English - Close Viewing Essay Reflection

This is my Close Viewing Essay Reflection which was written last term. The subject we were learning was visual text.

Essay

Introduction: 
In the film ‘The Power of One’ by John Avildsen which is about the apartheid in Africa where the blacks and whites are separated and one is treated unfairly. In one particular scene where we see two characters running through the streets of the home of the Africans, we can gather lots of information about the life of the Africans. In the scene where we can see P.K and Duma running together, we can gather lots of information from that scene via multiple film techniques that are not only visual but through sound as well. This running scene is mostly portrayed through long shots with tracking, dialogue, and diegetic sound as well. The ones that stand the most out to me is the long shot with tracking and diegetic sounds. 

Paragraph 1 In the running scene, most shots are long shots looking at a scene until P.K and Gideon Duma which will turn into a tracking shot showing a lot of information in the background. When we see P.K and Duma start running the camera tracks them. However, the camera also stays in one spot until the scene is changed into where we see a lot of people walking and a car passing by. When P.K and Duma appear closer to the camera will start tracking them from a medium distance where we can see the line for the toilet. The director did this so we can observe how the Africans live in the movie without having Duma and P.K interact as much. This lets the audience figure out what’s happening without having the two characters to have much dialogue. This technique created an impact because the long shots gave us information on how Africans would live their lives unfairly. Other shots such as the tracking one can give us extra information like that one time an African got kicked off a truck because he didn’t know it was out of bounds. This is important because this technique allows us to gather information by looking at the background where stuff is happening while Duma explains a bit more in detail.

Paragraph 2

The diegetic sounds we can hear can give us lots of information not only by P.K and Duma but also by other Africans singing or talking. When P.K and Duma start running together diegetic sounds can be heard basically all over the scene. P.K and Duma are the main focuses though while the others in the background or the start of a new camera angle can be heard more clearly. The director did this to let us the audience know that the Africans are still living and struggling even when they aren’t on camera in the movie universe. We know this because of how Duma said the Africans work hard every day to have a good tomorrow and we have visual evidence as well when people are using wheelbarrows and some are singing while mining. This created an impact on the audience because we now know how hard working the Africans are to secure themselves are good tomorrow while the whites have privilege over them because they are allowed to silence them even when it’s not their discussion. This can be contrasted when Duma’s home and people get invaded by the Europeans. During this scene, there were lots of diegetic sounds making it only possible to make out a few sounds while the others just felt like extra background effects. We can take away that having too much sounds at the same time won’t give us extra information but make it harder.

Paragraph 3

When visual and audio techniques are put together they can produce the best results, if it’s used properly it can give us lots of information and more entertaining. Going back to the running scene with Duma and P.K there were lots of good examples of this. When the camera angles changed we would have either a long or medium shot, thus showing people doing stuff while Duma explains what really is happening shortly after. The director did this so we can try to interpret it ourselves until one of the characters explains it for us. The director could’ve also let us just to experience the scene and have the characters explain it to us without us being left confused. The impact of this technique is to let us experience enjoy the movie without us really wondering what’s happening throughout the movie as everything is easily explained by the movie. This reminds of when early in the movie when P.K was still a kid he would explore Africa with Doc. Doc would say that you will always come across an answer in nature. What Doc said was important because P.K wasn’t certain about teaching the Africans English until he stumbled across a waterfall in nature. P.K explained that a waterfall starts with one drop of water then he says what comes from that to his school professor.

Conclusion

In the movie, The Power of One, the running scene with Duma and P.K shows us multiple camera and audio techniques that are used effectively. These techniques were combined in a way that we finished the movie without really being confused about a particular scene. The running scene with the longshot, tracking, and sounds gave us lots of information because of how they were used one after another. 

Reflection

What Am I Proud of - I'm proud that I was able to write this much within a 2 week span. I'm also proud that I could start off really well.

What can I do (Specifically) to Improve next time. - I can use more punctuation next time and maybe work on this at home for some time.

What is one thing I enjoyed learning about film - That you get to watch a movie without doing work for the first time so basically a break from work.

What is one thing I found challenging about learning about film? - That you have to pay attention to all the detail in film to get ideas on what to write about.

What is one thing I found useful/I will use next time I write an essay? - Maybe ask others on what they saw in the film that I didn't see or hear

What is one thing I am wondering about to do with writing about Visual Texts? - That if you get to watch a movie every time you do a study on this.