Please watch the extract 4 times so that you have completed the viewing (as in an exam) before we analyse the representations in class.
Answer the question below, with detailed reference to specific examples from the extract
only.
1 Discuss the ways in which the extract constructs representations using the following:
• Camera shots, angles, movement and composition
• Editing
• Sound
• Mise-en-scène [50]Extract : Coming Down The Mountain Extract goes from start to 4.58 only.
June 2012 Coming Down the Mountain, Julie Anne Robinson, BBC, 2007
In point: 19 seconds (Opening of drama after fade out from black)
Out point: 5 minutes 17 seconds (“I had to get some space” – end sequence before scene changes from bus to party)
Coming Down The Mountain, for BBC One, is the first TV drama written by the award-winning novelist Mark Haddon (The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time), and bears his distinctive and powerful simplicity of style.
This original and poignant 90-minute film looks at the unusual relationship between two teenage brothers. The film sees through the eyes of a typical teenage boy, with a very colourful interior life.
"We're just an accident. A load of mixed-up chemicals. Change the recipe and we'd be really big potatoes with eye-tentacles... Of course, sometimes they do change the recipe and you get a brother who really is a big potato with eye-tentacles. And then you might as well talk to the dog..."
Teenager David (Nicholas Hoult - Skins, About A Boy) falls in love for the first time and life couldn't be better. The only fly in the ointment is his 17-year-old brother, Ben (Tommy Jessop), who has Down's Syndrome. The family's world revolves around Ben's needs while David's are unwittingly neglected by their parents (Neil Dudgeon - Sorted, The Street - and Julia Ford - All About George, In A Land Of Plenty).
They decide to move the family from London to "the back of beyond" for the sake of Ben's education. David loses love, friends and his school. His antipathy to Ben grows and grows to the point where he decides to push him off a mountain and get rid of him once and for all. The drama takes the two boys on a journey to the dangerous and strange wilderness of Snowdonia.
Mark Haddon says: "I began writing Coming Down The Mountain with the idea of creating a meaty role for a young actor with Down's Syndrome. It ended up as a film about the stuff of every teenager's life - love, sex, friends, school, depression, anxiety, parents, parties, siblings, mountains, murder, ice-cream, Darth Vader, nipple-rings."
 |
| Establishing shot of boys' shared room |
 |
| David tries to distance himself but is always tied to Ben by duty |
 |
| David vocalises his resentment forcefully |
 |
| The three-shot shows that he is protective to his vulnerable brother despite his resentments. |
No comments:
Post a Comment