valentin's film blog

  APOCALYPSE NOW opening analysis In the first part of the opening we first get a wide shot of a variety of trees and fading background sounds of distant helicopters, this foreshadows the setting were going to be introduced to further in the movie, helicopters are also a recurring prop used a lot throughout the opening and the movie as a whole. The song playing is "End of the night" by The Doors, released in 1967, a song released while the Vietnamese war was still happening it opens with the lyric "this is the end" that shows how a lot of people might perceive war, as the end. As we get a shot of a helicopter passing by the camera and the trees in the background immediately catching on fire with the explosion in the background, this could represent how impactful war on is on the environment and how much destruction in general war can bring to the world.   As the opening continues we get a moving panoramic shot of the jungle and the destruction, causing wildfires etc...

HOW DOES THE DIRECTOR MAKE AN IMPACT ON THE AUDIENCE THROUGH THE CHARACTER OF A GIRL    Throughout this film the director uses a wide variety of film techniques and a great use of editing including lighting, setting, camera shots, editing, etc. At the beginning of the film we get a shot of her against the sky in which we can only see her silhouette, this can be pathetic fallacy with the grey cloudy skies representing the mood of the overall film. We can see she's singing "stronger" by Britney Spears which might be seen as a form of foreshadowing of the girl's aspirations for the future, since from the start the short film makes it clear that by the way and in the place she's been brought up she doesn't have a typically bright future. In the following scenes we follow this girl with the camera at eye height, filmed in a documentary style, the height of the camera can help the audience to sympathise with her especially as she talks about her experiences in her h...

 SHADOWS IN THE DARK   There’s rumours going around in town stating that there was strange appearances of figures within the old abandoned woods. They say that these figures stalk out of the woods at the midnight hour to pray on those lost in town to feast on; which is why they all go missing. On day a young teen named Alex decided to decided to go out and explore, by patiently waiting until 12am to go to these woods and encounter this figure herself. Further, as she approaches the edge of the woods, the temperature of her surroundings began to drop significantly. Her shaky hands rub up and down her arms in attempt to keep herself warm, whilst the air in front of her is appearing like thick smoke. Further on, whilst still trying to keep herself warm, she suddenly spots a looming shadowy figure within the woods, in between the distant trees directly watching her. Trepidation strikes her violently. She froze up completely and just observed the shadowy complexion stalk closer and...