In Elephant there were many different types of cinematography such as tracking shot, point of view shot, camera pan and more. The film shows a day in school from different student’s point of views so that we get an insight to what happened from the selection we were introduced to. When we are introduced to Alex and Eric we don’t think anything of it as they just seem like ordinary students however we see a clip of them outside of school which indicates importance to them as every other student is at school. This is when they buy their weapons and we realise what could happen. What I liked about the camera shots was that each student’s view of where they were etc leads onto the next person by a camera panning.
The many different camera angles help to tell the story and to add suspense for example nearer to the end of the film when a student is walking around the school, shown with a tracking shot, and there is so much focus you think that something is going to happen to him however he is just the same as everybody else and gets shot also. There was a large amount of tracking shot scenes in the film as it follows students around school however also when John and his dad are in the car and when John’s dad wonders off.
In one of the beginning scenes a student is signing into school however there is a deep focus on the back of his head and we can not tell where the boy is until later in the film. This helps to keep the audience interested in the film to find out where the setting is.
The costumes in Elephant help to signify different social groups in the school such as the three girls wore very girly clothes and the sports players wore sports kits. However when Alex and Eric turn up to school with their guns their every day casual clothing changes to army uniforms possibly to show they mean business but also to resemble a war between them and their school mates. The fact that they also had large bags and the army clothes were out of the ordinary it made John realise that something was going on and warned people from going into the school as he knew they would be killed.
The slow motion used in the film helped to show importance to a certain clip so that it doesn’t go un noticed. There is non diegetic sound used in Elephant of a piano which I think shows sadness and the fact that something terrible is going to happen. I think that elephant was a slow film however it had many good examples of cinematography and I did want to watch more as nothing happened for so long it had to be building up to something big however I didn’t expect Alex and Eric to kill everyone in the school including the principle and other staff.
The many different camera angles help to tell the story and to add suspense for example nearer to the end of the film when a student is walking around the school, shown with a tracking shot, and there is so much focus you think that something is going to happen to him however he is just the same as everybody else and gets shot also. There was a large amount of tracking shot scenes in the film as it follows students around school however also when John and his dad are in the car and when John’s dad wonders off.
In one of the beginning scenes a student is signing into school however there is a deep focus on the back of his head and we can not tell where the boy is until later in the film. This helps to keep the audience interested in the film to find out where the setting is.
The costumes in Elephant help to signify different social groups in the school such as the three girls wore very girly clothes and the sports players wore sports kits. However when Alex and Eric turn up to school with their guns their every day casual clothing changes to army uniforms possibly to show they mean business but also to resemble a war between them and their school mates. The fact that they also had large bags and the army clothes were out of the ordinary it made John realise that something was going on and warned people from going into the school as he knew they would be killed.
The slow motion used in the film helped to show importance to a certain clip so that it doesn’t go un noticed. There is non diegetic sound used in Elephant of a piano which I think shows sadness and the fact that something terrible is going to happen. I think that elephant was a slow film however it had many good examples of cinematography and I did want to watch more as nothing happened for so long it had to be building up to something big however I didn’t expect Alex and Eric to kill everyone in the school including the principle and other staff.
Excellent work, you have looked at many different aspects of the film and made some excellent points! You seem to be able to analyse the film makers choices well. Elephant is a tough film to watch and I can tell you were paying attention due to the points you have made, well done!
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