City Of God Redraft

AS Media Assessment Redraft

In the opening of City of God, diegetic sound effects like the slicing of a sword are used to emphasise the size of the knife being handled by the man. It makes it seem like a weapon as flash cuts between the chicken and the knife emerge. Also the chicken tilts its head to make it look confused and realise what is going to happen to it. When the chicken escapes, a close up shot of a man who seems to be the boss is used to show that he wants the chicken, then the camera cuts to his workers chasing the chicken, and then back to him laughing at them, as if to say it will be easy. We get a sense of conflict between the ages and between the gang and normal people in the community. When the chicken is running away, a tracking shot is used to highlight the speed it is running at and also the determination to get away. We can identify this because the camera isn’t still so it looks like the chicken is trying to find any way of escaping and any direction to make it easier. At this moment, fast-paced, upbeat music is played throughout to emphasise the quickness of it and the tension. Whenever the chicken or the men ran into something or closely by, sharp, loud sound effects were used to show that the chase was becoming harder and that the chicken was becoming more likely to get caught. Also the camera kept cutting back to close ups of the boss to show he was confident that they would catch it.

As the men run into the boy and his friend, slow motion occurs on the boy and the boss to show the boys realisation of who he has witnesses, and it also highlights the irony of the situation as just before, the boy says rhetorically: “why would I want to meet up with the hood?” to his friend. After his realisation passes, he immediately listens to the boss and an establishing shot of him is used when he focuses on catching the chicken. This shows that he is the main focus of attention and power has been handed to him. Suddenly the Police arrive, and the men hold up all of their guns, ready to fire, and gun cocking sound effects are used very loudly to emphasise the arsenal of weapons they have and the power they possess.

After this happens, all sound is blurred out and a 360 pan shot on the boy sped up and slowed down to show that he is in a very dangerous position, and that he needs to think of how to get out of it. This is also ironic as before, during the conversation with his friend he mentions that he would indeed risk his life for a picture, and at that moment he is in a perfect position for a picture, and at the same time risking his life. We can also call this dramatic irony. When the pan shot is slowed down, the setting rewinds into his past as a child, with him in the same stance between the goal posts. A match-on-action shot is performed when he dives for the ball as it shows him diving from the front then from the back. Two other boys walk up to someone he was playing with and then to him, where slow motion occurs again to possibly emphasise that he was too nervous to introduce himself, or that he maybe should introduce himself instead of starting trouble. This scene of him as a young child and the scene of him as a boy between the gang and the police, relates because they both show he is in the middle of something and that the scene as a young boy is an equivalent of what happens when he is older.