Film Annotation 

DUEL- by Steven Spielberg

Minutes 0-4

 The film DUEL starts in the dark while the sound layers over the top. Gradually you can see more as the car pulls out of the garage. The use of the darkness helps highlight the sound of the car starting, this sound needs to be familiarised because it links to the sounds later in the film. The first thing you notice is that the camera has been attached in first person to the car.  Later the car drives through the city and you find it very bleak because of the lack of contrast in lighting. The radio is on throughout the drive in the city which could suggest that the lack of vibrancy in colour was to make the viewer focus in more on the sound and dialog.

The first contrast of colours is when the car goes through a tunnel. The tunnel is dark and there are white lights along the top. This is when the opening credits begin in yellow; this may have been done so people would notice the credits.  Furthermore during the opening credits the title is announced as “Duel” it is placed between the two lines representing a divide of some form. There are brief pauses in the opening credits.

There are a lot of small scene transitions which use fade which helps the changes in location happen smoother and also portray the distance that the person is driving. At a point the driver finds himself in traffic and due to the low first person view from the car there is a sense of being overwhelmed by the other cars which are much larger and it may foreshadow how this car is not as large as the others. The first proper scene cut without a fade happens later at about 3:39 where the camera is watching the car from behind a fence; the next scene watches the car from very far away and from an elevated position. Finally there are a lot of overlapping scene transitions so you feel that the car has been driving for a long time.

The Other guys





In the opening scene to the other guys it starts off quickly as it is a sattire of an action thriller. Most of the camerawork is done to look like it has been filmed with a handheld camera, the dialog and diagetic sound from the environment start almost all at the same time. Instantly there is a shot which moves between two cars which helps keep the attention to the video and help smoothly introduce characters without too many scene transitions. The credits are also there in a white font as if to not make itself too prominent and keep focus on the action. As dialog ends the music volume is turned up, soon after there is a slow motion effect used when a bullet is fired. Many more small cut transitions are added with close up's to create a more tense and paced atmosphere. Eventually the car drives into a bus, when the car lands in the bus the music and alot of the background music is muted for some comic dialog, this is done to emphasise the joke. The typical action cut scenes return and the car chase continues, finally there is a last slow motion section followed by bright and loud exaggerative explosions to finish the introduction to the film.

Drive:

The introduction to drive starts with a gliding night time city shot, as this happens the credits start in a bright pink color in the center of the screen. Then there is a fade into a low angled shot putting the main character at a higher position to the camera. There is then a cut to an over shoulder shot which focuses on the main character and shows the background moving while blurred. After a few seconds you cut to a first person shot however you can see the main characters face in the reflection of the mirror. Next there is a cut to a side shot with shadow along the side of his face, also all of the surroundings are shadowed making the main character more focused on. There is a switch to a crane shot which zooms out showing different lighted sections of the roads around the car, from there the shot fades into another side shot. The opening then cuts to the bright inside of an underground car park. There is a shot from behind the main character which shows the another character of importance walking at the same time, from there you have a long shot from inside the lift showing the woman walking away. The next interesting cut is from a low angle watching the main character with the moonlight casting a shadow on the wall, it also watches him walk away revealing the small corridor behind as he shuts the door the scene changes to another city shot which zooms out gradually showing the car driving along a main road. There is then another over shoulder shot without any blur showing the road.

Collateral Opening

Collateral opens with a long shot with blur to focus in on the important characters. There is a closeup with slow motion on one of the main characters but then it quickly cuts to the two characters meeting in a bump. The the bump is followed by the drop of a suit case and both of these are emphasized by being shot in closeup and having the sound loud made louder. There is some quick dialog between the two characters where everything around them is blurred and it is shot from a close distance. Then you have an over shoulder shot of one of the men walking off through a blurred crowd. There is a cut to a closeup on some eyes on an advert on a taxi which again uses blur to focus the viewers attention. There is another cut to a magazine which is followed up by multiple short cuts of closeups from different parts of a taxi, then there is a cut of the magazine again being opened. The scene is set by showing different people doing their own jobs in a blurred effect and having lots of diagetic sound there are more bright colors to suit the big Hollywood label production style. More cut scenes to the magazine reveal a character who looks outward, there is a first person shot from his point of view watching a taxi come into the garage while everything else remains blurred. There is a sudden cut from there to a low angle shot showing a bag and the man getting into a taxi, it then proceeds to show him cleaning and using the car. When he turns on the lights there is a cut to the front of the taxi for each light. The camera gives the view of some people arguing in the background but cuts back to the man in the taxi, when he closes the door there is close up on his face as all music and sound is muted. There are more close ups of small personal objects are placed in the taxi. It shows a picture of an island three; the first time is when he places it, the second is when he stares at it and the third is when he puts it away. There is a mid shot of a character looking over the taxis and then it has another long shot showing his elevated positioning. The taxi is then shown backing out of its parking spot and into the camera where it slows down, there is a small change in focus to see the inside details of the taxi but then it drives off into a long shot.


Taxi Driver:

The introduction to taxi begins with a black background with red credits, it then fades with music into a cloud of smoke. The car comes into shot through the smoke and comes close to the camera, however most of the car is still covered by smoke. The title "TAXI DRIVER" comes up in the smoke after the car has come through. More credits appear in bright orange through the smoke. There is an extreme close up of just the main characters eyes darting around in the different street lights. We see a first person shot of all of the street lights through a wet windshield which makes it look like a painting. Then an effect is added to the view from the front of the car showing the street in odd high contrast colors and giving everything a blur. There is a shot where two images are merged, there is a fire in front of a few pedestrians walking by a road with a contrast of blue and red, this is followed up by a close up of the main characters eyes again. Smoke is used again for the transition between his eyes and him walking into a shop. The colors in the shop are much darker, the camera glides under the main character and ends in a portrait position under him so you can see his full face for the first time.

Children of Men:

The sound starts before the black screen cuts to a full room of people dressed in dull colors.

There is an tv in the background so the viewers can see what the people are watching, at the back of the shot you can see out of the shop. There is some small dialog and then it cuts to the tv which is filmed by a hand held camera. The camera follows the main character through the room of people, as the main character walks out of the shop the camera turns to face the door watching a reflection of him going out, it then goes onto the street and gives a wide shot of the surroundings. The camera seems to be in first person and follows a bike go past to catch onto the main character again, all as one shot. The camera slowly turns around the main character and looks down the road before there is a large explosion. From behind the main character the camera is brought closer towards the action while still being handheld for effect.