Dead Man’s Shoes Opening title

sequence By Max, Lara and Behrendt

Editing

The intertitles of the film fade in and out to maintain a gentle, slow, emotional feel that the opening scene has due to long shot durations, emotion provoking music and negative lighting.

The position of the title is low but central and has the two men walking above it. The title hardly corresponds with the mise-en-scene other than the fact that they are walking a lot

which could relate to the “shoes”. The lack of meaning in the title at this point creates a sense of mystery and has the audience intrigued in the narrative already by asking questions.

A cross-fade is used here as a transition to directly link the brothers we see in the past and present footage together. The duration of the cross-fade is roughly 10 seconds which is extremely long for films, this is used to help the audience make a connection between what's on screen. Also for those who paid close attention the director has given a clue to which character is the older and younger brother by placing them above the toddler (left) and baby (right). Also the audience begins to learn the characters personalities through the cross-fade as thoughout the present day footage, one brother takes lead and in the shot of the children (above) the oldest is also moving and taking control of his younger brother, suggesting he has always been the one in charge while his brother follows behind.

The continuous cutting back and forth between childhood and present, can be read as the two brothers meeting again for the first time in a while and thinking back to all these old nostalgic memories. They could also be leaving or returning to their childhood home and the lack of dialog/ interaction in the scene could be explained by the brothers being in deep, reflective thought. As an audience of any age we find the home videos extremely relatable as we have all shared similar memories as children or having children and are most likely to have similar videos ourselves. This is effective in creating emotional realism as we suspend our disbelief in the films narrative as fiction, through connecting with the characters.

The use of camera distortion in the old footage has been used as a clear sign that the footage is dated, which along with the setting and costume helps to create surface and symbolic realism. As an audience we assume the footage is a legitimate families home videos as for a small budget UK film it would be difficult to recreate that. The distortion is also used as transitions in parts where it covers the whole screen, this also emphasises the idea that the brothers are looking back to their childhood and so the memories are slightly distorted.

The non-deigetic sound ( Smog – Vessel in Vain) has been edited in time with the visuals so that the lyrics match the mise-en-scene. In this shot the lyrics “smile” are played in time with the footage of a man smiling. This suggests the brothers childhood memories were positive and nostalgic, showing they had a relatively supportive upbringing and were/are close with their family. Again these unanswered questions hold the audiences suspense.

Mise en Scene

In Dead Man’s Shoes, there is a cut between two or more different time periods. Firstly, there are home videos, which are mostly of two boys and then there is two men walking in the countryside. From the home videos and then the cut to the two men the audience is led to believe they are brothers.

In the home videos the two toddlers are seen cuddling, giving the implication to the audience that they are very close. However, as adults they walk apart from one another and do not speak, suggesting they are now distant. In the scenes as adults one is carrying a ruck sack as he walks ahead so therefore he seems to be the older brother. Furthermore, they are walking a complicated route without a map so they must know where they are going.

Camera Camera work during the opening sequence

The young Boys

The shot opens, on two babies lying next to each other in each their own crib the image quality is bad suggesting a old film. The camera pans over from one baby to the other. We then see the babies, playing outside with their mother, being carried around and cuddling with each other, this establishes a sense of brotherhood and shows the love that they have for each other. The shooting techniques for the old style, shots are very shaky which suggests that the cameraman is an amateur, or in this case the parent or grandparent of the kids being filmed. Another point which supports this statement is that zoom is used to create effect a lot in the shot of the small babies, this doesn't happen a lot these days, because i can make the audience a bit lightheaded Cuts aren't smooth, because they are just switching from one recording to the other, which most likely happened on a different day.

The shot quality changes to ‘normal’ once we start filming the boys as as the adults they’ve become.

The first appearance of the brothers as adults is when they both start to walk in to the shot at the bottom left of the image, but then quickly walk away from the camera, turning medium into long shot.

The next shot is again, a still shot where the two brothers are walking from being close to the camera, away from it, this shot is a stable shot. We then see again the same theme as before, the camera focusing on landscape, the brothers walking in from a side of the shot, and then either walk into the shot form the right or left, and then are either followed for a bit and then dropped and the shot is cut, or its just a still shot with no pan whats ever.

From then on, the main shot. Is the two men walking towards the camera, and then when they came closer the shot paned across, following the people as they walk past. In the final shot, the men walk across the shot, and when they get about ¼ through, the shot changes, bringing the focus to the shed type building in the background.

Sound The sound used is the song vessel in vain by smog. It is a slow song and contradicts with the home videos shown and therefore creates a more complicated feeling in the audience and can make the film have a nostalgic tone. When the song says the word smile, a man from the home videos appears smiling, however this come across as sad because the song is sad. Furthermore, the song takes a while to get going making it a journey, which seems to represent the two men as you question what journey are they going on and what has happened to get them where they are.