Scene Analysis

The scene I am going to analyze from Law and Order and is a scene with one of the lawyers Serena. It deals with an American jihad courtroom. A man is on trial and the prosecuting lawyer Serena is asking him questions. The scene begins with a middle distant front shot of Serena asking the man questions. The shot quickly switches from Serena to the man and back to Serena and then once again back to the man on the stand. As Serena intensely starts to question the Muslim man the shot shows him from behind her, showing the back of her head but focusing on the man.
The questioning and talk between the two gains bigger tension the shot moves closer to the man’s face while he points his finger and raises his voice. At the very end of the scene the shot solely focuses on the man staring back at Serena. The shot sequences in this scene are relatively simple they go back and forth between Serena and the man she is trying and then at the end, at the most intense parts the scene zooms in on the man’s face.
The sound is also a key part of the Law and Order. As questions of the murder the man is accused grow more suspenseful the music begins to grow louder with what seems to be louder and almost creates a very intense background to enhance the dramazation of the exchange between the Serena and the man. The lighting of the scene also remains the same throughout the interview.
The key to this scene is the use of how the music increases as the tension and significance of the questions increases and the switching between the up-close shots of Serena and the man. Serena has an important part where she asks the man; “ so whoever actually pulled the trigger would be the true slave to Allah and should be honored to accept the consequences of that act, is that correct?” and then the man shakes his head yes, and then Serena states, “yet you keep denying it, is that because you’re scared.” It is at this time point that the music is loud and the shot is clearly focused on Serena’s face.
The use of the up-close shots and increasing music are dramatize the importance of this entire scene, the scene is very effective in building suspense and hyping up the most important of the show.
In my classroom I would show different clips of the same scene and compare and contrast the different techniques and would ask my students why do you think the producers of each clip did what they did. I would also ask my students to discuss how these different clips of the same scene produce different effects on the viewer. For example, what are the effects of close-up shots and long shots, and which do they think is better for what scenes. I also would like to discuss with my students the importance of audience positioning and lighting, which were key to my scene described above. Identifying the purposes for why producers and directors choose the scenes and other film techniques is key for students to use and transfer their “developing visual literacy analysis skills that will transfer to their analysis of film techniques” (Beacher 22).
It is also important for my students to know the terms and definitions of the different types of film techniques and having being able to correctly identify them when they see them. I would encourage my students to do a project where they create their own video and then have them explain how and why they used the techniques that they did.