Romeo
starts off introducing the production companies and distributors, the music is non-diegetic, it's played over the scenes, and the characters, of course, cannot hear the music. The song used at first is "Canis Lupus" by Alexandre Desplat, this song has a soothing female singer with a beautiful and angelic voice which is accompanied by a harp, this, at the start, gives a feeling to the audience of relaxation, calmness and tranquility. The angelic instrument (harp) and the voice connote innocence and purity and the fact the music is playing while going over a character at a high angle shot connotes that this character is looked down upon by Gods or angels, the lighting is cleverly used to focus the majority of the light on the characters head which connotes that maybe there is hope within this character, that this character is an innocent character but due to the character hiding his face and looking down connotes he doesn't believe in himself or linking it to the fact it's low-key lighting it could connote that he is a dark character, he acts out and is cruel to those around him but the music and the light focusing on him suggests that even though he acts like this that at heart he is in-fact an innocent and loving character, he may be portrayed as a bad person but he isn't truly like that. The editing is parallel to the music, it's smooth and calm, fades at the start, you also see at around 18seconds a panning shot which is an extreme close up of the eyes of the assumed main character/protagonist, the same music is still playing over this scene and could connote that this characters eyes see purity or is pure (the eyes never lie) it suggest that this character isn't a bad character.
The title is then shown "Romeo" but gets cut a short while after to a black screen which connotes that this famous heart-throb name "Romeo" isn't exactly going to be a perfect happy ending, there will be some sort of darkness/blackness. The fact that it cuts straight to black after the name "Romeo" could also connote that it is this character "Romeo" who will create this darkness or is the darkness. After the cut, a fade is used to bring in the shot of a city silhouette, the sky is quite pink or red which connotes more love emotions than anger emotions due to the pinkness in the colour (if red was more dominant then it could connote anger, strong love or blood) the music has also changed from an angelic female singer to a slightly urban, calm male voice with the sound editing effect of auto tune which connotes that even though the song may be featuring a calm male voice it does have this slight imperfection about it, it has a unnatural effect in the voice which could foreshadow a bad event occurring with good intentions (e.g. relating to the title "Romeo", it could foreshadow a love gone bad situation). The song used now is "Lost in the world" by Kanye West featuring Bon Iver, this choice of song could connote that the protagonist/eponymous hero "Romeo" may be lost in a world of love due to the fact the name Romeo is highly known by the famous shakespeare love tragedy play of "Romeo and Juliet" and also the previous scene where the cut occurred may be foreshadowing this as the bad event of the main character "Romeo" being lost in the world of love.
The editing at this point is slightly short scenes with fades which are parallel to the music, you also see two silhouettes of characters, one of which looks like the main protagonist "Romeo" who leans in to give the other character a kiss, this is from a low angle shot which connotes that "Romeo" and this other character have a lot of power but the lighting is low-key which gives this effect of silhouettes, this connotes that these two characters together are seen negatively and have some sort of darkness within them but it shows more of "Romeo" than the character he kisses which could connote that it's "Romeo" with the greater power and darkness within him. The song lyrics "I'm building a still to slow down time" links to the scene where "Romeo" is kissing the other character, he's building a romantic moment which will slow down time, make it more meaningful and long. The part where the song says "To slow down time" shows a low angle, long shot showing two characters walking side by side towards the camera with strong confident poses and walks in slow motion which makes the song parallel to the scene, the low angle shot along side the facial expression and stances as they walk connotes they have power and are possibly angry and maybe looking for someone which links to the next scene which is of a blurred POV shot from a low angle of someone kicking the character we are seeing from, it allows the audience to identify with this character which is being kicked, we are placed in the characters position and we look up at this attacker making us the audience feel weak and giving this attacker the higher power.
Soon after we see a close up of two characters holding hands which shortly after is followed by a sunset which connotes romance and love but then followed the character "Romeo" kicking a locker and storming off angrily, which connotes that the relationship between the two characters holding hands is possibly the reason why he is upset, the music is still parallel, the character kicks the locker at the same time the music changes its pace with a loud bang or clap. The scene ends with a cut which shows the tension and anger the character feels. We soon hear a short argument which is used in a sound bridge over a montage of romantic scenes, it shows these two characters arguing and pushing each other, the lighting used is low-key lighting, a lot of shadows which connotes the darkness and atmosphere in the room at the time, from that moment onwards the editing is quicker, fades used are reduced and cuts are in place more as well as one more blurred POV shot of "Romeo" attacking the person we are seeing from, it a low angle shot which again gives "Romeo" the higher power, making Romeo be seen as the stronger and more powerful one.
The video ends with the music stopping and an extreme close up of "Romeo" with half the screen covered by half his face and a character far in the back shouting "Romeo, you don't have to do this" which creates an enigma in the audiences mind, they are questioning what "Romeo" is going to do, we've seen that he has attacked someone which could possibly be what the character is preventing "Romeo" from doing but it isn't fully clear.
WWW: clever editing used with the music, good choice of songs to match what the narrative is about, a wide range of shots were used.
EBI: maybe add in a voice over to give the audience a clearer understand of what is actually going on and have the voices projected more clearly, the music was quite loud and distracting over the voices.
The Paper Boy
The Paper Boy starts off with scary horror music which connotes that what the audience is about to watch is related to the horror genre, the setting is then established with a panning shot of a school grounds and the iconic sound of a school bell ringing, you then see a character dressed in school uniform walking through double doors with a strong pose but slightly frightened facial expression which could foreshadow a bad event which links to the next scene which occurs with a straight cut with a flash, you see many black and white moving images with a few flashes which connotes memories and flashbacks, this gives the audience some idea of what the story line/narrative is, it tells the audience that this horror film may be a horror due to some sort of past event in the characters life. The scene which followed after the boy walking through the doors is a panning shot of a group of school boys laughing and following this protagonist character, a quick fade leads to two female characters laughing and pointing, the scene which follows is assumed to be what the female characters were laughing at and that is the group of boys bullying the protagonist. The words "10 years later" appear straight after the bullying scene and is followed by a grown male character walking along the street almost bumping into a female, this could connote that this male character is the protagonist who was being bullied in the black and white flashbacks.
We see more black and white flashbacks with quick cut editing. Just before the pace of the music changes slightly we see a black and white image of a child laying his head in his arms on a table, this fades into a colour moving image of a fully grown male character in the same seat doing the same actions but lifts his head as the music changes pace, this connotes that this male character is the same character but older than the younger black and white character, this was also in a slightly high angle shot looking down on this male character, making the audience look down on him and make him feel weak and make the audience feel superior to him, this is then followed by another flashback which shows three female school characters laughing and pointing as they walk through a door possibly at this protagonist when he was a child.
The camera is then positioned above a stairwell and is in a high angle shot position, it looks down on a female character, linking to the last scene its possible that this female character was one of the female school girl characters that laughed at the protagonist, the camera follows the female character as she runs up the stairs and pans around as she enters an elevator with a male character, the music used for this shot had changed to a faster but still scary horror genre music (SAW film theme tune). We could also assume that the camera was from a POV shot, as the girl ran up the stairs there were fades being used as if someone was blinking and watching the girl run up the stairs, it puts us, the audience, in the position of someone who could possibly be in this horror film, the audience will feel as if they are part of the film and therefore will feel a lose of security and an increase of fear due to the film being a horror.
Straight after that scene we are back into black and white effect and are looking at a wall with the word "REVENGE" written on it and an image of a male and female below it, the writing and image is dripping and fading/losing its colour, a flash occurs and then a close up of the image of the male and female is shown which connotes that maybe the female is meant to be the girl who got into the elevator an the male is the person next to her, they both could been seen as the victims of the film. The music stops and the male character runs out the elevator, you can hear a heartbeat and heavy breathing which is assumed to be the male characters heartbeat and breathing, fades and flashes are used as the male runs to his car in slow motion (which creates tension) as if he is losing focus and concentration, this creates an enigma for the audience, what could have caused the male character to have ran? or breath heavy? why is his vision blurred?.
Music starts up again as soon as a character wearing a paper bag on his head jumps in front of a car window which is seen from a low angle shot, giving the character on the car more power, the majority of the black and white shots are then shown again but in a backwards motion, rewinding as if to connote that "this is where it all began".
EBI: The lighting needed to be more focused on to really set the mood of the horror film and if more angles were used at some points.
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