Analysis of our final piece

Here is an analysis of our final film, using camera angles, camera movements, editing, mise-en-scene and sound to show representations of action comedy policeman. This post was meant to be added to my evaluation of our final product, but I think this stands out more, and helps get the point across easier. Here I'm going to explain how our final product showed those representations... or didnt, using the specifications listed above. The start of the film opens with a non-diegetic musical soundtrack and a fade in of a picture of both McCheese and Callaghan, with their faces together with flames surrounding them. The music is a kind of rock/ heavy metal song, with lyrics over it. This gives a slight representation of cop comedy, but not to its fullest extent. We could have used a more 70's style soundtrack and done without the lyrics to give it that authenticity, that cop comedies posess. But a the same time itshows the high regard these two characters are held to, and also how high of an opinion they have of themselves.

Then the scene cuts, and there is the diegetic sound of Callaghan saying "Go!" there is a little action then a mid shot of McCheese throwing a shoe. From the expression on McCheese's face, you can see his determination to stop whoever they are chasing. But also you can see the comedic side of it, as it is a shoe that is thrown, there is also a mid-shot of the hencman getting hit by the shoe and falling comically. This shows some representation of comedy cop films, but not as much as it could, there could be something more humorous, like a little fight seen, and the vigilantes actually accidentally knocking them out, as seen on Rush Hour 2. But it makes quite well for a representation of action comedy through the mise en scene and camera shots. There is then the diegetic sound of dialogue which shows you what types of cops they are, Callaghan showing to be more caring, forgiving type, whilst McCheese seems a lot more sarcastic, harsh and straight to the point. There is not very many shots or transitions that really show off how they are cops or their status, which was a flaw in the filming, and planning that didnt really help create the representation of cop comedy, that we should have created, which made it a pretty poor shoot.

The dialogue for each character isnt really detailed, and doesnt really create the stereotype that needs to be there for the representation of cop comedy. Also the sound isnt very good, and doesnt help toward the fact that the dialogue was lacking sophistication and whit. We were trying to achieve the affect that these cops are of a very old school kind of background, and that they are determined to get the job done, such as the representations shown in films such as Rush our and Bad boys. But the dialogue didnt exactly lend itself to this stereotype, making the sound a very poor aspect when trying to create a representation. We agreed that we would haev changed some shots and angles in the film; For example the scene where McCheese throws the shoe out of the door, we would have used a low angle shot, to show his power and authority over the other characters, giving it greater moral toward the representation of action comedy through camera angles. Also if we would have made the dialogue more direct, it would have helped create the representation once again. We think that using more iconography, with a slapstick element which are popular, but also explain more of the exterior characters, as they would have explained more about the characters, making it easier to anaylse stereotypes and the representations of the action comedy used here.

One of the biggest things that went wrong, was the choice of location, In my opinion we should have chosen a realistic location, like a real factory, as the scene is set in a factory, but because we had to film it at school, the mise-en-scene really didnt fit, and you could tell straight away that it wasnt a factory. I would have changed the setting to a more eery and dark warehouse to show some kind of metaphor such as; crime is dirty, or crime is hard work. But mainly show how dedicated the two buddy cop's were to justice and their job. Also in my opinion the dress code which is the mise-en-scene was slightly screwed up, we were wearing casual clothing, which totally through off any stereotypes and steered away from the representation. I think suits would have fit the characters better, or shirts and ties, to give it more of that cop look, helping give the representation and stereotype of a action comedy. Our original idea was to have facial hair, which was soon scratched because it was hard organising fake facial hair, having this aspect would again have created another stereotype, thus helping contribute toward the representation of action comedy. All in all I believe that if we changed alot of the camera angles, dialogue, and mise-en-scene, we would have created a more successful action comedy, but because of our flaws, we failed to create one, but on a plus side, we did get some aspects such as some of the humor toward the end where we are talking to the curator (which is also another stereotype of an action comedy, a damsel in distress) where McCheese mentions Cheese, and Callaghan begs that he doesnt mention it. This was a good representation, the dialogue and body language, which was probably the best part of our film, as it actually helped create the representation for the audience, using comedy and typical story lines.