, it has more of an action and adventurous feeling and the use of quick pace sounds also ties in with the shot to entice the audience.

To conclude, in the beginning of the scene there was quick fast pace cut shot to connote the chaos in a place like Rio and also connote the poverty and hustle for people in Rio. But later on n the scene there was longer shot to let the audience relax and enjoy the scene better.