Tuesday, October 2, 2012

BLK Film-making Conventions and Cultural Codes


This is a clip from the family fantasy film, Willow (1988).

Film-making Conventions:
  • Zoom in from long shot to mid shot - establishes setting and character, i.e. set in a forest and the man is clearly a wizard
  • The wizard looks towards something, we see a shot of two people turning to look at him then back to him - they are standing in front of each other
  • Camera pans down with the wizards hand so we follow what he is picking up
  • Landscape shot of bird flying through the landscape - camera follows it then close ups and mid shots of people watching the action
  • Cutting between people and what they are looking at to keep pace and interest, i.e. the people watching the wizard, then his hand and then the bird
  • Sound effects - jingle of wizard's cane, footsteps of people, magical twinkle in wizard's spell

Cultural Codes:
  • Setting - magical forest
  • Wizard's cane
  • Backpacks and music suggest quest
  • Olden days robe clothing - fairytale
  • Dwarf actors, mix of age, gender and race
  • Stereotypical - old, bearded wizard, men packed to go on a quest, women and children seeing them off, however there is a mix of races of the men going off which you might not expect of a fantasy film from three decades ago
  • The twinkle of the wizard's spell is typical of a fantasy film
  • The wizard is wearing lots of chains and pendants compared to the plain dress of everyone else - indication of character, position and status

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