Film Opening AnalysisBlack Hawk Down

Anthony Hanson

Black Hawk Down Link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc7uM1AqsBQ

AudienceBlack Hawk Down’s target audience is aimed at

mainly teenagers aged 15+ as the BBFC rated the film 15.

The genre is Action and therefore presumably the film is aimed at an audience who are into action/war films. (this is made clear in the opening 3 minutes of the film.)

The Film is generally aimed at people who enjoy factual films as this is based on a true event as it states in the film opening. (this is made clear in the opening 3 minutes of the film.)

Enigma created within openingThe first 3 minutes of the film create many

questions such as;Why are these people dead?Why are they living in such poverty?What has happened?Who is Aidid?

Conventions within opening sceneThere are a few conventions in the black hawk

down film opening such as; Giving the location and date of when the film is

based (Somalia, East Africa, 1992). This helps give the audience a understanding of what the film may be about through their own knowledge of the events in 1992, Somalia.

Also the type of text used when the title comes up at the end of the opening scene helps to signify that this films genre is action orientated. It is big, blocked and bold capital letters which are stereotypically used in a action based film.

M.E.L.C.S Mis-en-scene- The clothing of the actors in

the opening 3 minutes of the film helps signify the poverty the people of somalia are living in. The make-up of the innocent civilians shows scars on there face, this helps connotate the effects of the civil war. All of the actors in the opening scene seem to be suffering from disease and death which also helps to show the massacre that has happened.

Editing- The editing is very minimal. It is very slow cuts and the picture fades in an out of cut-scenes which helps the audience to endure more of the suffering the actors are feeling within the first few minutes.

Lighting- Dark, low key lighting is used to also help put across the mood and message of lots of death in the opening 3 minutes.

Camera- Throughout the opening scene there is very slow camera movement to make the audience almost endure the pain being shown in the film opening.

Sound- The sound used is very tribal which helps to set the scene of East Africa, Somalia. It is non-diagetic and it is very sad and sympathetic type of music which suits the mood and also helps to put across the message of death. However, towards the end of the opening scene the tribal music picks up pace and helps suit the the connotations of the text style of the title and the genre, action.

Text within opening sceneThe opening scene of Black Hawk Down contains a lot of

text to help show factual information, set the scene and to give the audience an understanding of the film.

The quote “Only the dead have seen the end of war – Plato” helps signify and hint that the films genre is action/war. This quote also uses intertextuality as the audience maybe able to relate to the quote from other films as “Plato” is a significant unknown figure in many action/war films.

The text used in the film opening helps connotate the sympathy the director is trying to get across in the opening 3 minutes by giving factual information on the masses of death endured by the innocent somalian people.

Black Hawk Down film opening analysis conclusion and Personal thoughts

This film has a brilliant opening 3 minutes, packed with factual texts, lots of conventions and uses every technical element to its advantage to create a big sympathetic impact onto to the audience. It helps set the scene for the rest of the movie and gives the audience a great understanding of the events that happened in Somalia 1992.