Film techniques

Today we are building our film techniques tool box.  Each student needs to read and view the very useful Empire resource: Film Studies 101: the 30 camera shots every film fan needs to know.  As you read the definitions and watch the examples, I then want you to make a table which has the shots you are confident to identify and explain in one column, and those you are not sure of in the other.

Shawshank: Andy arrives at the prison

Andy's arrival sets the scene for life in prison.  He confounds Red's predictions and costs him several packets of cigarettes.  Today we will look at how this scene establishes the roles of different characters.  We will also look at the contrast between Andy's dignity and the brutal, sub-human behaviour in the prison.

1. Props: costume: how is Andy dressed and how is his hair styled on the bus?  How is it noticeably different from the other new inmates?

2. What does the sound of the siren tell the inmates?  There is one more time when the siren is sounded, much later in the film.  Can you remember when it is?

3. What are Red and his friends doing as they watch the new inmates?  

4. What is Red's first impression of Andy?  Why do you think he forms that impression?