Wag the Dog Analysis

Wag the DogAnalysis of script, cinematography and

mise en scene

Mise en scene

• Placement in the frame• Comprised of seven key elements:

• the frame• space in the frame• composition• character placement• lighting/colour• costume• setting

• Creates the director’s signature and intention

Film shots

ECU: Extreme close up

CU: Close up

MCU: Medium close up

CMS: Close mid-shot

MS: Mid-shot

MLS: Medium long shot

LS: Long shot

Application of film analysis

Written Task One:•How to stage the appearance of a war guide

Written Task Two:•How and why is a social group represented in a particular way?

• The American public• Politicians

Further Oral Activity:•Analysis of key scene(s) from Wag the Dog•Compare and contrast the ideas of Wag the Dog with real presidential speeches or electoral campaign

Context

Premise

Presidential campaign

Presidential campaigns

Who is in control?

Who is in control?

Who is in control?

“This place is even bigger than the Whitehouse!”

Representations of the American public

Representations of the American public

The public as consumers

• “One image of one bomb. The American people bought that war. That’s show business” (Brean about Gulf War)

• “You’ll have remembered the picture 50 years from now but forgotten the war.”

(Brean)

The public as consumers

From Carol Ann Duffy’s ‘War Photographer’

… A hundred agonies in black-and-whitefrom which his editor will pick out five or sixfor Sunday's supplement. The reader's eyeballs prick with tears between bath and pre-lunch beers. From the aeroplane he stares impassively at where he earns a living and they do not care.

‘Not a war, it’s a pageant’

Pageantry: ‘give them what they want to see’

Pageantry

“We guard our American bordersWe guard the American dream”

“We have the right to fight for democracyWe fight for liberty…”

“This is nothing. Try making The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse when three of your horsemen die, two weeks from the end of Principal Photography!”

Pageantry

Pageantry

Conrad Brean: ‘Mr Fix It’

Resolution