Elephant (Alan Clarke)

Throughout the entire film has next to no dialogue present as the film takes place in Northern Ireland and during the time it was filmed they had a major problem at the time was known as "The Troubles" and this was where people were killing each other based on their beliefs and so the film depicts 18 murders and every scene repeats with the camera tracking the main character of the scene ( the murderer) as they walk to kill their victim and this is what happens throughout the film.

The use of unconventional narrative portrayal gives the film a more realistic cold tone and the use of a grainy 16 mm film creates an even more darker, realistic and unnerving atmosphere as each murder is followed through calmly. The film doesn't follow traditional structure as todorov's narrative theory is not traditionally portrayed as the narrative can be broken down into smaller ones with the main character essentially changing every scene.

The representation of violence within the film is portrayed to be normal due to how calm the murderers are when killing their victim and when the scene ends the camera lingers on the motionless body. The film is a social commentary of the underlying problems which Northern Ireland was facing during this time as the conflict between politics and nationalistic sides as the nationalist wanted self governance.       

Wasp

The plot of the short film consists of a young single mother named of 4 named Zoe living in Dartford living in poverty as she struggles to find food for her and her children, when one day her ex-boyfriend drives by and asks her to go on a date and pretends that her children are not really hers as she is afraid that he wont like her and leaves them for hours as she is on her date. The main shots which are present throughout the film are close ups of the characters faces to express their emotions this shot was typically used on the mother as we see her reaction to leaving her kids and of the kids faces, the colours and lighting is unusually bright for the darker tone of the film as in the majority of the film natural colours like greens and blues stand out more and the natural lighting helps make these colours stand out. The minimalist style of no non diegetic music being present throughout the entire film and the camera switching to handheld adds realism to the film and story.

Conflict is present within the beginning of the film as Zoe has a fight with another mother as their children had a fight and connoting that she is presented as immature as she instantly goes to aggression when faced with conflict. The narrative is not like a typical narrative however it somewhat follows Todorov's theory as the mother meeting Dave and going out on a date with him as he disruption to the family is portrayed to be the main characters however he children are presented as the main characters more as they are shown starving and being left outside the bar for the whole day and this seems to be the norm to he children and the disruption is created as they know what their mum is going to do with Dave, and also the woman who Zoe has a fight with in the beginning asks her if she left her kids alone at home again reinforcing that the audience know that this is a common occurrence, the Zoe is seen as somewhat of an antagonist to the children as she neglects them. The resolution happens when Dave finds out about her children and the new equilibrium which is created is ambiguous but has an atmosphere of hope for the children.

Zoe is initially ashamed by her children especially when she speaks to Dave already having her pride tarnished as she loses the fight she then claims the children as not hers knowing that she is a failure as a mother and rather than admitting her poverty she pays for drinks which she cant afford to keep her small amount of pride she has left intact.   

                

Wallace and Gromit : The Wrong Trousers

The main genre of the short film is a comedy, short stop-motion animation but has links to the crime fiction genre as the villain in the short film is a wanted criminal and the narrative consists of Gromit stopping the penguin.

A major binary opposite within the short animation are the characters Gromit and Feathers McGraw as Gromit is presented as the protagonist and Feathers McGraw is the antagonist of the short film and their differences are presented when  McGraw's wallpaper is opposites to Gromit's wallpaper due to the colours of the wallpaper which presents them as strikingly opposite characters

The narrative of the film is linear and follows Gromit's perspective as it begins with the equilibrium as it is Gromit's birthday and they live their lives normally until Mcgraw moves in which is when the disruption begins to occur as  Mcgraw begins to push Gromit out of his room initially and finally pushes him out the house and the penguin uses the electric trousers to attempt to control Wallace and use him to steal a diamond. The recognition of the disruption happens when the penguin wears the hat and Gromit recognises it from the wanted poster and Gromit watches the penguin measure the height of the window.The solution to the disruption is when Gromit stops Mcgraw from stealing the diamond and saving Wallace from the electric trousers after this the new equilibrium is created by going back to their normal lives.

The only spoken words in he film are from Wallace and in the scene where Gromit follows and watches Mcgraw an ominous atmosphere is created due to the design of the background as the lighting is very different than the rest of the film as it connotes how shady Mcgraw is and this atmosphere is reinforced due to the lack of dialogue and the slightest amount of menacing music being present within the scene.

   

Shaun of the Dead: Social Background

The characters within the film are predominantly white and middle class as the main view of the film is through Shaun. it is set within a suburbia on the outskirts of London as suburban areas are stereo typically known to be filled with white people and were historically known to be built for only white people. Certain characters are presented on a spectrum of class as Liz's friends Dianne and David stand on the far side of the middle class which is shown within the opening scene as we find out that they got to the theatre and listed buildings also the clothing a they are dressed smartly and almost pretentious as Dianne is dressed in a colourful clothes and David looks like a ''chartered accountant''  whereas Ed is presented to be as working class as he is shown wearing a shirt and shorts and is presented as scruffy. Relationships and family are presented in a middle class way which is shown in the opening scene as Liz still not having met Shaun's parents is presented as a big deal to Liz's friends  as it is an expectation for your partner to meet their parents and Shaun also within the dumping scene Shaun promised Liz that he would drink wine as an alternative to beer.

Also a middle class expectation of growing up is a running theme throughout the film as Shaun's problem within the beginning of the film is him needing to grow up as Liz is the first to tell him this and he attempts this but fails and also Pete is another character which portrays a middle class expectation of living as he tells Shaun and Ed to grow up which is prevalent in the electro scene. Shaun is presented to be immature which is shown as his friend Ed and how Ed lives in the house as Pete says ''were not students anymore'' showing how Shaun and Pete need to grow up however we can see that Shaun is not as immature as Ed due to his clothing as he is shown wearing a dress shirt with a red tie sloppily on him showing that he has some maturity whereas Ed is always shown as scruffy wearing casual clothing and having no job but Pete is dressed smartly and is working in an office showing the spectrum of maturity within the house and the influence of both of them on Shaun leaves him in the middle of maturity and immaturity as Shaun has a dead end job in an electronics store.

 the theme of success is presented as Shaun faces a load of problems with his life within the beginning of the film as he is broken up with as he doesn't grow up in the middle class way for Liz as she wants to do more than go to the Winchester and wants do things more like her friends and we also see that Shaun's life doesn't fit with the expectation as he is constantly told to sort himself out.   

   

Shaun of the Dead: Narrative structure and Genres

Within the beginning of the film it is presented to be a romantic comedy as the narrative revolves around Shaun's relationship with his girlfriend Liz and the disruption occurs when Liz dumps Shaun as she wants him to change and has stereotypical romcom character archetypes just like how Shaun is presented to be the immature one in the relationship and Liz is presented as the mature one in the relationship which is immediately shown in the intro of the film as Liz is talking about how she

wants Shaun to change which is  whilst Shaun's face is blank throughout most of the scene also as the scene usually stays at a mid shot switching between Shaun's and Liz's face to present their personalities  and build on the stereotypical characters within the romcom genre also creating a comedic tone.

 As the film continues to be a romcom the zombie horror genre themes begin to seep through the romcom in stages. We first see the beginning of this before the disruption in the romcom genre when Shaun is in the flower shop scene as Shaun sees a zombie but disappears before we see anything else and we see the zombie horror genre themes begin to seep in before this when we see the newspapers in the intro shop scene which shows headlines of a disease and we see the news multiple times showing people in hazmat suits and the army but as an audience we don't take much notice but Shaun is totally oblivious to what is happening around him as he is totally focused on his relationship and how he is trying to fix it as the world around him is drastically changing due to the zombie apocalypse. The shop scene is exactly mirrored when the film is in different genres as Shaun is both shown to be completely oblivious to the world around him as in the beginning Shaun trips on the curb in both scenes but he second time we see this scene zombies are scattered around the background.

 Whilst the zombie horror themes begin to take over early within the film as Shaun tries to fix the disruption within his relationship and the disruption within the narrative but the disruption within the narrative of the zombie horror is what helps the create the new equilibrium of the romcom as Todorov's equilibrium theory states that a disruption of the equilibrium has to happen for the narrative to progress and the realisation of the disruption ends with a new equilibrium being created by the main character as they fix the disruption and the new equilibrium is different to the original equilibrium which is shown in Shaun of the Dead as originally the house Shaun lives in is presented as a stereotypical male house as it is shown as messy with beer cans and rubbish scattered within the living room however within the new equilibrium shows the house becoming more feminine however being at a compromise as the living room has a mixture of femininity and the original state of the living room. T
his set design is to show the development of both Shaun and Liz as characters and a development in their relationship as their problems have been solved and have found a compromise through the new equilibrium in the narrative as the problem of their friends holding each other back has been solved as they were killed showing that the two genres intertwine as the romcom problem of their friends effecting the relationship was solved by the zombies and also the zombies are a big reason that the relationship is fixed.         

Trainspotting: Themes and Binary Opposites

The theme of the past vs future is prevalent throughout the film as the scene in which Renton is in a club later on in the film as he narrates how everything is changing like music, drugs, and people as techno plays in the background and also the soundtrack has a lot of techno reinforcing this idea of changing times. Also an earlier scene close to the beginning where Renton is in another club contrasts with the later scene to express the change which is occurring as the earlier scene shows people drinking alcohol whilst people dance to generic 80s rock whereas the later scene people are on ecstasy and are having a rave also the places in which these scenes take place are different as the earlier scene takes place in Leith and the later scene takes place in London also the change in drugs as Renton talks about ecstasy becoming a lot more popular as the popularity of heroin losing popularity as this change in the film shows the change of culture from the 80s to 90s within these two scenes.  

Renton develops as time progresses throughout the film as he was once stuck in the past with his other friends he has now changed which leads on to another theme which is present in the film which is Betrayal. As Renton develops as a character he begins to hate the friends he had in the beginning thus leading to the ending of the film where Renton steals the money from the drug deal and escapes with the money and escapes the friendship he despised. And within that friend group two friends Begby and Spud are on two opposite spectrums as Begby is the most aggressive person in the friend group as in one of the final scenes in he bar presents this and how Renton is in the middle of both of them as Spud is presented to be more childlike and scared which is shown in the betrayal scene as Spud sees Renton is leaving and even though Renton somewhat offers Spud to come with him he doesn't showing how Spud is more scared of Begby and Sick Boy.  

Throughout the film a major theme which is prevalent is heroin and how it effects the characters and the world around them as the main character Renton uses heroin and heroin is used as an opposite to may other themes within the film such as for example family as Renton's parents are presented as a force which tries to get him to quit which is shown in the withdrawal scene as they kept him locked in his room. The scenes which have the parents are usually very bland with dark and dull colours always present giving those scenes a depressing, boring tone whereas the scenes which include heroin or drugs are usually in brightly coloured rooms with multiple colours and lights present.

  

Trainspotting: Opening

The beginning of the film throws the audience into an action packed scene later on in the film making the narrative non-linear as someone begins to narrate as a close up of a character presents to the audience that he is the main character as we are aligned with him due to seeing him and hearing his voice first and the character . Renton's narration seems to be a somewhat satirical look on life as he lists off things like"choose life, choose a job and choose fixed-interest mortgage repayments" as it seems that Renton is criticising the way society wants us to live and the audience knows that Renton is the main character as we have a freeze frame with his name making it obvious to the audience that he is the main character after aligning us with Renton. during his narration he says "choose your friends" and it cuts to a shot showing all of the other characters and Renton's friends having a football match however this scene can be somewhat seen as foreshadowing to the ending scene where he betrays them as he no longer wants to be dragged down by them anymore. The clips we see of the characters their personality is quickly shown and the audience gets a good idea what they are like for example the next character we see is Sick Boy who is shown to be a sly character as he trips an opponent and pretends that he didn't do it, the next character shown is Begbie who is shown to be an aggressive character as he slide tackles someone without caring and laughing, the next character shown is Spud who we see is shown as the unreliable and dumb character as he fails to catch the ball and the freeze frame is at a point where his facial expression reinforces this, the final character we are shown is Tommy and when we see him Renton talks about "rotting away at the end of it all" which is foreshadowing Tommy's death later on in the film  and we see him get surrounded which could be foreshadowing the way he dies from aids and how he is surrounded by death and no one can help him.

after this we see two scenes spliced together as Renton falls to the ground in both scenes and they cut between the two scenes as he rejects life and we find out that he does heroin and there is no reason why he is like this he just because he wants to which is a breath of fresh air for films as a character which is takes drugs like heroin would have a tragic backstory and have an explanation for why he does this Renton narrates and says he has no reason why he just wanted to do it. The younger audience would enjoy this film as in the media drugs are always demonised and are overexaggerated to be shown as instantly life destroying but the film shows drugs in a realistic way as it shows the effects of drugs but doesn't romanticise it either for example Tommy's death shows the dark reality of drugs and his death was caused from using used needles and contracting the HIV virus and the baby being killed due to neglect.

'The Worst Toilet in Scotland' scene
The beginning of the scene shows Renton picking up suppositories from a drug dealer and the atmosphere within the scene somewhat shows the dark realities of drugs as the room is dirty and bare except for the mattress however the colours present in this room makes the scene less grim as the bright colours of yellow and green which is present and this is also shown in the next scene where Renton walks along the flats at the bottom of the scene and more focus is put into the flats as the set of bland flats has been changed to have various colours to make this scene more vibrant as each set of curtains are bright colours.

When Renton enters the bar the camera switches from close ups of Renton's face and a POV shot of people staring at him until he enters 'The Worst Toilet in Scotland' and this shows up in text to create a comedic tone before we are shown the ghastly state of the toilet as its entirely covered in dirt and faeces with non diegetic sounds of flies reinforces the state of the scene. Renton uses the toilet to defecate and loses the suppositories which he used in the beginning of the scene and begins to look in the toilet which is blocked and is filled with dirty water and as this occurs Renton begins to go inside the toilet and is dragged away from a dark reality for a surrealist scene where he is swimming in a sea and finds the suppositories and goes back up to the surface to climb out of the toilet and this is done to give the audience a break from the harsh reality which is thoroughly present through the film and these surrealist scenes occur during the darkest scenes in the film.
   

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No Country for Old Men beginning/coin toss scene

Within the beginning of the film starts with a landscape of the desert which is conventional for the western genre which this film uses even though  it is set during the 80's the film uses conventions from traditional westerns. As it shows different wide angle shots of the desert a voiceover plays the character that is talking is Sheriff Ed Tom Bell who seems to represent the "Good" character in the film as he represents the law and order and can be seen as the hero due to his right morality and this voice over is used to immediately the audience is aligned to the sheriff and connote to the audience what type of character he is going to be when he eventually appears in the film a lot later than the other main characters as the wide angle shots of the scenery continue we are introduced to the villain of the film and this is conveyed as we don't directly see his face when he is being arrested and put into the police car and the reason why we are not shown his face is to make the audience not become aligned to the villain Anton Chigurh as his identity is kept a secret during the opening as the next scene in the police car his face is hidden in the darkness whereas the police officers face has been clearly visible during the entire time somewhat making the audience align to him also while Chigurh is being arrested we are not told why he has been arrested and during this opening scene the audience wouldn't know that he is the cold blooded killer which is the prominent villain in the film so the crime he committed is left to speculation. 

The next scene in the police station Chigurh's face is finally shown however it is shown while he is strangling the police officer and his exaggerated facial expression which the audience sees begins to show how psychotic and evil he is as a character. The next scene is in the bathroom where Chigurh is cleaning his wounds from killing the police officer and usually in scenes like this the camera would positioned in a over the shoulder shot to align the audience to the character as the audience can see the character's face and the wounds he is cleaning as films which are in the action genre which this film has some links to the action genre typically use that shot however the shot used looks down on only his hand which reinforces how the audience is supposed to avoid aligning to chigurh. When we finally see Chigurh the outfit he is wearing and also his hairstyle is entirely different than every character in the film which furthers the reinforcement of avoidance of alignment as he doesn't fit into the atmosphere/aesthetic the film creates with the other character's styles.

The next character to be shown is Llewelyn Moss and almost immediately the audience is aligned to him as the scene begins with a POV shot of him hunting and also we are shown his face very quickly signifying that he is the main character as the audience begin to align to him and not like Chigurh where the first time we saw his face it was greatly exaggerated. Also Llewelyn looks like he fits into a Neo western genre as the colours of his clothing are warmer colours and the entire scene we first see Llewelyn it has a lot more warmer colours unlike the scene of Chigurh after the police station where the colours are a lot more darker showing a theme of good vs evil between the characters also the clothes he is wearing fit him as a character fits into the Neo western genre which mostly all of the main characters fit into like his hat and boots strongly present Llewelyn as a modern cowboy.

The scene of Chigurh at the gas station is an excellent example of presenting his character as we see in the beginning he already is seen to be different to the other character in the scene as the atmosphere in the scene is awkward and somewhat eerie due to Chigurh constantly asking the man questions and repeating what he says to in some way make fun of him. Later on in the scene his ideology of him being a servant of fate and pushing the blame of a possible murder onto fate as when he begins to play the coin flip game with the man behind the shop counter he explains that the coin has gone through twenty two years of traveling to get to that point and he is just doing fate's work to exonerate himself of the murder which may happen.    

Captain Fantastic Beginning/Ending scenes

Before the film starts the soundtrack begins to play which is background non-diegetic sound of nature creating an atmosphere of peace and tranquillity. The first scene begins to play of establishing shots of the wilderness which helps builds the peaceful atmosphere and the scene cuts to a deer walking around in the wilderness. The peaceful atmosphere begins to change after the extreme close up as it cuts to the first person in the film hiding in the bushes with multiple cuts between the deer staring at  them and walking around the bushes and multiple family members stalking the deer in the bushes and the filming style changes to handheld filming as it follows the deer until it becomes a two shot of him hiding and the deer which quickly cuts to multiple close ups as they kill the deer. We finally get to see characters however at this point they initially have a sinister atmosphere as a close up shot of a bloody knife helps reinforce this atmosphere also the audience has no idea of who any of the characters are and this ambiguity continues as a lot more younger characters come out of the bushes covered in this ambiguous camouflage. Another male character who is older comes out of the bushes and comes towards the younger male character and takes the heart out of the deer and ritualistically paints the blood on his head and claims he is now a man as the younger male character eats the heart at this point it is still ambiguous of who this group is it could be a cult of a family as the title has a sinister soundtrack behind it as the older male character has a straight face reinforcing this sinister atmosphere. 

The next scene make this much clearer as they begin to wash off the mud the atmosphere changes from a eerie atmosphere to a light hearted atmosphere as they begin to splash water on each other and becomes clear that they are a family and that original sinister introduction is a very unusual way to present the protagonist and makes the characters have to work to make the audience like them as the audience is initially aligned with the deer which is killed making the characters initially look dangerous and violent even though the audience is aligned to these characters by the end of the scene they still have to work to make the audience have an allegiance with the characters and this is reinforced as the next scene of them back at home has a montage showing what their life style with a non diegetic upbeat melodic soundtrack to create a positive atmosphere making the characters look less menacing look from the opening. 

The ending scene somewhat mirrors the beginning scene as Ben and Bo have a two shot close up of their conversations and this ending scene takes place in an airport unlike the beginning being in the wilderness which shows the development of themselves as characters as Bo has shaved his head and Ben has shaved his beard as they enter traditional society and this growth as characters is presented in the conversation they have talking about being bold and adventurous and growing up instead of the ritualistic hunting they had in the beginning and at this point of the film the audience is somewhat aligned with Ben and Bo as they get a lot of personal scenes having a close up on their face to create a personal connection to the audience creating this. The theme of alternative and traditional lifestyles is prevalent throughout the opening and ending scenes as we are first exposed to the characters in a very extreme way but as we learn about their life style we begin to understand but the ending scene shows that they have change to have more traditional elements in their lifestyle as after Bo leaves we see that they have moved out of the wilderness and that the other children are beginning to go to school instead of being home schooled also they both have a montage at the beginning and end of the film showing a development of their lifestyle as the ending shows the change to their domestic lifestyle from being in the wilderness to being in a house at the end. The final moments of the film are in complete silence no music or words are spoken but the audience clearly see the new equilibrium created through that montage scene earlier and how the family is gathered around the table as the camera zooms out, the complete silence during this final scene creates ambiguity especially as the father looks out the window which could be interpreted as him taking everything in or not wanting to be in a house and wanting to back in the wilderness and many other interpretations.    

  

 

Apocalypse Now opening/ending scene analysis

Within the opening of Apocalypse Now a wide shot of the trees during the day with yellow smoke rising with no movement and the trees are suddenly blown up as 'this is the end' by the doors begins to play and as soon as the trees are on fire the camera begins to slowly pan across the forest on the fire as the only sound that is audible is the song to signify a doomsday atmosphere which links to the name of the film as a fade in on the protagonists face with a close up is layered on top of the pan of the burning forest s only for a few seconds as it cuts back to the forest on fire panning across as the protagonists face fades in and out with the the music still being the only audio we hear for around two and a half minutes until the faint sound of a helicopter is heard as helicopters are shown as the shot of the protagonist changes to a high angle shot showing that he is in a room which is poorly lit to create a unsettling atmosphere the camera begins to move slowly around and also a low angle shot of a ceiling fan is also layered on the screen so three separate shots are layered on the screen which connotes to everything shown in the scenes being linked together as the ceiling fan is linked to the helicopters in the war and this gives us an idea on who the protagonist is as they seem to be in the army and the ceiling fan maybe connoting that he has PTSD as his facial expression throughout these opening layered scenes is like he is in a trance or is dazed. The next scene shows a pan in extreme close up across all the documents he has and a picture of a women and finally panning to his face with no change to his facial expression as it carries on panning past his and a layered shot of alcohol is shown as this entire time 'this is the end' carries on playing which creates an unsettling atmosphere and this is reinforced as the song now begins to fade out and the diegetic sound of the  ceiling fan begins to get louder and louder and gradually begins to turn into a non diegetic helicopter as it pans to a gun next to the protagonist which strengthens the idea of the him being involved with some kind of violent acts and make the audience question the identity of the protagonist and as no words have been spoken yet all the audience can do is assume. His room is finally shown and it is dark and dismal and cuts to the protagonists face and cuts looking the window and begins to quickly zoom into the window and changes to a first person poverties shot as the camera is shaking a lot with the non diegetic sounds of the helicopter become its loudest and fades out as he begins to speak he first speaks about where he is and how he thinks he is going to wake up back in the jungle which reinforces the idea that he is suffering with PTSD and his facial expressions are usually blank which gives off this effect of him being scarred by what he has done also he is shown topless which connotes to him being in that room a long time as it begins to show multiple scenes of him in his room with the same dingy lighting to convey that he has shut himself in and his posture within these scenes are him hunched over which portrays him being bored as it is not totally implied that he has been in this room for a long when can make an assumption that he has been in this room for a significant amount of time as this shots show his during the day and night but during this a scene fades in slightly of him with his face painted and walking in the night which could foreshadow the ending of the film as he has the same appearance but then finally cuts to a mid shot of the protagonist who seems to be drunk which the room having more light which makes the room less dingy  with a cut to him close up and follows his face as it moves up and shows the ceiling fan in the top corner for a small amount of time which shows how significant this is as it is shown a lot throughout this entire opening scene as it is synonymous with the helicopters. And when these final scenes are shown the music begins to play again but is only the instrumental and fades out as he passes out after punching a mirror smashing it and drinking alcohol conveying that he is drunk and is suffering as his facial expression changes to him being in pain    





Ending analysis: At the end of Apocalypse Now the protagonist kills Colonel Kurtz and while this is happening footage of the tribe people killing a cow is in between shots of Kurtz's death to signify his link to these people as he uses them for his cult. After he has killed Kurtz everyone begins to bow down to Willard as he has just killed a "god" in the eyes of those people and is now being praised as the new leader and could suggest a cyclical nature of the leader always being murdered as the people instantly began to worship Willard when he sees this his face is mostly covered by darkness which suggests that he was thinking about becoming the next leader with a sinister atmosphere through the small amount of his face we can see but as he moves forward his face becomes more visible and this idea is almost instantly scrapped as he begins to leave having completed his mission and ending somewhat ambiguously as we have no idea on what happens after he gets back on the boat. The themes which is most prevalent at the end is good and evil as willard begins to sympathise with Kurtz and the hero and villain is not clearly shown like in traditional films also the effect of power is a another theme which is shown as we see Kurtz has created a cult and has taken over a a small area in Cambodia and seems to be corrupted by this and has become crazy from all of the power he has.

Casablanca: Rick's bar/ Paris scene analysis

within the beginning of Rick's bar scene an establishing shot of ricks bar tells the audience the location and gives an idea of what his bar is like as the people entering the bar are dressed sophisticated clothing which begins to convey Rick's character as we see how the individuals who frequent his bar are like and also as a spotlight moves around the entrance to connote a sense of hope which Rick and his bar creates throughout the film as Casablanca is in an unoccupied area of morocco and most of the people in Casablanca and most people in Rick's bar are desperate to escape and/or hopeless as we find out as the non diegetic sound outside the bar turns into diegetic sound as we seen the band playing and we get a clearer idea of what Rick's bar because of its affluent look and lighting as the bar is brightly lit and could reinforce a sense of sanctuary/ hope for the people of Casablanca and even though the film is in black and white we can get an idea of the colours like red, white, browns which may be inside due to the wealthy atmosphere which is portrayed and things like chandeliers which reinforce this atmosphere and this is helped through the continuity editing used  and as the camera pans through usually staying at a mid shot as we go through the bar the first set of people in the bar conversating about wanting leave Casablanca which strengthens the hopelessness of the people in Casablanca as most of the conversations which take place towards the people shown in the scene are talking about wanting to escape or attempting to plan for an escape from Casablanca and all of this is shown through the camera moving around the bar instead of using cuts between the different conversations the director Curtiz decided to move the camera around the par which in contemporary film is a lot more difficult to do than using cuts and this use of the moving camera gives a better effect on showing the people of Casablanca and their conversations are intertwined with each other as they all have the same type of conversation of wanting to leave Casablanca. As we move to a part of the bar which seems to be a more expensive area as peoples clothing changes to having jewels and opulent outfits convey this luxurious atmosphere this new area we are shown as the people are gambling they ask a waiter if rick would have a drink with  and we find out that Rick never has drinks with customers and this small line from the waiter conveys a lot about rick as a character without even seeing him as we find out that rick may have a superiority complex as he thinks that the customers don't deserve to have drinks with him but after an obvious agitated cut which doesn't happen in the entire scene as the editing within this scene is barely noticeable but this cut towards Rick's table doesn't use continuity editing because it wants the audience to know that the person we are about to meet is going to be an integral part of the narrative as the cut was very noticeable and puts more attention on Rick and just before we see Rick's face there are two close ups of a cheque book and his drink and cigarette which reinforces Rick's importance.

Within the Paris flashback scene it begins with a fade being white which gives off a dreamy effect as we see Rick reminisce about a happier time as he is with Ilsa the lighting on is face is much brighter connoting to a better time for Rick in contrast to before the flashback where his face had barely any light on him and also his clothing within the beginning of the flashback suggests that Rick is not cynical during this time unlike his persona in Casablanca. Every scene with Rick and Ilsa are shown through fades instead of cuts which reinforces the dream like atmosphere and for this flashback continuity editing is not used to show large spans of time in a short montage to express what Rick's life was like before moving to Casablanca and as the final scene of Rick and Ilsa being happy is cut to documentary footage of the Nazis invading France as this is where it goes downhill for Rick as the final part of the Flashback is Rick being left heartbroken with heavy rain pouring down signifying rick's emotions and this is reinforced as the letter he reads from Ilsa detailing her leaving him and the rain pouring onto the paper the ink begins to come off to create a more dramatic effect as non diegetic music creates a bigger effect. Half way through the flashback a glass is spilled and when Rick comes out of the flashback he spills his drink exactly like in the flashback which could connote to Rick being unable to let go of Ilsa and what happen in Paris.