The characters that are in this extract mainly include the passenger of the ship with sub-characters such as the captain and the ship's designer. The production value and the amount of people in the shots depict the chaos in the ship. There are different emotions portrayed. The range from prideful acceptance, to chaotic and hopeless. These emotions allow the audience to see not everyone responded to the event the same way and provides a more nuanced portrayal. There are also interesting use of angles in the excerpt. To accommodate the sinking angle of the ship, some shots are also angled. These are usually the sequences that are still in the interior of the ship. These shots are further emphasized by the use of lines within the shot. The horizontal lines contrast with the camera's edges, therefore adding to the sense of the sinking Titanic. The is little camera moves. There are only slight pans and trucking, along with the dolly shots of the entire ship. The editing jumps from place to place. It doesn't only focus on the emotions of one person. Instead, it goes to many aspects of the ship's emotion, from the rich to the poor, from the old to the young. This reveals the many emotions that Cameron had wanted to portray - that the Titanic was a dramatic, tragic event, contrary to the prior films made on it which showed the sinking as graceful.
The sound in this excerpt heavily influences how the audience should feel, and perhaps Cameron's intended effects. It begins with the calm music that the band plays, with screaming in the background, but the music is louder than the chaos. The montage of the ship, along with the music, shows one aspect of the event, where are the yelling in the background encompasses another. Overall, this scene is intended to be artful and expressive to incorporate all the beauty in the ship and the etherial qualities. Nearer to the end of the excerpt, the music changes to a dramatic, upbeat instrumental. The audience now feels a heightened sense of danger because of the use of sound and music. It is interesting because the commotion in the shots are still relatively similar, but because of the sound, the mood is completely different.
The symbols in this excerpt are limited because there is not a fixed shot on an object. One symbol that I found interesting was the floating painting that was owned by Rose. I felt that the painting represents the wealthy class and from this it can be interpreted two ways. One is that, with the painting floating, it shows how the wealthy were more fortunate than others in society. Another interpretation is that no one is superior, even with wealth because the painting is submerged in the water. Although only being in the scene for a few seconds, the shot had to have some importance and meaning to be placed in the film.
No comments:
Post a Comment