PRACTICE EXERCISE: Deconstruction of ´71

In class we did a practice exercise on how to tackle the first exam question.

How is meaning created?
We had to consider these 4 technical areas:

• Mise-en-scene
• Sound
• Cinematography
• Editing

These are some of the quick notes I came up. Also, some additional informations:

• Studio canal → both distribution and production, mainly distribution (co-production), often financing, one of the subsidiary of one of the Big Six owned by NBCUniversal
• Film4 → UK TV channel, if seeing Film4 or (BBC films) immediately denotes Low Budget probably Indie, financing company,
• BFI → funded by the UK governments, gives grants to films that they think needs support, see in most Indie film, replaced UK Council

Co-production even for the Big Six is common. Spilts the risk.

Accent is an important bit of representation(Northern english) which you wouldn’t find in working title movies. In American drama they use the accent to indicate working class, poor. The thick New York accent would connote posh, upper class.

The longer takes it is the less appealing it is to younger audience. However, in the movie you have a balance of long and short takes.

The seniors coming in and there’s a tacking shot but in extreme long shot then centrally framed where the sides are reserved for the inferior people.

Editing:

• Didn’t get an establishing shot aka ELS.
• No fade in, in first shot or audio → “Straight cut” enhance the impact in brutality
• ellipsis
• audio bridge between boxing scene and running scene
• editing style has changed (longer takes, )
• almost a match cut archived through audio

Cinematography:

• a lot of medium close up
• partially find shot reverse shot
• a lot of fast pace short takes
• whip pans
• a lot of fast pace, handheld tracking shot
• a lot of movements, shakiness
• odd framings
• low key, naturalistic lighting
• male character then get the equivalent shots as the senior officer

Title:

• white font, serif, on black background which connotes seriousness/drama
• different sizing of names to distinguish different types of roles
• Film4 and BFI are in capitals because they are important (financing companies)
• 2^nd title regional financing companies (Screen Yorkshire, Creative Scotland)

Audio:

• audio bridge (we don’t see the shot)
• which also adds narrative enigma
• people shouting, sound of impact
• diegetic sound
• could consider the crowd to be ambient sound, non-diegetic, adds verisimilitude
• the drum kicks in the background would connote sinister (something is going to happen)

Mise-en-scene:

• archived by Verisimilitude:

• make-up (blood)
• sweat
• uniform
• short hair
• people in the background also have sweat (meaning created, details)
• everybody has the same hair cut, wearing the same uniform makes it more realistic
• not a wealthy guy because the male character is taking the bus instead of driving on a sports car
• the scene in the bus refers to the title because of the old man smoking on the bus which isn’t allowed now but probably around 1971 it is
• not in a fancy restaurant, small cafe

Central protagonist:

• tracking
• not focusing on the senior guy, always focused on the male character
• centrally framed
• cut to get a tighter shot of the male character (from a medium long shot to a medium close up)
• shallow field of focus, male character in focus
• always cut back to the male character, still centrally framed and in focus