Cinema City

For a media trip, our class went to Cinema City to watch 'La Haine' and 'The Scouting Book for Boys'.


La Haine
La Haine (1995) is a Crime/Drama and was directed, and written, by Mathieu Kassovitz. 
"The film follows three young men and their time spent in the French suburbs over twenty-four hours. Vinz, Saïd and Hubert have grown up here where high levels of adversity coupled with the racist and oppressive police force have raised tensions to a critical breaking point. During the riots that took place a night before, Vinz finds an officer's handgun and vows to kill a cop if his friend Abdel dies in the hospital, due the beating he received while in police custody."
I thought La Haine was an interesting didactic film because it covered a range of racial aspects. A camera shot I thought was well filmed was when there is an establishing shot of the housing estate, but the camera is at a very high angle, almost like it was filmed in a helicopter. Normally, when a high angle shot is used it makes the characters appear vulnerable.
I also noticed that gender mostly included males, which added to the violent nature. Women included;
Hubert's mum- An average woman, positive role model but uninspired.
Hubert's sister- A hopeful girl but gets left out.
Women in the gallery- Representatives of middle class people.
Said's sister- A contrast to Hubert's sister because she doesn't feel like she belongs in the male dominated environment.
I think the purpose of this film was to show a different type of society that we live in today, and it represents a different perspective.

The Scouting Book for Boys
The Scouting Book for Boys is a Drama/Thriller, directed by Tom Harper and written by Jack Thorne.
"Thomas Turgoose stars as David, a teenager who discovers his best friend Emily is being sent away from their caravan park home to live with her father. Instead, she runs away to hide in a nearby cave. But their plan goes wrong, first dangerously when the police intervene, then tragically, as David misreads Emily's affections."
In my opinion, The Scouting Book for Boys was more thrilling than La Haine. For example, when Thomas is about to break Emily's leg, it builds up tension. I also noticed an interesting camera shot; when Emily is jumping on the caravans and the sun is setting behind her, it looks like a silhouette and represents her innocence, which makes us more sympathetic towards her when she dies at the end. The camera is also at a low angle; this shows that she is like a role model because the camera is looking up at her.

I have analysed some of camera angles and conventions of a thriller genre in both films, and I will take these into account when producing the main task. For example, I have chosen to use a high angle on a shot of the victim in my film to show her vulnerability. I especially think "The Scouting Book for Boys" creates intense suspense towards the end of the film. This shows that music and sound effects are very important to create tension.