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  • Essay / Analysis of Cinematographic Techniques in Bowling for Columbine

    Michael Moore's film Bowling for Columbine is often said to be one of his best-known films and can be considered one of the most polarizing films created. In any documentary, for it to succeed in creating meaning, all techniques and additions must be well planned, thought out and executed. This essay will explore some of these techniques used, be able to better understand the subject and how effects such as camera, sound and editing can further enhance ideas or give new meaning to a scene. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay The opening scene of the film is a great example of how a scene can change using one of the film's techniques, sound. It begins with archival footage from the NRA, giving the audience the impression that the NRA supports the film, which is a joke due to the age of the footage. Moore uses this to begin the film in a tongue-in-cheek manner, giving the audience a glimpse of what to expect from the film, leading to the conclusion that the film will not always be made in such a serious manner. Moore then continues this theme by using a cartoonish American anthem in the background, while visual clips of everyday American life continue to play with the sound. This segment of random, everyday American clips included things like the president bombing another country and a blonde woman, barely concealed by owning a large gun, showing us how violence is ingrained in American culture and the woman representing the stereotype of the main desire. of the typical American man, guns and sexy women. Without the background noise, these scenes would have been much more difficult to analyze. The anthem helps the audience see the mockery behind the "American Dream" and how patriotic the country can be, despite its violent appearance. James Nichols was a man who was linked to the Oklahoma City bombings. When Moore interviewed him, the interview was very informal and more like a normal, everyday conversation. The audience gets this feeling through the use of eye level perspective which was medium shots to include both Moore and James in the scene at the same time. This was done so that we could get a clear visual on the person's facial and body language, as well as how they would react to certain questions. Another way they made the interview more casual was to film it in everyday settings like the farmhouse, kitchen and James' bedroom. Each time Moore asked more serious questions related to the bombing, the camera would cut in, showing the audience a more detailed reaction to these questions, being able to show how nervous he quickly became, adding a more dramatic effect. . One of the questions about the bombing of the building, no timeouts were removed from the scene. This was to show how long James would take to answer the questions. As a result, this raised suspicions about James. Moore did this to show that James was trying to think about what he was going to say before saying anything, to make sure he wouldn't say something that could be used against him in the future. Throughout the film, the footage of the Columbine shooting easily had to be the most divisive scene in the entire film. This has a lot to do with how Moore decided to stage the scene. This scene was mainly produced from the school's CCTV footage, all.