AW: Opening Sequence Analysis

Lord Of War (Niccol, 2005)

Sound

• There is not a voice over in this clip as there is in the one for 'Layer Cake' however we do hear the main character speaking to the audience directly and conveying his ideologies and beliefs. The audience know that Cage plays an arms dealer and he thinks that everyone should own a weapon. We also hear very detailed intricate sounds made clear for example the loading of a gun, pulling of a trigger and metal clashing with metal.

 

Editing

• The editing in this clip is prominent mainly in the second section where the camera follows the creation of the bullet in one long tracking shot. There is also title credits placed over the footage but only over the very plain parts eg. a wall or a sheet of metal where the background is only one solid colour.

Mise-En-Scene

• In the opening dialogue we see Cage standing in front of a derelict house, bullets scattered throughout the area and the house smoking and on fire, meanwhile Cage talks very normally and calmly like everything is ordinary, again conveying his ideologies to the audience and further developing him as a character being used to this type of event. There is also a shocking image at the end where we see the child being shot in the head, the shock hooks the reader from an early stage in the film.

 

Camera

• Niccol uses firstly a tilt shot of Cage from a mid-angle the fact that he is shot from this low angle connotes his status as greater than the audience. The camera is also very shaky and sometimes lies canted so that the audience realize they are following the bullet through its 'life'

 

 Things in this I would like to be present in our work

• Addressing the audience directly
• Main characters beliefs to come across
• Text over the footage of some sort