Real Media Artefact 2

Real media artefact

Green Zone

Right at the beginning of the first scene, there are people running about in a panic inside a smoky building that is on fire. The lighting in this part is very dark, hinting that the power has gone out in the building and suggesting that the people are in danger. This builds the tension in the scene because the audience has a limited view of what is happening due to the lighting, so it puts the audience into the action making them empathise with what the characters are feeling. Shortly after this there are armed men passing through the building with torches attached to their guns. The light from the torches contrasts with darkness that surrounds them. There is confusion in the darkness because people are running around screaming, but the men with torches seem more organised and calculated so the lighting shows this with the contrast of brightness. The light form their torches is almost white and the colour white has connotations of being pure so it could hint that the armed men are purging the building of the ‘unclean’ which makes the audience raise questions as to why they are doing that, so it grips them. As two men are anxiously discussing what to do, there are flashes of explosions that come through the window, illuminating the room. Explosions generally hint danger so it has a sense of excitement about it keeping the audience interested. The explosion is red and orange. These colours are generally considered quite angry colours which links back to the idea of this being a dangerous exiting scene full of action.

At the beginning of the scene again the director uses a variety of camera angles to convey the sense of danger that links with its genre of action.

An array of short cuts are used right at the start when the people are running through the corridors trying to escape. The camera cuts to people running, then some reactions of people. It tracks a man running through a room and then quickly cuts to his reactions which are sadness and anxiousness. These feelings link back to the idea of it being dangerous and exiting. The use of the short cuts builds the tension because it overwhelms the audience with lots of separate things going on at once. It creates excitement because of all the action happening in a short time, which links back to the genre of the film which is action.

High-angled shots are used to make the people who are running look weak and vulnerable. The camera pans along the corridor above the crowd’s heads as they run through the narrow corridors. This angle makes them look inferior to the army soldiers who are passing them because they are shown in low angled shots to make them look superior to them. The soldiers are framed in the foreground in this section and the civilians are in the background. This hints that the soldiers have more power than the civilians. This builds the tension because it makes the audience want to know what the soldiers are going to do. Because the soldiers have power over the citizens, it has an element of danger to it because the soldiers are not wanted so people will try rebel against them. The danger links back to the genre.

The opening music to the scene is very fast pace. The music is symmetrical to the action happening in screen so it enforces the idea of it being action-packed. When the song gets to the end of a bar, a new shot is introduced with new scenery. This helps the flow of the scene by making the music fit the action. So it keeps the audience interested. When two men are panicking in a room, there are sounds of explosions and gunfire. These suggest danger because they are linked with death and therefore there is fear of dying. So this helps the audience get a fuller picture of the action. These sound effects are very loud compared to the other diagetic sound that you can hear such as people panicking and running around. This is effective because it shows the contrast between the good and the bad and the weak and the strong and the sounds are linked to war so the audience instantly know that there is some sort of war going on. Because the sound of explosions is louder than everything else, it is what the audience focus on, so it keeps them wanting to see more.

Props that the soldiers have such as guns, torches and Kevlar body armour suggests danger because if they need all that gear they must be in danger. Connotations of gun are fear and danger and death, which fall under the genre of the film which is action.