City of God Chick Chase Scene

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASPvpdaQpRQ

After looking at segments from the large video of Go Pro i decided to start looking at film sequences that have very fast paced shots, and one film i recall having some very fast paced edited shots was a film called City of God which was directed by Meirelles and was made in 2002 and was a great film but very gory and disturbing and points of the film, but the editing was very well done.

When i first saw this film it was 2 years ago whilst i was studying Film Studies for my 2nd year of A level. This was one of the films we had to watch and was from a topic for the module of Urban stories which revolves around Power, Poverty and Conflict. In the exam i chose this along with a film called La Haine to write an essay about relating to the question and compare and contrasts through the use of cinematographic and mise-en-scene techniques, along with quotes which were powerful and memorable and relevant to the story along with comparing the type of narrative etc was in these two films.  In the end for the exam with the modules together i ended up getting an A in my exam which i was really proud of and now after taking Film Studies its helped me to look at film in a different way by the way its edited, narrative and techniques used to enhance the audiences experience. This this post i will be analysing certain shots and techniques and inner meaning of some of them and giving an overall summary of what is actually happening etc in this sequence.

To start with in the opening shots we can tell there are a huge range of close up shots, along with POV shots of the chicken, and because some of them are low angles it makes the surroundings look a lot more intimidating and the people around the area. This helps to give the sense of being trapped and there being no escape. The POV shot from the chicken help to give us a insight to the feeling of the area and what it feels like, and almost that we're trapped, making us feel bad for the chicken.

The use of the fast shots give the sense of danger and a lot happening in this environment, as if its always busy and a lot happening. Because we only really see close ups and this is the first scene in the film we can't tell where we are placed or what environment, but gives this idea that its placed within a claustrophobic setting as there a lot of people and a lot of movement, which also helps to re emphasise the sense of being trapped and unable to escape.

The use of the first shots of the knife in different angles help to already give the feeling of danger as we'd usually associate a knife we violence and gangs, so going into this scene with the first couple of shots being closeups of knives slicing gives an uneasy feeling to the atmosphere as well as a sense of danger.

With the chase scene itself, it is very fast paced and uses contrasting shots with the people of Brazil in the slum chasing the chicken and tracking shots of the chicken running away, this makes the scene more interesting and feeling of a chase scene. The use of the type of camera which is handheld makes the film feel less informal and more real as if its really happening. 

The film itself is directed by Meirelles and is set in Brazil in Rio the slum which is a really bad, gritty lower class area where popular crime happens, along with drugs etc so by this we can tell its a very unsafe environment in Brazil. This film was also filmed using real people from the slums, so this makes the film feel more feel and the setting is in a real place of Rio in the real slums, so it altogether gives almost a documentary type of film feel to it with the real setting and the handheld camera. All of these aspects emphasise the realism of how bad the slums are and what its like to live in the area with all the crime and drugs going on.