American Film Flashcards
Selma Shot - Bridge Sequence
. Controlled cam on the marchers: respect
. Tightly packed formation, dressed well: dignity
. Crane shot as they reach the bridge: importance
. Cutting to viewers at home, reminds us this happened
. Walk With Me by Martha Bass (1969)
. Slow mo + close ups for emotion. Hand held cam.
. Invokes horror, rage, shock, sympathy, discomfort
Selma Shot - Jimmie Lee Jackson’s Death
. Pre-meditated attack: governors discussing it
. Fast editing, cutting away, creates chaos
. Close up slow mo on Jimmie’s mother, then Jimmy: capturing moment of grief
. Pleonastic gun shot silences other noises: ringing, stark contrast.
. Sound like heart monitor flatlining
. Mother grieving: hard to watch, painful, shocking
Selma Shot - MLK Speech at Church
. Dolly shot towards him: significance of words
. Extremely controlled and still cam: his words are more important, doesn’t need movement.
. Symmetrical shots, men behind MLK nodding
. Ornate building, well dressed, credence to his words
. End with FBI logged report: they were scared of him
. Uplifting, euphoric applause +music at the end
Selma Shot - Annie Lee Cooper
. Oprah Winfrey: well known, epitome of success: makes us more angry that she’s being oppressed.
. High angle long shot: she’s alone
. Restrained and calm: speaks slowly and clearly
. Man is rude, disrupts her, patronising
. She stands tall, he slouches
. Irony of talking about justice: she’s being denied it
Selma Shot - Last Sequence
. Actors marching interspersed with real footage
. Original footage: looking at cam, personal
. Low angles of MLK: tall and heroic
. Captions create verisimilitude
. Crane shot again for scale of march
. Speech ties up narrative: ref to the girls
. Euphoric, some chilling captions, YES
Selma Shot - Bombing of the Church
. Children dressed well: Sunday best, controlled cam
. High angle for youth, vulnerability. Ominous strings
. MLK speaking over it
. Bomb cuts girl off - complete contrast: noise and chaos
. Muffled sound: limbs and debris flying past slowly
. Harrowing, horrifying. Dolly moving out of wreckage
Selma Production
. $20mil budget, funded by Pathe (not mainstream)
. High profile names: Oprah Winfrey, Cuba Gooding jr
. All shot types used: locked down, hand held
. Professional, trained performers. Skilled performance
. Blend of gospel music and instrumental: Jason Moran
. Shot on digital camera
Beasts Shot - Opening Sequence
. Shakey hand held cam + easy rig cam
. Authentic ‘fly by wall’ mise-en-scene
. Community life/daily life: diff to ours
. illusion/verisimilitude. HP narrates
. Untrained actors, party scene shot like a doc
. Euphoric: fireworks, screaming, music
Beasts Shot - Beast it!
. Wink as protective father? yells at her, slams table
. Opposes white man gentley teaching HP
. Extreme close ups of HP’s eyes: determination
. Readying her for life without him
. Animalistic behaviour as she succeeds
. Drunk and raving - offensive to poorer people
Beasts Production
. $1.8m budget. Funded by not for profit organisations
. Cast untrained and unknown mostly
. Easy rig - Steadicam and hand held
. Untrained, authentic performances
. Cajun/folk music - evocative of South/ New Orleans
. Shot on 16mm film
