City Of God was directed by Fernando Meirelles and it was released on the 3rd January 2003. It is about two boys who are growing up in the violent area of Rio de Janeiro. They grow up together but end up going there separate ways one of the boys goes off to be a photographer and the other one becomes a drug dealer. The two main features I am going to focus on is mise-en-scene and camera angle, movement and position.





The knives at the beginning of the scene are being sharpened making the audience feel the anticipation of what they would be used for we think it is to kill something. The scene is a montage, the pace of the editing is quick and flowing with close up shots off al the things happening such as the chickens being killed, the carrots being chopped people dancing and playing music. The music is creating a sense of carnival as they focus a close up shot on the feet of the people as they dance showing how they can have fun despite of their poverty.

The music stops all of a sudden when the camera focuses on a plate of blood. It then turns to the chicken running from the man like a chicken cam. It has crane shots looking down at the chickens escape and we also see that this is set in a favella which is a Rio de Jeneiro slum we can tell by the clothes they are wearing and they are carrying guns with them it does not look like a well off town.
The Mise-en-scene helps to highlight the tensions that exist in this area and we can clearly tell from the gang that chases the chicken that this part of Rio is dominated by gang warfare. This is supported by the voice-over when Rocket says “In the City of God, if you run away they get you and if you stay they get you".

when little z walks round the corner with his gun it slows down on him walking in slow motion with his gun glistening which indicates that he is the leader of the gang. it focuses on his bright white teeth with a grin on his face making him look a bit crazy. it then does an extreme shot on rocket who is portrayed as being an innocent person he just wants to get a good picture. Be is now in the middle of the confrontation between the police and the gang. The camera spins round half way to focus on the police with their guns ready for the gang and then it spins back round half way to focus on the gangs with their guns ready to fight with the police. There is then a 360 degree camera movement where everything in the frame is being spun around apart from rocket. The scene spins from the favella in Rio de Janerio where he lives now into when he was a child where he used to be living which looks like more of a well off part because we see houses built with bricks where it is clean and tidy young children playing with a football outside. No one is carrying a gun around with them as if it is natural unlike in the favella in Rio where he is now.

In this scene we see the two young boys tourchering a woman, treating it as if it is a game show by letting her have a question to answer but with the prize of choosing her own way of dieing. The boys end rewinding it after she grabs the gun and shoot one of the boys. after they rewind it it starts again.
The editing in this scene is very interesting.part way through it shows the character playing mind games to shock us by rewinding it to trick us into thinking that there is something wrong with the film. It shows us first what we would want to happen in the film but then rewinds and shows what really happens which gives the effect of it not being real. this editing technique is clever and shocking, dissorientating the audience and forcing us to sympathise whith the victim. the rest of the scene is edited in a very simple way to create a sense of realism. this makes the rewind sequence all the more powerfull.
There is a very patranising tone in the charcters voice as he talks to the victim. He is very calm and does not shout or raise his voice which makes the audience feel agravated because they would expect him to be shouting at her but this is tourchering her by him not being agressive. In the scene there is no background music in it to intensify the audiences emotional response and this is important because we have learnt from other hollwood horrors that music will trigger our emotional response. here the drama unfolds without any need for gimmicy music because the director wants us to experience real and raw emotion.

section 1 synopsis

THE WEDDING SINGER

this film is about a wedding singer who is a really good entertainer robbie he puts all his effort in to his shows. a new girl turns up at work who his friend has his eye on her name was julia. he is engaged to his fiance Linda who he is marring sooon . on the wedding day she does not turn up and he is stood up on the alter . This leaves him heart broken , linda comes and visits him the next day but this only makes him angry. he goes back to work but performs terribly and agressively people start to get worried about him. Julias fiance finnaly sets a date to get married and invites robbie to the party to celebrate .he promised julia that he would sing at her wedding when they first met and she is determined to get him to but he says that he cant but helps her to plan the wedding as they do this they become closer and closer. they go out one night with julias fiance and he realises how much of a bad person her fiance is as he has been cheating on her a number of times. as they continue to plan her wedding they realise they are falling in love but dont comfront eachother. julias fiance wants to get marries in vagas buh she dont want to . when julia finnaly goes to tell robbie how she feels linda opens the door wearing nothing but his long t-shirt.she thinks that robbie has got back with her and agrees to fet married in vagas with her fiance as she is hurt. robbie diddnt know that linda was there and kicks her out as soon as he wakes up. he finds out how julia feels and what happened and goes to find her to tell her he feeels the same only to find out she is about to get on a plane to vagas with her fiance. he rushes to the airport to stop her but when he finaly gets there shes already on the plane so he buys a ticket to get on a plane to vagas aswell so he can try to find her in vagas he is in first class and tells all the passengers about his story and they all want to help . he finds out that julia is on the same plane as him and wastes no time in going to her so he sings a song he wrote for her down the plane and they are reunited .
i like this film as it shows things happen for a reason robbie got stood up and found someone betta like julia.

this

welcome

helloe