The Selfish Giant Film Analysis

The Selfish Giant Dir. Clio Barnard (2013)

The Selfish Giant was directed by Clio Barnard, it was produced by the British Film Institute, Film 4 and Moonspun Films. It was filmed in Bradford, England.

Clio Barnard is a British director of documentary and feature films. She won widespread critical acclaim and multiple awards for her debut, The Arbor, an experimental documentary about Bradford playwright Andrea Dunbar. In 2013 she was hailed as a significant new voice in British cinema for her film The Selfish Giant, which premiered in the Director's Fortnight section of the Cannes film festival.

Her debut feature, The Arbor (2010) won several awards including Best New Documentary Filmmaker at Tribeca Film Festival New York, Best Newcomer and Sutherland Awards at The London Film Festival, Douglas Hickox Award at British Independent Film Awards, The Guardian First Film Award, Best Screenplay at the London Evening Standard Film Awards, the Sheffield Documentary Film Festival Innovation Award and the Jean Vigo Award for Best Direction at Punto de Vista International Documentary Film Festival. She was nominated for the BAFTA Outstanding Debut Award in February 2011.

The film has a cyclic narrative to it as it ends in a similar way to how it starts. The film starts with Arbor under a bed, shouting, screaming and hitting the underside of the bed, until Swifty gets down and give Arbor his hand and they grab hands and it calms Arbor down and almost reassures him leading him to come out from under the bed.. The film comes to an end with the audience seeing Arbor laying under the bed refusing to come out from under the bed,he then imagines seeing Swifty get off the bed and reach his hand out again to reassure him and let him know everything will be alright, then Swifty's mum comes into the room with Arbor's mum and Arbor jumps out from under the bed and gives her a long hug to share her grief and almost give her a hug as an apology for what happened. 
The cyclic structure of the film could also connote what its like to live in poverty, its a never ending cycle that you cannot break, once you having been taking in you cannot leave it.

The film shows poverty in the UK and especially what it is like from a child's perspective. There are many power stations, chimneys and pile-ons shown throughout the film which foreshadows what will happen at the end of the movie. The ‘selfish giants’are the pile-ons and power stations as they took away Arbour’s ticket out from poverty. Swifty had a trait, that allowed him to get on with horses so he could help train and race them. This could have provided Swifty and Arbour with lots of money had the horses of won and they could of eventually taken their families out of poverty ridden Bradford so they could start a new life somewhere else. The adults are also the selfish giants in the film, for example Kitten, the scrapyard owner was selfish because he was getting Arbor ans Swifty to go and steal and salvage scrap metal to make him money. The parents are selfish giants in a way because if we take Swifty's dad for example, he was verbally abusive and took away from the family even though he done it to try and provide for them.

Barnard places a metaphor in the film that runs throughout the film that becomes more noticeable throughout the film that emulates the world that the protagonists live in. The copper wiring is used to represent Arbor and Swifty while the casing around the wiring represents the world of poverty that they have been brought up in. The wiring being taken out of the casing represents Arbor and Swifty staking their claim in a world without poverty,but the casing representing the poverty of the world they live in soon becomes the catalyst that changes their lives forever and prevents them from making it out of poverty.

Jonah Film Analysis

Jonah Dir. Kibwe Tavares (2013)

Jonah is a social-realism film and was directed by Kibwe Tavares. Filmed in Zanzibar and Tanzania, and was funded by the BFI Film Fund and was produced by Film 4, Shine Pictures and Stray Bear Productions,  as well as special effects company Jellyfish Pictures.

Kibwe Tavares was a student at Bartlett School of Architecture, his graduation film, ‘Robots of Brixton’, won the Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.  Other awards include a TED fellowship and recognition as one of Fast Company’s ‘100 Most Creative People in Business’. Kibwe combines his training as an architect with storytelling and animation to create futuristic 3D live action/animated films that are incredibly detailed and vivid. He was named one of the top twenty young global Directors at the Saatchi & Saatchi New Director’s showcase; won Best Short Film Award for ‘Jonah’ at the CFPE/Shots Young Director’s Award plus the Special Jury Prize and he also walked away with the Audience Award. 

Jonah is set in a built up village in Zanzibar. We see it is built up within the first few scenes as there are lots of people in alleys and side roads, even the main road has several little shops on the side for people to stop at and there are several pickup trucks that go past with people sitting in the back. From some of the opening scenes we see that there could be a lot of poverty in the area,

In this picture from the film, we can see tin roofs that are rusting and the pavement looks dirty, this connotes that the area in which the film is set are going through hard times.

We also see connotations of the village not being of a high class standard when the two protagonists Mbwana and Juma are on the beach talking, and Mbwana talks about building a Buckingham palace on the beach and an Eiffel tower to make it look better. However, despite this being said, the village that they are living is already a fairly idealistic place to live as it is by a beach which most people would like.

We see Mbwana's idealistic version of the village appear when he starts to gain fame after Juma takes a picture of him with a giant fish jumping out of the water behind him. Once Mbwana gains this fame, his life turns from him stealing from people to being the talk of the town, everybody in his town knows who he is and  he starts to get his idealistic life. The use of Tavares' animations of the billboards being erected around the town and being taken down at the end of the film has connotations of what fame can do to you. The billboards quick erection and fall shows that Mbwana's idealistic life wouldn't work and would ruin the village just like the added tourism from the fish done to the village.

The use of the camera shots in the film ranges from close ups and long shots with a plethora of other shots and angles in between. 

This mid shot of Juma and Mbwana shows both of their facial expressions and their body language when talking about building Buckingham Palace. We can see Juma (on the left), looks confused about the idea and looks like he wants to take a step away from Mbwana because he doesn't want to be apart of the plans because he knows what it will do to their home. Mbwana however, is relishing the idea and thinks it could turn their home into a better place and will turn everything around, making the village better. 

The use of close ups in this film gives us a little bit of an insight into what the characters could be thinking as well as their feeling and reactions to events that take place. For example in this picture, we see Mbwana with a big grin on his face after seeing the picture Juma took of him with the fish behind him. The look on Mbwana's face can suggest that he can finally follow through on the idea of making the village a tourist attraction and trying to turn around their way of life.

Ride Along analysis

Ride Along Dir. Tim Story (2014)

Timothy Kevin "Tim" Story (born March 13, 1970) is an American director, producer and writer. He is the founder of The Story Company, an entertainment production company that he started with his wife in 1996. Born in Los Angeles on March 13, 1970, Story attended Westchester High School in Los Angeles with jazz pianist Eric Reed and actresses Regina King and Nia Long. He was senior class president at Westchester High. He graduated from the USC School of Cinematic Arts in 1991. While in high school, Story briefly attempted a career in music. He was part of Ice-T's Rhyme Syndicate and even appeared as a member of the group T.D.F. on the song "T.D.F. Connection" from the 1988 compilation album Rhyme Syndicate Comin' Through. A group member was shot and killed prior to them being signed to Warner Bros. Records. Story later turned his attention to directing feature films.

Ride Along is a 2014 American action comedy film directed by Tim Story and starring Ice Cube, Kevin Hart, John Leguizamo, Bryan Callen, Tika Sumpter and Laurence Fishburne. Greg Coolidge, Jason Mantzoukas, Phil Hay, and Matt Manfredi wrote the screenplay based on a story originally from Coolidge.
The film follows Ben Barber, a high school security guard who must prove to his girlfriend's brother, James Payton, that he is worthy of marrying her. The film was produced by Relativity Media, Cube Vision Productions and Rainforest Films, and distributed by Universal Pictures.

In Ride Along, we see several types of camera shots used.The shots used range from close ups to long shots and bird's eye view shots and high angle shots. The use of a variety of camera shots and angles are we get to see shots that set the scene for what is happening and where it is happening, but we also get to see the facial expressions of the actors and actresses in the film. In Ride Along, there are several high angle shots that show us where the scene is being set. We mostly see close ups, mid shots and long shots in the movie that show us facial expressions, body language and give us a full view of what is going on. For example, in the clip below, within the first 10 seconds, we see close ups and a long shot that shows us several people in the shot and the props that they are using.

Mise-en-scene is an important factor in this movie too. The use of props and the setting of some scenes helps to make the film funny and more interesting. For example, the supermarket scene with 'Crazy Cody' throwing groceries around at people, then he gets undressed and pours syrup over himself and starts wrestling and fighting with one of the policeman trying to arrest him. All the props used in the scenes have some sort of significance or are used to make the film funnier to the audience and progress the film.

The films lighting is very important too. The film has very few scenes that are set in a dark setting or partially light setting. Most of the scenes are bright because the film is a comedy which is stereotypically associated with brightness because its good. There are very few dark scenes in the film and the scenes that are dark are dark because there are shootouts between the police officers and bad guys. The use of the dark lighting in some scenes foreshadows bad events about to happen in this movie. For example when they go to the nightclub, it is dark throughout the entire scenes with only strobe lights providing any light.

Snatch Analysis

Snatch Dir. Guy Ritchie (2000)

Guy Ritchie was born in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, UK on September 10, 1968. After watching Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) as a child, Guy realized that what he wanted to do was make films. He never attended film school, saying that the work of film school graduates was boring and unwatchable. At 15 years old, he dropped out of school and in 1995, got a job as a runner, ultimately starting his film career. He quickly progressed and was directing music promos for bands and commercials by 1995. The profits that he made from directing these promos was invested into writing and making the film The Hard Case (1995), a twenty minute short film that is also the prequel to his debut feature Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998). Once completed, ten British distributors turned the film down before the film eventually was released in the UK in 1998 and the US in 1999; the film put Ritchie on the map as one of the hottest rising filmmakers of the time, and launched the careers of actors Jason Statham, Jason Flemyng, and Vinnie Jones, among others. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) was followed up by Snatch (2000), this time with a bigger budget and a few more familiar faces such as Brad Pitt, Dennis Farina, Benicio Del Toro alongside returning actors Jason Statham, Vinnie Jones and Jason Flemyng.

Snatch is a 2000 British crime comedy film written and directed by Guy Ritchie. Set in the London criminal underworld, the film contains two intertwined plots: one dealing with the search for a stolen diamond, the other with a small-time boxing promoter (Jason Statham) who finds himself under the thumb of a ruthless gangster (Alan Ford) who is ready and willing to have his subordinates carry out severe and sadistic acts of violence. 

Performance is critical is this film and all the actors and actresses involved played their parts and got into character extremely well, this made the film even more enjoyable and interesting to watch. For example, Brad Pitt playing the Gypsy Bare Knuckle fighting champion Mickey O'Neil. Brad Pitt perfectly voices his character and plays him sensationally well. Brad Pitt convincingly plays a Gypsy throughout the entire movie, he stays in character and makes the film highly enjoyable to watch. The clip below is of a scene from the movie, it is the scene where he is asking for a caravan in exchange for him fighting.
Mise-en-scene is also important in this movie.The use of guns in Snatch is a conventional prop to have in a dark, gangster like film. This is because conflict is a stereotypical narrative theme to have and the popular choice of weapon to have in these types of films are guns. Diamonds seem to be the cause of the conflict in Snatch as the group of men shoot at the men in the office in order to steal the diamonds. 

Lighting: Lighting is such an important aspect of Snatch. Low lighting adds to the dark and intimidating atmosphere that a action film or gangster film aims to create. We see the use of low lighting in Snatch several times,it is done to create and to enhance the audiences experience when watching the film.

The narrative structure of the film is cyclic, but also linear. This is because the films ends where it started, with two of the protagonists, sitting in chairs in a dark room waiting for someone. The structure is also linear because all the events that happen are in order and it is easy to understand what is happening in the movie.

In Snatch there is a lot of use of close-ups and mid-shots. This is to give the audience a sort of boxed in and trapped sense as in reality we are not used to seeing things like what happens in the movie so close up creating an uncomfortable atmosphere. High angles and low angles are used also, again this creates an uncomfortable atmosphere as an audience because we are not used to viewing things at eye level. As well as unusual camera shots and angles being used, unusual but effective use of editing is also used in Snatch. In the opening sequence we frequently saw editing taking the form of rotating into the next scene, again allowing the audience to feel uncomfortable as we are not used to viewing things upside down, but at the same time allowing smooth transitions into different camera shots and scenes.

The Angels' Share

The Angels' Share Dir. Ken Loach (2012)

The Angels Share is a British Comedy Drama set in and around Scotland. The production Companies that worked on the movie are Entertainment One Sixteen Films, Why Not Productions, Wild Bunch, British Film Institute (BFI), Les Films du Fleuve and Urania Pictures S.r.l. 

Kenneth Charles "Ken" Loach (born 17 June 1936) is an English film and television director. He is known for his socially critical directing style and for his socialist ideas. Loach's film Kes (1969) was voted the seventh greatest British film of the 20th century in a poll by the British Film Institute. Two of his films, The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006) and I, Daniel Blake (2016) received the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, making him the ninth filmmaker to win the prestigious award twice. Loach was born in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, the son of Vivien and John Loach. He attended King Edward VI Grammar School and went on to study law at St Peter's College, Oxford. Loach's 2013 film The Angels' Share is centred on a young Scottish troublemaker who is given one final opportunity to stay out of jail. Newcomer Paul Brannigan, 24, from Glasgow, played the lead role.The film competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival where Loach won the Jury Prize. Loach's 2014 film Jimmy's Hall was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or in the main competition section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. In 2016, Loach won his second Palme d'Or for I, Daniel Blake.

The title is from "the angels' share", a term for the portion (share) of a whisky's volume that is lost to evaporation during aging in oak barrels. This movie follows protagonist Robbie as he seeks to turn his life around after narrowly avoiding prison. He is sentenced to community service instead of jail time and while on his community service makes friends with unlikely people, he meets Rhino, Albert and Mo who, like him, find it impossible to find work because of their criminal records. However their luck soon starts to change when they go to a distillery and find out about an extremely rare whiskey which they soon learn could change their lives.

The use of camera shots and sizes in this movie, provides the audience with different feelings. For example, they camera is not on a rail following every movement made by the characters and it not cleanly shot, it follows the characters everywhere and gives the audience the sense that they are with the characters and are experiencing everything that happens in the movie. We also see loads of close up shots, especially at the beginning of the film which shows he audience the facial expressions and body language of the protagonists. The use of this type of filming shows us that it is more of a smaller produced film but it is still an effect filming method.

The use of Mise-en-scene also helps the movie. The use of the whiskey in the film is key to the entire storyline. The use of whiskey at the beginning of the film, when Robbie goes back to Harry's house after being beaten up in the hospital, they drink a bit of whiskey, then end up going on a tour of a distillery which makes Robbie realise he wants to explore his interest of it. We then end the film seeing Harry get back into his house and finding a bottle of an extremely rare whiskey that is worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, from Robbie as a 'Thank You'present.