City of God

Prisoner Analysis  

In the scene from ‘Prisoner’ the camera at the beginning slowly zooms in, this is because it shows suspense because the camera is moving at a slow paste. The camera is filming from behind so therefore the focus will be on the ladies serving and the surrounding because we can't see the man's face. This makes is suspicious because the film is called prisoner and we can't see the prisoners face.  

The lighting in the scene is low-key lighting because its dark outside so therefore the weather is bad and because its night time. The low-key lighting can also present the face that the man is the prisoner and because he was in prison it could present darkness because that’s what he's used too. At the start the only lighting there is from the café, this allows the audience that are watching it to focus on the café because it stands out from the rest of the picture. You can also see the reflection of the car but because the car isn’t light up it doesn’t allow the audience to focus on it. 

The sound from the radio shows that the police are looking for the man that was sat in restaurant, because it says “all units a RV was reported matching the description of a vehicle parked at a restaurant”. So therefore, the sound informs us as the audience the is the man that people are looking for and the noise from the radio allows the man to make an exit so he doesn’t get found. When all of this is going on the lighting is very dark and low-key, this could be because he is a mysterious character and the dark atmosphere helps him blend him because he's wearing dark clothing, which makes it less likely for the police to find him. 

In the clip from ‘Prisoner’ there is a long shot used to show the man at the gas station walking towards the police car. Even though it is still dark there is moving lighting than there was before, because there is lighting from the gas station and then there is little light coming from the police car. The lighting from the police car allows the audience to be drawn towards the police car straight away because everywhere else is dark. When the camera shifts from the police car to the gas station the lighting changes and it gets brighter. This should automatically draw the audience watching to the gas station but because the gas station is in the foreground and the man is close up to the camera but it creates a mysterious atmosphere because you can only see his shadow. 

The use of mise-en-scene in the setting shows the woods and the dark atmosphere, there is also a bit when the scene blurs because it can take the focus off the woods and then back onto the woods. The blur could also represent the rain because when rains get on the window it goes blurry and misty. The weather can represent the time of year, so it could be October for example because its dark and mysterious. 

In the scene from ‘Prisoner’ when the van crashes into the tree, they use a lot of different camera shots because there is a close up on the van which shows that there's something bad happening. There is also a long shot so you can see the whole picture in full perspective. The sounds that have been used for this part are affective, because the noise of the van crashing into the tree is realistic and it shows that there is a sense of normality in the scene. The noise of the heavy rain also adds to the scene because it creates a spooky and scary atmosphere, so therefore the audience will feel like something bad is going to happen because the weather sets the whole setting, this is a use of mise-en-scene.  

At the end of the scene there is a close up on the man that was in the van. This shows that the focus needs to be on the man because something important is happening. The officer repeatedly says “where are the girls?” because he thinks the man has something to do with the girls going missing, so therefore the close up helps the audience recognize what is going on because it shows the audience that the man is the main focus and that’s what the audience should be looking at because it his fault that the girls are know where to be seen.