Dunkirk essay:
Dunkirk by Christopher Nolan. The film is set in France during the second world war and follows a sense of survival instead of heroism. I have chosen the question: describe the visual/verbal features used in the visible or oral text you have studied. Explain how these features contributed to the text as a whole. The film is staged in different timelines that interwind and the pace is set in a way where it feels like time is running out.
Nolan uses sound techniques such as the ticking of a watch and Shepard’s tone to set the scene and set the pace of a scene by highlighting that the character may have time, or little time before something is to happen. A scene that highlights these techniques would be at the start of the movie where the land protagonist Tommy is being chased and shot at through a town the Shepard’s tone increases ecspentaly until he reaches the beach where the shepherd’s tone comes to a halt. Another example is when in lines on the beach they here the Stukas (bombing plane) where the ticking speeds up showing that at any point their time could run out, Nolan uses this throughout the film indicating they are about to die.
Christopher Nolan uses camera angles to indicate the scene being important and the quick camera shots panning around the cockpit of the plane a good example of this is when Farrier is in his plane and the camera goes to fuel gage and to his watch to show that time is running out.
This is also used when they are on the destroyer and the boat door shuts and the camera focuses on that signifying an important event that is about to take place, which does happen because the destroyer is hit by a torpedo.
Another technique used is Nolan’s pacing he paces the movie in a way where it’s not all gun for their strategy time is long not short and to the point and timeline, all have there a distinct way like saying Air is fast-paced Land is in the middle as they get big breaks before an important thing is to happen and Sea is slow because they have really long pauses between an event happening Nolan is using the time to lengthen the time of the movie in a way it doesn’t make it boring and doesn’t make it to over top.
I believe that i have explained the visual/oral text and highlighted key points that favor the film as a whole making it stand out in sorts of directing lighting sound and film.