How are the four elements of film style used in the film to create realism Essay Example
How are the four elements of film style used in the film to create realism Essay Example

How are the four elements of film style used in the film to create realism Essay Example

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  • Pages: 9 (2423 words)
  • Published: January 25, 2017
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District 9 is a science fiction documentary style film directed by Neill Blomkamp in 2009, set in present time in Johannesburg, South Africa. District 9 uses stylistic techniques such as cinematography, sound, mise-en-scene and editing to make us, the audience, believe that the alien invasion redundant is truly happening in our world today. District 9 also uses strong documentary techniques to reel the audience in even further and to capture the audience’s attention in a very different style of science fiction never before seen in Hollywood.

All of these techniques, along with how they are used to create realism, will be discussed in this essay. The Cinematography used in District 9 is used extremely well to create realism, but in one aspect also reminds us that this is a fictional film. This is evident f

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rom the very opening scene when the main character, Wikus, played by Sharlto Copley, is being interviewed.

He is not quite ready yet for the interview but the camera is still rolling, he is adjusting his microphone and asking the cameraman when to start, it’s making the audience feel that this is “real” and rough footage but how does this “remind us that this is a fictional film”?. Throughout the film excerpt the shots are continually changing but mostly all are consistent with techniques used to create realism. There are many medium shots presented as interviews with different scientists, colleagues and family of Wikus. There is also “News Footage” shown in a typical news broadcast format with the bulletin and the news channel at the bottom.

There were also a lot of wide shots taken from

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a helicopter, mostly showing District 9 as a whole. Each sentence here jumps to a new topic. Don’t just describe the techniques, take time to analyse the meanings created by the techniques you describe here. Apart from these scenes, the remainder of the time the film was shot using a cameraman and a hand held camera. The camera man, Trent, would follow Wikus and a few others around while they searched District 9. The camera would jump back and forth from person to person, a lot like in the film recently viewed, Festen; A Celebration, which was also trying to create a ealism/documentary style film. But this film uses realism in a very different way. Explain this. The camera would also choose to use close ups of people’s faces, usually when they weren’t speaking, more when they were scared or thinking, to help the audience really get up close and personal with that particular character at that time. For example, in the van, just before Wikus and the others get out and start their mission in District 9, the camera does a close up on both Wikus and Fundiswa (his second in charge) while they take a breath before they jump out of the van.

Focusing on their faces lets the audience realise how scared they are. The camera also constantly jumps around, loses focus and the image becomes blurred when they are running, or if someone hits the camera away (which happens quite often). All of these techniques are used to remind us of the hand held, documentary style camera work and try and make us believe that what we are seeing is

real. Explore further how this creates immediacy, which is a part of realism. There are a few very brief scenes in the movie where the camera involves only the aliens.

The camera work stops being a documentary type film and acts as if it is a Hollywood Science Fiction blockbuster. During scenes when we are watching the aliens interact with only each other and no humans, the camera becomes like ‘normal’ films; “invisible”. This is where the Science Fiction genre takes over and the documentary style departs. good For example, when the aliens discover an important part of their equipment and they are trying to fix it, the camera is no longer shaky and you are very aware that Trent is not the one behind the camera.

However, you can still hear Wikus and the others in the back ground, which makes the audience realise that there is more than one camera involved. Honestly, the reason behind this change is not apparent to the audience, if anything, all it does is remind us that this is a fictional film and bursts that “real footage” bubble that we have been locked inside for so far. Why did the filmmaker choose to do this? The sound in District 9 is used to help the audience relate strongly with the techniques already discussed.

The film uses a lot of Diegetic sound and very little non Diegetic sound. The only Non-Diegetic sound they use is a quiet, soft African type song in the opening of the film, which sometimes returns during certain scenes involving the humans caught up in the middle of the invasion. The African

song sets the scene of where the film is taking place. Is that all? The second use of Non-Diegetic sound is music commonly used in ‘end of the world’ type Science Fiction films to build suspense and to further capture the audience’s attention.

All the other sounds are Diegetic, and a lot of the sounds that would usually be cut out of films, such as non relevant background noises in the offices (paper shuffling etc) are retained. Again, this is used to help build on the documentary theme they want to depict and also to help create realism. The mise-en-scene in District 9 also helps to create realism, and strangely enough there is something even very ‘real’ about these aliens in District 9. They are almost like giant ants and the way they function and evolve during the film is something also very real.

Explore further The majority of the cast have South African accents, revealing to the audience where we are and setting the place in which this film is being shot. All of the actors play their characters in a not overly dramatised or extreme way. They perform as if they were like everyday people you would see walking down the street or at work, talking in a very common way and reacting to these extreme and scary occasions through the film in a very true to life manner, reacting instead of reading from a script. Example that illustrates this?

The film, from what has been viewed, uses very little artificial lighting or props to hold back the light. For example, in the scene discussed earlier where Wikus and others

are about to exit the van, as they open the doors this strong light shines in the opening and through the windows blinding the viewer to what is out there. In a Hollywood film, this light would most likely be dulled so that the viewer could get a taste of what the characters see instead of being blinded, but staying true to the documentary and realism style of film they have kept it this way. They also don’t add any lighting to areas that are quite dull.

For example, when Wikus is searching the Alien’s houses the lighting is almost nonexistent and all the audience and the characters pick up is the light from the sun outside. The film has been edited in a way that remains very true to a documentary style film. It uses either very long takes, where the camera keeps rolling no matter what or very short takes, where the camera shows one point of view and then jumps to another. For example, when Wikus is examining one of the aliens ‘houses’ he comes across some equipment which squirts him in the face with some sort of liquid which causes him to cough and splutter.

He tells Trent to turn the camera off and then later when he gets his composure back he is speaking to Trent and telling him that he will edit out that particular bit. This of course doesn’t happen as we, the audience, have already viewed the scene and the camera continues to capture, without editing, throughout that whole scene. Another example is when they use jump cuts to move from inside a house to

the outside, such as when a character will be walking out of a house and the camera will follow, before cutting and then will continue filming once they are in position outside the house.

Although this use of cuts is quite the opposite of the long takes discussed earlier, it is still very consistent with realism and documentary style filming. Being both a Science Fiction as well as a realist film can seem quite contradictory, however, “A film does not have to be ‘realistic’ to be ‘realist’” (Hallam, Lindsay 2011). District 9 is an excellent example of this quote as, unless you have been living underneath a rock, we all know that aliens did not land in South Africa. Realism is used to emphasize film as a medium for directly recording what the camera ‘sees’.

The main focus of realism is to just let the camera record and let the audience make their own interpretations about what has been viewed. It has also been said that realist films are more democratic as they do not manipulate the audience (Abrams; Bell; Udris 2001). Although the first two suggestions in regards to realism are correct, the last point in regards to manipulation is quite naive. No matter what you are filming the person behind that camera has an agenda and what you are viewing is therefore in some way, even if only slightly, biased, which in turn will manipulate the viewer.

In District 9 these realist points are all considered. Firstly, in the way the film is shot, there is no doubt that they are trying to depict District 9 as a realist film.

Yes, it is a science fiction film consisting of aliens but as previously stated, this point alone does not constitute a film to become a formalist feature. The camera angles, for example, are definitely a ploy aimed at creating realism. It is truly trying to show the audience exactly what the camera sees, which definitely lets the audience make their own interpretations. How so? An example that proves this?

However, as we all know, news especially can be very biased, and having news as one of the main ways of filming District 9, it asks the question of what they are not showing to sway the audience into siding with the humans. This last sentence is awkwardly worded and confusing. The news features during the film show the aliens being violent and destructive but they are very short clippings and you have to wonder if they were provoked in some way by the humans. Of course, a human’s natural instinct would be to side with their own kind, but the question is still there in the audiences mind, if ever so briefly.

To emphasize my point, realism, as a term, wants to connect with the real world by using broad social issues, such as war and homelessness and social class (Branston, Gill & Stafford, Roy 1996), all of which are depicted in District 9. For example, the division between the Nigerian’s inside District 9 and the rest of South Africa, the war between the Aliens and the humans (war in general) and the destruction it brings with it, and black market products and drugs being sold are all issues the real world is

facing today, especially in Africa, that the audience can strongly relate to.

Good point, you need to explore it further. District 9 is an excellent example of hybridization. It uses traits from both a documentary style film and a Science Fiction film. District 9 both conforms to and subverts genre conventions within both genres. A documentary is defined quite similarly to that of a realist film; the capturing of reality or the representation of facts and the way the films are shot are definitely similar to realism ‘effects’ as well.

The use of a hand held, light weight camera captures the effect as if someone is placed in a situation and just filming what is in front of them. Again these effects are strongly used in District 9 and again it can be argued that, like realist films, there is a form of bias in play. The cameraman, although filming what is “in front” of him, is doing so in a manner that is timed and structured and therefore subjective (Hallam, Lindsay 2011). How so? District 9 can definitely also be categorized as a Science Fiction film as it sports traits definitively associated with the genre.

Science Fiction films can usually be spotted much easier than other genres as certain iconography usually jumps out at you, such as; rockets, robots, futuristic cities, alien encounters, and scientists (Telotte, J. P 2001). However, the film almost doesn’t want to be seen as a Science Fiction film. It challenges a lot of the typical codes and conventions that Science Fiction films usually uphold, choosing to stick to just a few of them, these being an

Alien invasion and the use of scientists to help explain the story.

The difference in District 9 is that they aren’t trying to transport you to a make believe world of imagination. They are trying to let your imagination take you to a reality were this could (is) why is this here? really happen. However, to make that happen this film challenges one huge convention of Science Fiction films, that being that Science Fiction films are, almost always, set in the future (making it impossible to be considered real, as it hasn’t happened yet).

District 9, however, is set in the present and past, again linking with realism and trying to depict that this has and is happening. By not viewing the entire film it is hard to say definitely, but considering the part watched, District 9 is without doubt trying to create realism and for the most part works wonderfully. In a film where aliens are included it is amazing that realism can be so strong, seeing as they are using something supernatural to tell their story.

The strong use of cinematography, especially the extensive use of hand held camera work, mise-en-scene, editing, and sound bring intense realism to the screen to create an unnatural world that seems completely real. Linked with the realism characteristics, both documentary and science fiction genre traits are also present. The science fiction traits may not help the realism but the strong links between documentary and realist styles make the realism so convincing it makes the audience really believe that this invasion happened.

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