Once Upon a Time in The West
Posted on Wednesday, 14 October 2009
Filed under
"G321 Thriller Research"
For our research into making a opening scene I have been asked to take analyse notes on the beginning of “Once Upon a Time in the West”. We were told to take notes on the sounds, digetic (Natural to the film e.g voices, wind, doors, etc) and non-digetic (not natural to the film or has been added, music screams, etc), also camera shots and effects add to the film.
When going though the film I found that there are many digetic and non-digetic noises. A digetic noises that I noticed is in the first couple of seconds, it is the creak of the door the film makers kept this in to show that someone is coming in to the train station. They also add a tension through the sound of the chalk board as this makes you feel uncomfortable, which really goes along with the opening of the film. Again though the sound thay give an impression of what the area is like, this is where they are panning up the cowboy and you hear the wind, however the cowboy is inside the house thus giving the impression that the area is desolate and also giving the house a decrypted theme. Another noises is the slow foot steps of the cowboy this is done to give an impression of him before you see him. The impression that is given is to show that he is relaxed and powerful.
In the opening of the film there are also non-digetic sounds these are there to add tension to the beginning. One is the noise form the bird, the bird starts to make noise when the cowboy starts to open the door; this is giving a hint at danger coming.
The opening has a variety of camera angles to give you the impression of what the actor is felling. One of the first shots of the film is a frail old man writing something on a chalk board and zooms out, this is done to show the old man’s job. The zoom out also does a slight upwards tilt to signify how weak the old man is. A suspense that the film maker put in was a slow upwards pan of a cowboy, this was done to add suspense to the man. To show that the old man is surrounded by the conterventional cowboys there is a pan around the houses showing a cowboy step in to each of the get away points.
Through the opening there is not a great deal of effects, which is not surprising with the time of its making. However there is one effect that caught my eye, this effect was simply a ticket flowing in the wind that went straight towards the camera. However there where some other effect nevertheless they are simple ones like the fans to create the winds of the desolate areas.
Comments
Me
This is good Richard. I like your ideas about the sound of the chalkboard and door creaking. Make sure you fully understand the difference between diegetic and non-diegetic sound and try to explain the effects created by use of different camera angles in more detail. M