Research 4 - Slumdog Millionaire

The background music is traditional Indian music with drums and Indian singing, which add a cultural sense to the opening. The music speeds up as the children begin to run away from the policemen to build up tension and to keep us engaged.

This is the first shot of the opening scene and it is a close up camera shot, to emphasise that this boy has been beaten and is hung up by his hands.

It then quickly changes to another close up camera shot of a young boy, which by the dialogue we realise it is the same boy. Also the close up camera shot shows his facial expression really well, I might use this in my video.

We then get a zoomed out camera angle of the same boy to show that he is playing a ball game on what looks like a runway. We can now also see his clothes which help create a sense of poverty.

 I like this screen grab beacuse of the oblique camera angle, also how the light shines throught the wheel of the bike. The bike may indicate that they are from a higher class than the younger children running away by foot in the distance.

This looks like an establishing shot as it immediately tells us that these children are poor and live in the slums, by the vast amount of rubbish. Also by the fact that the children are bare foot whilst running across this pile of rubbish.

I love the high and low camera angles used here and would love to try and use some in my video. The low angle in the first shot creates a sense of mischief as they are running across the tops of the roofs. In the second shot a high angle is used to show how they look down on the policeman as if he is vulnerable.

This shows a medium camera angle of the boys running away to a zoomed out long camera angle to set the scene and again build up tension of them running away from the policeman. The fact that they have been running away for so long highlights the size of the slums and that the policeman will never be able to catch them.

The tone of the music now changes to a more upbeat tune, to make the film more interesting and to match the atmosphere of the children who think that it is a game running away from the police.

The aerial camera shots shown here emphasise the vast amount of people living in poverty in the slums.This again is something I would love to use as it creates a dramatic effect on the audience and shows them the setting in an unusual way.

The canted camera angle here adds a quirky edge to the opening. Also the lighting is cleverly done to only have light shown in the street.

This shot immediately tells us that the actor in the car is important and well respected or feared, this is shown by the actor apologising for bumping into the car window, the black sunglasses and the dark surroundings in the car. Also the music in this bit stops when the actor bumps into the window to highlight that he did someting out of line and that this man is very powerful.