Elements Of Film Wag The Dog

I question whether or not the screenplay ended correctly, but it ends with a satirical approach to dark humor, and it ends up being funny anyway. Overall, WAG THE DOG is probably the best bet for a comedy right now, and definitely in the line-up for Oscar contenders. With an incessantly-used hand-held camera and frantic editing, both of which feel excessive and unwarranted throughout. The part where Kristin Dunes was being filmed for a promo and later when they made a fake funeral for Old Shoe. – You could talk about miss-en-scene, irony, background music and camera angles.

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Conrad Bream, the Whitehorse adviser, is also the one responsible for diverting the publics attention with his media hoax in order to protect the president’s standing. He is seen from a low-angle shot at the beginning of the film, while contemplating the idea of distracting the public from the sex scandal. This camera angle emphasizes the dominance and power of Bream. Shadow detail was exemplary, with lots of fine detail visible in the shadows, other than at the times when the cinematography deliberately hid details from the image for artistic effect.

This was particularly the case down in the underground bunker, where the cinematography would often show disconnected faces – clearly a deliberate artistic choice During the plane scene, just as Schumann arrives on the plane, Stanley, Winnie, and Conrad are walking to sit down, during the very beginning of this scene the camera is moving back and down to show a slightly low angle; at this point the camera is tilting. As they sit, the camera switches to a level shot of them. MISS-EN-SCENE: Because this is a film, it consists of implied texture, shown through the carpets, which would be rough.

Just as well, we are able to see detail of the texture when the scene is closer to the screen. The color in the film was rather dark at times, meaning there was low value. However, there was also high value. This film used all primary colors, secondary colors and tertiary colors. Color is also shown in the scene when the President asks to use the white kitten instead of the calico one. White color is a symbol of purity and innocence. This representational piece uses a wide angle; Barry Elevation puts space between the characters when more motional distance is present.

This is seen in the plane scene of the movie, where Stanley, Winnie, and Conrad go to sit down in the plane after Schumann enters, while reading his file, you see from an extreme-medium long shot that Schumann is standing further away. Vice versa, he puts little space between the characters when they are more involved with one another. This is an example of the actors being blocked. There is also the space that is represented in the amount of time that the actors take to say their next line. The elements represent composition. EDITING: There are about forty-six in camera, straight cut shots.

The lengths of the shots vary in the plane scene from being quite long, to quite short. As one character is talking, the scene is longer, as other characters start to enter the dialogue and the lightning starts cracking, the shots become shorter, switching from one character to the other quickly. SOUND: This scene consisted of on-screen, synchronous, dietetic sound. The dialogue was pretty much always audible, clear, and easy to understand other than the odd word here or there. A movie such as this is critically dependent on dialogue intelligibility, and as such, there was some slight room for improvement in this regard.

The musical score was provided by Mark Ennobler and is in his unusual, laconic style. It provided an unusual and appropriate accompaniment to the increasingly farcical on-screen actions with its low-key approach. RHYTHM: In this film there was the repetition of the phrase ‘Wag the dog’, and “changing a horse midstream. ” This also shows rhythm as well as emphasis. There is also rhythm in the music that goes with the film; there are points that have a slower rhythm and points that have a faster rhythm.

Another way rhythm is portrayed is how the people would very soon forget old inconvenient “truths” and embrace the new “truths” fabricated by the propagandists, over and over again. A few days of repetition and the old “truths” were gone down the memory hole just like the documentation which supported them. EMPHASIS: Wag the Dog places a heavy emphasis on the power of media in our modern society and the corruption of politics. The three main characters of Winnie, Conrad, and Stanley are emphasized because they are shown the most. In addition, the author places emphasis on American audiences.

BALANCE: This asymmetrically balanced piece shows the balance of power and how it becomes corrupt. One instance of balance is shown when Stanley wants the calico kitten; however, during the phone call the President asks to use the white kitten instead of the calico one. This portrays balance because the cat balanced out the scene in which they were shooting for the news. VARIETY: UNITY: An overall emphasis on variety and unity in the film is shown within the details. Variety is shown in the people in the film and the ideas created by those people. Also, unity within the state is shown.