Documentaries de-construction-4

HIGH ON ECSTASY: 

Duration: 59 minutes 2 seconds
Official Channel: National Geographic Channel 

The other documentary is a classical one. This documentary covers the goes in depth of the lives of those people who consume drugs and the likely effects caused by this particular act. The documentary revolves around two students who are involved in this activity. These two persons observed closely, capturing their attitudes, their moods and their behaviors after using drugs in order to best describe the exact same after effects of millions of people going through the same things by focusing of two just people. This particular observational technique became the main point of our analyzing this documentary as we will also be taking the help of two kids to define the same physiological preferences of millions of children around the world.



The genre of this documentary is classical with that of observational. The story is based on capturing the activities of the people who use drugs with the help of two people to illustrate the overall phenomena. There is narration, interviews, clips from a disco which shows the activities of students after they are on drugs, the location etc.



The location of the documentary is not fixed. It changes with the story. The camera follows the students on the places they visit. Other then that, a disco has been filmed in order to show the likely effect of drugs which causes them to go out of control not knowing what they are doing.



The camera angles are similar to those of the codes and conventions of a classical documentary. The camera focuses on the imperative objects of the documentary especially drugs, the long shots (candid shots) of the student taking drugs in order to effectively film his/her while taking drugs, the camera is hand held at some places in order to give a lively effect to the scenes while following the students etc. The lights that are used normal lights of any room, however, in the opening sequence the key light is focused on different drugs as to give an idea to the viewers about the story if the entire documentary and also the flashing disco lights are captured while taking a wide shot of the disco places to give the viewers a feel of the actual place.



The music changes on different situations. Fast music is played on clips of disco to complement the feel of the entire place, some fast music is played at places where the students go out on streets being high on drugs etc.    The music slows down at places of narration so that the narrator is clearly understood by the audience.

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Continuity Editing

Establishing shot:
This shot informs the viewers about the location where the corresponding scenes will take place.












180 Degree rule:
This shot is taken on the basis of an imaginary line which a camera can not pass through. This shot is usually taken at times of a conversation between two people.







Shot Reverse shot:
This shot mostly taken during conversations between two people. The camera is normally placed over the shoulders of the people talking to each other.


























Fast editing:
This consists of a number a shots  which are covered in a short duration, very fastly, which connotes something happening quickly. I took these pictures from the opening sequence of the movie DARK SKIES.







Point of view:
This shot shows the point of view of a person, e.g. something he/she is looking at.







Dissolve:





































Slow Editing: The shots are used for comparatively long duration of time than the shots of fast editing. The concept is the same; it is the duration of scenes that vary.





Match Cut: This technique matches an object in the first shot to an object in the second shot to bridge a gap between them.










Jump Cut: The shots of an object are captured in a sequence however the camera positions are not fixed. They vary in movement.

Eye-line match: This shows a person in one angle and the other person standing near him/her to show what the first person is looking.

Mise en scene

Today, we got to know, in detail, about the elements that come under the term 'mise-en-scene'. This particular term carries in it the most imperative component of every scene. Our teacher discussed all the visual elements which goes in the frame, so that when we produce our media product we keep all these elements in mind.  As we have to watch more documentaries and de-construct them later on so the knowledge about miss en scene will really help us in our assignments.

The following come under mise-en-scene:

• Settings- mood, background etc.
• Color palates
• Props
• Costume, Hair and Make-up
• Facial expressions and Body language
• Lighting and colors 

Whatever goes into a frame holds importance in it's own different way. Every other object that has been placed in a scene has the meaning of its own, either it could be used to produce a particular tone or mood to it or either to manipulate the thought process of the audience the way the director wants them to interpret it.
After going into detail, we have realized that the significant of all the elements present in every scene cannot be over emphasized.

Moving on to the first content-Settings. The setting of a scene is done in a way that portrays the story line the director tries to convey to the audience. An example could be taken in order to make it more clear. For a horror scene we would witness some worn out furniture covered with in some cases covered in white cloth to give an anachronistic feel to the milieu,  low key lights with the moon light or candles being the only source of light in the area, the sound of the wind is prominently played in the scene to give a feeling that something supernatural is heading its way to the place etc, as we can see in this picture taken from the movie Woman in Black. All these factors together create the mood in the scene which make the viewers curious and frighten as they are provided with signals that the 'ghost' is about to carry an act.





COLOR PALETTE:
Every genre of a film has a particular color palate which defines it better than just choosing random colors and connoting it into a film. The color palate of a film also helps define the mood of the story line of the film to the viewer. For example, for action films, the use of dark colors would suit the story well. The example of these poster of the films THE DARK KNIGHT RISES and X MEN aids in explaining my point well. Imagine if bright colors such has pink or light blue colors were used in the poster of the DARK KNIGHT RISES. Would that explain well the personality and the attitude of Batman? No, it will not. The name BATMAN explains lot, it has derived from those creates who dwell in dark areas and so black, grey and at some place white colors blended with grey or black would suit well the theme of the film overall.




PROPS: Now comes the props! Props are objects that actually help signify a feeling or has some action revolving around it. An example taken from the film HARRY POTTER. The wand that Harry carried with him at all times hold a significant position in the film as it defends him against all evils. That's why a wand could be seen in the hands of Harry and his friends in the posters and film itself.



COSTUME, HAIR AND MAKE-UP: These three terms define a number of aspects of a film. They help create an idea of the personality of  different characters, the culture, personification, genres etc. With the help of two picture taken from the same movie these terms could be identified. 





These pictures are taken from the movie HANNAH MONTANA-The movie. In the first picture Miley is dressed as Hannah; her clothes, her make-up and her wig could easily help the viewers establish that Miley is carrying out the character of Hannah. Being a star of the music industry, Hannah is bound to dress up and carry herself this way and so her costume, hair and make-up illustrates the life of Hannah. Whereas, in the second picture Miley Cyrus is dressed up as the person she actually is, a normal girl from Tennessee. Her clothes explains the simplicity that relates to her hometown, she is not wearing any wig which shows she is not presenting herself as someone else and the amount of makeup is not as much as compared to when she is dressed up as Hannah as she is at a gathering of her family and friends.

FACIAL EXPRESSIONS AND BODY LANGUAGE: The facial expressions and body language of characters help address the feelings they are trying to show to the audience while playing their respected roles in a film. These features and actions must be carried out with great caution as a poor 'acting' or even the minute facial expression could sometimes give out a misleading message to the viewers who could then start to deviate from the original plot.

An example of facial expressions could be taken from the movie THE BATMAN BEGINS. His expressions tell that he is sitting and listening to someone talking to him directly. The opinions going on in his mind are brought down to the way he has held his features. It seems as if the conversation of the second man does not seem amicable due to which the expressions are a bit irritated but simultaneously the smile he has on his face explains that he is not letting his thought process become obvious to the person talking to him.




Another picture, from the same film, has been captured to elaborate on our  point even more. This picture shows that the person standing in the front is either conveying or acting as a guard to the man sitting behind him. However, this could also be interpreted by the picture that the man standing is listening to what the other person behind him is saying, but considering the gesture in which he he standing, with his arms placed at his back tells that he has presented himself in this way out of respect to the man seated behind him.




The third picture is from the movie WOMAN IN BLACK. In this picture as Daniel Radcliffe gets closer to the camera moves backwards showing his movement, where as, the camera tracks inwards towards the door to show he is getting nearer to the door. During this scene, the movement of the camera and the character himself signifies that something frightening if about to show up after he opens the door. The sound coming from behind the door also signifies that horror is on its way. These scenes could work as signifier.




LIGHTING & COLOR:
Lights help create different moods, tones, environment etc of a scene, It's job is not merely to make things visible but there is way more than that when it comes to movie making. Lights help create the   
a particular feel to a scene. Example: In horror films, usually a scary scene is portrayed with low key lights where shadows take over most of the area. Had it been bright colors during the scene when a paranormal activity occurs would not manage to give away the frightening idea to the viewers and the scene would become less serious.