Multimedia
Communication: Film Studies
The
rule of six:
1) Emotional: Does the edit give the emotion that the director wants to
give the audience or does it subtract or distract?
2) Story: Is the story advanced as a result of the edit?
3) Rhythm:Does the cut happen at the right point with the music? Is it in keeping with the pace of the movie?
4) Eye tray: do we know where the audience is looking and is that being taken into consideration when the cut is made? Is the movement of the audience's gaze disrupted by the cut? Could a disruption of the audience gaze be deliberately interrupted to enhance the film.
5) 2D Plain: This deals with the concept of the stage line and do the characters appear to be looking at each other or not.
6) Coherent movement of 3: dimensional people and objects.
The
Green Mile – The Execution of John Coffey:
The scene I have chose
to see if the rule of six was a plied is one of the end scenes of the
green mile, the execution of John Coffey. I have chose this because
it is one of my favorite movies and it is a big emotional scene for
the movie the brings it to a close, so i thought it would be good to
see if it fits to the rule of six.
The execution takes
place in a prison storage room with folding chairs on the floor filed
with people to watch john Coffey die dime lights showing not much of
the room as the camera is looking at Paul and at his back is a dimly
lit room with people siting. The shots are slow and you can get a
senses of something is not right or that something bad is coming,
every one has a stern face looking on at john. The shot then goes to
john but slowly, with tears in his eyes john can be seen shaking a
bit as he sits in the electric chair. The camera goes to Paul and
Paul then tells john his last rights, he looks as if he had a lump in
his throat as he started to say the words as the camera got slowly
closer to his face to show the sadness and regret on Paul face.
Once done the music
slowly starts to come in and you can really get the feel of mood of
the shot, then the shot movies onto john who is now wiper-ring and
really sharking and but the shots almost seem to be in slow motion
that might be to show the sadness or the unwantingness of the Paul to
kill his friend, as Paul nods to another officer to put the hood on
John, but John start to beg that he dose not want the hood as he is
afraid of the dark and as he say this it cut to Paul to see his
reaction to John ask the question and Paul you looks around close up
too his face and mouth open to show that he dose not now what to do
and as he looks at each of the Officer it cuts to them to see if they
have an answer but all they do is look back with the same unknowing
of what to do for John. But Paul then after a long quiet moment and
all the wile that he is thinking all you can hear is the music that
have be very slowly getting louder as if it is leading up to a
moment, Paul then nods again to let John not go under the hood.
Then as it cuts to one
of the offices slide the hood all the way off, the camera then pans
down to Johns face close up to show the relief on his face. After
that it cuts back to Paul in a wide shot showing the crowd behind him
and John just off to the side but still in front of him, Paul is
bending down to pick up the sponge to place on johns head and as he
walks over to John it cuts to the top of John's head to show Paul and
another officer setting up the cap and sponge to electrocute him and
as all this is going on the music have changed to a darker more
sinister tune instead of the almost church like sound it had at the
start, this was done to show the progression of the scene and the
attuned of what is to come.
The music has now gone
back to the soft gentile sounds, as Paul give the order to put the
switch on John to electrocute him as this is going on it pans in on
Paul again to show the tears that are coming to his eyes. It then
goes to the other officers to see their reaction to what Paul has
said, the camera goes to each officer to show them crying, sniffling
or tears balling up in their eyes, this was done to show how sad they
all are to see there friend about to die.
The music gets louder
and more powerful as Paul finishes. It then cuts to the man in the
box pulling the switch , the sound of the sparks are very loud to
jump the audiences to the next-shot of John jerking as the
electricity passes through him. While the music get's deeper and more
hollow. Then it cuts to Paul to show him looking at John with red eye
full of tears, you can feel the emotion that he is feeling and the
music push that feeling home. It then cuts to each of the officer
again to them cry or on the verge of tears, these shot feel slow to
let you see the emotion on each of there faces. It then cuts back to
Paul to show the light exploded in a big dramatic shot lighting up
Paul to show it a sort of miracle or that john has pasted on with a
bang.
Conclusion:
I thought the scene was
a bit slow but that was to build up emotion for the execution. The
scene did move the story to an end. The rhythm of the scene is good
it keep getting darker as they got closer to executing John and it
made the scene drag you into it deeper. As for the eye tray and the
2D plain you can definitely get the feeling the Paul as Looking at
John and the other officers where as well. The last rule, coherent
movement of 3-dimensional people and objects, I don't think that
applied to this scene. So this scene has got 5 out of the 6 rules.
