Sunday 4 October 2015

Shane Meadows Analysis


In the opening trailer of this film we are hovered over an establishing shot where the camera pans across the forest in fast motion. Non diegetic music is added on top of this which is quite gentle and slow, this allows the audience to be drawn into the trailer and immediately feel sympathy. We cut to a medium shot behind 2 characters walking through the forest. Due to them holding bags and wearing tracksuits and baggy clothing we can connote that these characters are poor and maybe homeless therefore this is why the non-diegetic sound is used, to help create that emotion and awareness before the audience are even shown the story. We continue to cut from and to different angle shots of them walking, as it fades into black it infers that these 2 characters have been walking for a while. In the last shot of them walking through the forest we have the man in the green jacket walking ahead while the boy in the blue tracksuit is behind. This can suggest that the man in front is a more important character die to him having more prevalence.

As we fade into a black title with hit writing saying “brothers love” we begin to understand the characters. The white writing stands out against the black background making the trailer look effective. The medium shot of the 2 brother’s s baby’s shows their love for each other. We hen cut to a close up of both the characters faces, allowing us to recognise them I more detail. After their conversation about going back to town to sort out business we can understand the one in the blue tracksuit who didn’t want to go is afraid of something which adds enigmas for the audience. What’s so bad back in town? What business does he have to sort out?

As we cut to a title, the background is black and in large, bold letter we have “VENGANCE” in orange connoting fire and anger. This is effective as the title we have seen before says “brothers love” therefore when it juxtapose to a brother vengeance the audience start to find in captivating. The music then juxtapose to become much more anticipated getting the audience in the mood. We hear whispers “what did you do to him? What did you do?” this is effective as the audience are now completely hooked into the story line needing to know what happens next!

A medium shot of gang of boys grabbing a boy and laughing at him as they have something tied around his neck. He screams “no”, here we can understand the man who wants vengeance is his older brother and as we were shown at the beginning how close they were the audience are aware he will do anything to get revenge making the story line much more dramatic. This is successful as the genre is a thriller and this follows the codes and conventions.

The next shot is my favourite as it is such a clever shot. When one of the bad boys leave their friends we have him coming round from a corner. However, in just a split second we have shown this figure in a mask in the reflection of the window. The reason why this shot is so successful Is because it allows the audience to realise he is there before the character does, however it all happens so fast that that up paced and dramatic atmosphere doesn’t disappear. After that split t second of him disappears we then cut to another angle shot of him where it is an over the shoulder shot of the bad boy, getting to see the man in the mask in more detail and for a longer period of time.

The shots start to speed up, we cut from a medium shot of a man running up the stirs in fear to another medium shot of 2 of them shouting out the window “we will find you”

We are shown a medium shot of the two brother together again, the brother who wears the mask I jumping up and down and his facial expression shows anger and determination. However, the jumping subverts this as it can show he is afraid but he knows he has to do this for his brother who was bullied. In this shot Richard the younger brother is just looking to the floor confused, this can show he is dependent on his older brother who is represented as stronger. This is then proven as we cut to a shot in the same area of Richards’s older brother talking to somebody. This guy is in all black connoting mystery and can also represent him as a dangerous man. Due to what he is wearing can show he is higher up than the brothers therefore we understand that this is serious business. This two shot is effective as in the centre of these 2 men we have Richard in the background again showing him to be dependent on his brother to sort out his problems and afraid in getting involved. We are shown the surroundings of council estates and in the houses they are very small and camped suggesting that all these people are poor which could infer they had rough up bringing’s.

Richards brothers just confessed he is the guy in the mask and a soon as w=he says that we get a sharp screeching sound and cut to a close up of the mask then long shot of him holding a hammer looking down at 2 of the bad men asleep. A close up of an over the shoulder shot shows the man in all black saying “your making me very nervous Richard” this shot so effective as we can see how close the characters faces are together compared to in the two shot were their bodies were far apart. This adds tension and suspense which is what a thriller should do. When we were cutting from these shots a flash of red took up the whole screen. This is successful as the deep red could connote blood and the death of the gang. The music is very tedious with a repetitive piano note playing constantly in the background. We get flashing shots of Richard with an axe as we hear screams. The flashing shots are effective as it adds that ominous atmosphere to that scene and makes it frightening for the audience to watch as they sit there wondering what is going on.

A medium shot of part of the gang holding a snipe up aimed at Richard. However, when we cut to a long shot of Richard we see him standing there in his own clothes and an axe in his hand, lifting up his arms and smiling inferring he doesn’t care. A close up of the man lifting the sniper closer to his eye and hearing a click from the bullet we fade into back which make the trailer look much more professional using transitions.

The last shot we see before the titles is a close up of Richard looking down to the floor then shutting his eye as we have a voiceover saying “ I can’t live with that”, implying he can’t live with the way they tormented his brother. We cut to the traditional black title and the music is high pitched, it is in the orange writing again standing out from the black background. The 4 stars may make the audience want to watch the movie as we know that is must be good to be rated this. As the lexis such as “disturbing” and “utterly gripping” will catch the target audience’s attention.

At the very end we cut through traumatic shots of violence, where we see blood written on walls, and someone pointing a gun to a man’s head tied in a plastic bag. This shows the thriller and horror side which will again intrigue the target audience.

Finally, we are shown the title at the very end. “Dead Man’s Shoes” are displayed in large bold letters. The words ‘dead’ and ‘man’ are displayed in red which adds colour to the title and also connotes the blood and death pf this movie and the word ‘man’ is displayed in white as it is traditional and also allows each word to stand out.

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