The
first shot immediately establishes the mise-en-scene. The audience are looking
through the back of a convoy – there are lots of point-of-view shots. It is
dusty, cars are destroyed, and it looks like a war scene. There is an alien
spaceship in the background, which
symbolises elements of outer space The camera moves/shakes quite a lot, which
deliberately gives the piece an amateur feel. At some points it helps to
heighten the confusion, which contributes to the threat of the aliens i.e.
running away. The medium shots of the robots as the police try to shoot it from
all different angles, show us that it is invincible, which would make the audience
feel threatened by this unknown creature.
The way
the title slowly fades into and out of black makes it seem like a
documentary-style film i.e. infers longevity. Ambiguity is created, for example
through the hazy setting against the foreground the now ‘aliens’ as we know
them, spaceships.
The voiceover as news footage of these mechanical robots or
aliens evokes a documentary style because of its realism. Lots of different
points of views. “This is when things really started to get out of hand,”
implies that something bad is going to happen along with the visual of police
getting out armed with guns out of a helicopter. The music at this point
supports the build up of tension, with shot-reverse-shots of the police running
towards the robot.
The date 1990 tells us that this is set in
apartheid South Africa and is significance because at that time there was
complete segregation and the idea of different races is explored
metaphorically. The aliens can be interpreted as black people, those who were
poor and had nothing. It leaves the
audience thinking, what happened? which
is a very unusual way for a documentary to end.
No comments:
Post a Comment