Wednesday 13 May 2009

Gone Baby Gone film analysis-Research



For my research into my thriller opening I looked at other films which were related to little children going missing. One of these films was "Gone Baby Gone".

Gone Baby Gone

The opening scene of this film begins with a mid shot of a block of flats. Depth of Field is shown in this shot by the angle the camera is positioned, this use of angle gives an effect that the flats just keep continuing down the street. As the film begins non-diegetic music starts to play very softly and quietly. The shot the cuts to a poster of a flag, this shot gives us the film setting. These two shots make up an establishing shot as we can tell that the film is set around the streets and the flats and which state it was filmed in.

As the film continues we are shown a man sitting smoking on the stairs and the camera pans upwards to a un-clean looking woman wearing a top which reveals her stomach. The next shot shows a USA flag again then comes into focus on a scruffy looking man on his balcony. In this shot you can tell a little bit more about the setting. The man is wearing a worn out grey dirty looking cap and his balcony was rotting away and needed some paint. Another shot of a man comes next who is also on his balcony which looked like I needed some paint. These shots make me think of a not so privileged town but a town where the community is always out and about. A man’s voice begins whilst the music still continues. He acts as a sort of introduction to the film and talks about the community. As he talks the shots of people, kids and families are shown and they all looked happy. Another thing I noticed was that there were black and white people together, there were people with disabilities going down the street with people saying hi to them, there were a couple of kids painting graffiti as art on the walls and also we are shown a shot of a church. All these shots make up a montage of what the town is like.

When the title of “Gone Baby Gone” comes up it is placed on a shot of a factory. The next shot is a tracking shot of a man who greets a couple that are standing outside their home. As this shot plays the man speaking says “I’ve lived on this block my whole life” which tells us the man speaking is a main character in the film and that it may be the man that the camera is tracking in the shot. He also says his job is to find people who are missing, this gives us a clue it’s about a child who goes missing. The shots continue to show kids playing on the streets, happy, and then it pans towards a picture of a little girl as the man says the words “yet innocent as doves”. Instantly we know that this is a picture of a missing little girl.

The shot then shows a camera crew and police officers around the front of a house and people with microphones obviously reporters who want to get a story on the missing child. We aren’t told it’s a missing child until the camera pans over flowers and teddies which are tied to a fence and a picture of the little girl with the words “missing girl” at the top and “pray that we find her” written on the bottom. The man’s voice stopped at the voice of a lady comes in and the shot of a woman surrounded by people, clearly going on television to plea for her little girl back. The non-diegetic music is still continuing to play at this time. We then see a woman who is watching the lady’s plea for their girl back on the television. The camera cuts to a wider shot to show a man also in the kitchen who just got a drink out of the fridge whilst the girl is cleaning up. This shot gives importance to the couple who must be a main part of the film.

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