Group Task

The film scene I will be analysing is the opening scene in The Quick and The Dead. The scene starts out with an extreme long shot. The purpose of this shot is to establish the location/ setting of the film, which is a desert. The shot uses natural lighting, to make the location look more realistic and make us feel like we are there. The person on the horse is riding towards the camera, which made me feel like they are the lead character, and we are going to follow them. It then zooms out and pans to the right, to show various objects on the floor, to show that someone is living there. We can then see a horse, as it tilts down to a low angle. This shows that the horse is important, as they carry people from A to B. The camera then pans right again, to show someone digging a grave. There is then a straight cut to a long shot. In this shot, you there is hardly any mise-en-scene. You can only see mountains but apart that, it’s deserted. This shows that both characters are isolated and are in the middle of no-where. Then a character jumps out in the middle of the shot, to a close up shot. I was scared and shocked at this point because I didn’t expect it and the character looks creepy and deformed. The shot uses low key lighting which makes him look even scarier and mysterious.

There is then a straight cut to a long shot which is a POV shot to show what he can see, he can now see the danger. Non-diegetic music starts to play, which made me surprised as I wasn’t expecting it. The music tells us that something is going to happen, the action will begin soon. There is then a straight cut to a static long shot which shows the character coming towards him, implying that something is going to happen between the two. There is then a straight cut to a slight tracking long shot. This shows that the character is getting ready, and getting closer towards him. There is then an extreme close up of his gun. This shows that he is going to shoot the character. At this point, I think that he is going to kill her because she isn’t ready and he has fired a shot, which looks like it’s killed her. There is then a straight cut to a medium shot of the man, who is running over to see if he has killed her. By his performance, you can tell he is happy that he has killed her. There is then a straight cut to a 2 person long shot, which shows her on the floor, and looks like she’s dead and the man is walking up next to her. Because he is high up, the man at this point is in control and he is dominant. However, as she is on the floor, she is weak and not in control. The shot also has proxemics, as he is getting closer towards her.

There is then a straight cut to a medium shot to show the man’s reaction and he seems happy and surprised that he has killed her. There is then a straight cut to a high angle medium shot. This shows that she is now in control and the dominant figure now. We now know that she will faking it and she wasn’t really shot. There is then a 2 person long which shows her hitting him. Non-diegetic music is used for the punch, to make it sound louder so it hurt him more. There is then a high angle med shot of the man. It’s a high angle because it makes him look weaker and not in control of the situation.

There is then a low angle med shot of the women. At this point, we don’t know that she is a women, however we are given a clue. The clue is that it’s a Dutch angle, which implies that something is wrong, something isn’t right. Non- diegetic music plays in the background, to make her more frightening and to create more tension and suspense. The shot is also mysterious, because we can’t see the persons face, which implies that something is wrong also. We don’t even know what she looks like yet. Also, the sun is above her head, which makes her look like she has a hale on her face, like she is an angel, she is the chosen one. Therefore, the sun on her head is religious symbolism- she is the chosen one send by God. It’s once again a low angle shot, which makes her look more dominant and powerful. There is then a straight cut to a high angle med shot of the man on the floor. This shot is used to make the man look weak and powerless. In the background, you can hear non-diegetic music of whip sound. This is used as it’s a genre convention of westerns- it’s a typical weapon in most westerns which a sheriff has. There is a shadow on his body, which I think is used to show that she’s overcasting him, she is clearly more powerful as she is over him.

There is then a straight cut to a Dutch med shot. In this shot, you can see that she is wearing typical western genre costumes- like the hat, checked shirt and cowboy boots. This is once again a genre convention of the western. In this shot, the women is also still blackened, we still can’t see her and we still don’t know it’s a girl. Therefore, I keep thinking that it’s a man, as it’s a typical western genre convention to have a male in the leading role. The shot also contains non-diegetic music, to make it more fun and exciting for the audience. When she throws her hat at him towards the camera, there is a straight cut to a med shot of the man on the floor, taking the hat off him. The camera tilts up with the man as he gets up, which turns into more of a close up. There is then a straight cut to a POV, low angle med shot as she gets on her horse- which is another typical genre convention in a western film. At this point, we still don’t know if it’s a woman or not. There is then a straight cut to a med/close up, which pans left as the man looks left, looking to see where she is going. I think the shot is used to show his anger and emotion towards the character, he clearly doesn’t like her as he also swears at her. There is another straight cut to a long shot which is used to show that he is locked up and she has defeated him. He is locked up to a carnage, which is another typical western genre convention, and is used to take characters to places with a horse. In the background, you can also see the mountains and how deserted the place is, which shows how lonely this place is.

There is then a straight cut to an extreme close up of the lock. This is important because it shows that he is now locked there and can’t move away. This made me shocked because I didn’t expect her to win, as I thought the man would be inferior and more powerful. There is then a straight cut to a close up of the man, which shows that he is angry and furious with her for what she has done to him. He now knows that she has beaten him and he doesn’t like it. There is then a straight cut which uses matching on action editing to a med/ close up of the character that has defeated him, and it turns out to be a women. This made me shocked because women aren’t the leads in westerns. In fact, it is a genre convention that a man is the main character in westerns, people like Clint Eastwood and John Wayne would usually be the main characters in westerns. Therefore, this film breaks the genre convention by having a woman as the main character, and I personally wasn’t expecting it. Therefore, as it has broken the genre convention, the film now seems unique and original compared to other films in the same genre. For example, the film is now more unique and different to a film like ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’, because it has a woman as the main character and that film doesn’t and most other westerns don’t.