The cinematography of a 1940 and 1990 film

Cinematography consist of two elements which are camera framing e.g. close up, medium shot, long shot etc. and camera movement e.g. panning, tilt, tracking etc. so for the two film extracts I shall analyse purely the cinematography but I shall also include other aspects of film such as lighting and try to relate to theories if needed but I will not go into depth on them (unless needed). I will analyse "The thief of Bagdad" (1940) and "Goodfellas" (1990)

"The thief of Bagdad" extract above starts off with a long shot to establish the setting and allow the audience to see what is going on in a scene. This scene starts off with a shadowed character running alongside the sea on a beach which creates an enigma, which relates to Barthes theory, it could connote that due to the shadow character, created by low-key lighting and a use of back-lighting, is a evil or dark  character (which relates to Propp's character roles saying that this character is a villain) and could be a possible antagonist, it could also foreshadow a bad event which may occur to the character. The camera then slowly pans across just to follow the character as they run across the beach. The camera then cuts to a high angle shot looking down on a bottle which has drifted its way on shore. The high angle shot could connote that the bottle isn't important and has no dangers within it, the camera then cuts to the accused antagonist and a reverse shot is used. The camera looks down on the bottle from a high angle shot but then looks up at the male accused antagonist and then back down at the bottle, this connotes that the boy is obviously superior and it also allows the audience to see what the boy is looking at and allows the audience to see what his reaction is to seeing this bottle (the boy gave a slightly curious and confused look as he stopped to look at the bottle).

The boy picks up the bottle in a long shot which is followed by a medium shot to allow the audience to see that the boy is attempting to open the bottle, the medium shot shows you the characters facial expressions and body movement/language. A close up is then used when the boy is able to open the bottle, the close up forces the audiences eyes to look at the bottle, it is possible that the director wanted to emphasis the importance of that bottle being opened. The camera shows the characters facial expression in an extreme close up and along with the dramatic music that starts, it foreshadows that trouble is about to come. Two long shots follow the opening of the bottle, the first is to show the action of character and the second one is to show or unravel an enigma of what the bottle contains. A reverse shot is then used again this is to show what the character has done and his reaction to what he has done, when showing the characters facial expression the camera angle is a high angle shot which connotes that the character who once was superior is now seen as an underdog/weaker one, low-key lighting has created a huge shadow over the character which emphasises the size of this bad event and the darkness/evilness within it.

The camera shows from a high angle shot of the assumed antagonist running back and forth with fear in his facial expression, he is seen from the audience as the weaker one due to this high angle shot, accompanied with his facial expression. The camera pans side to side following the character as if it comes from the point of view of this new revealed character who came from within the bottle and is a giant, it puts the audience in the new characters shoes and makes them feel superior to the small, weaker looking character who they are forced to look down on. The giant is then looked at from  a low angle shot, this gives the audience the feeling of what the weaker character felt, it allows the audience to feel weak while putting the giant in a superior position and possibly giving this giant the label of Propp's characters of a villain

This scene in the "Goodfellas" starts off with a pan shot of the subject (the three males fixing the car) to the speaker (protagonist male alongside female companion/sidekick). This forces the audience to look at the characters fixing the car and then to the male and female, which could connote that there is going to be some sort of event occurring between the two set of characters. The camera shows a point of view shot from the male protagonist in the car, he looks at his rear-view mirror and sees the three males fixing their car, but the director focused the audiences view on the male in yellow as he is the only one out of the three who is looking towards the camera/character, he is also the only one out of the three who is wearing yellow, the other two are wearing blue which connotes that this character in yellow is most likely the one who is seen as an antagonist and is the one who will most likely be confronted by the protagonist. A reverse shot is used to show the three males then to show the reaction of the protagonist in a close up, as the protagonist leaves his car a high angle shot is used on a close up of a gun which the protagonist takes out, the fact that it is a deadly weapon a low angle shot would have most likely have been suitable to emphasise its power but the director used a high angle shot which could connote that the deadly weapon isn't going to be used in the way it would normally be used (shooting and killing people).

As the protagonist leaves his car a close up and pan shot is used to show the character getting out of the car but to also emphasise and focus the audiences eyes on where the character conceals his weapon. A tracking shot is then used at medium shot height to show the characters body language and facial expression as the character speed walks across the street and confronts the male character in yellow. The camera stops as the character reaches the edge of the antagonists driveway and changes from a tracking shot to a panning shot, it pans around focusing the audiences attention on this antagonist, a long shot is used to allow the audience to see the surroundings and also to see the actions of the protagonist on the antagonist and the reactions of this event on the two non-important characters. The camera tracks the protagonist as he speed walks angrily back across the road, half way across the road the camera stops and pans to allow the audience to see a long shot of where the protagonist is going. The audience then see a close up revealing the emotions of the female who was earlier shown with the protagonist in the car, another close up is then used to focus the audiences attention from a high angle shot on what the protagonist has given this female character as he asks her if she is okay, the high angle shot was of the gun which again suggests that the gun isn't going to be used for killing or shooting anyone and is therefore looked down on as something weak. Using the words the protagonist had said to the female character "Are you alright?" could connote that the woman, when relating to Propp's characters, is a princess in need of rescuing.

Key differences

The 1940 film used sound to show or foreshadow a bad event while the 1990 film used reverse shots and facial expressions more to show or foreshadow a bad event. The 1940 film didn't really use camera movement much but did use a lot of camera angles, it wanted to emphasis the power of a person or object. It wanted to use (relating to Levi-Strausses theory) binary opposites of strong vs weak. One object or person had to be portrayed as stronger than the other while the 1990 film didn't want to portray their protagonist as a stronger force than their antagonist even though it was clearly shown that the protagonist was the stronger force than the antagonist in that scene.