Arif - How is genre conveyed in 'Man On Fire"?

How is genre conveyed through the technical features in your film opening?

The opening segment of the movie ‘Man On fire ‘ opens with a high angle shot showing us a wide range of an area in Mexico. It shows a close up of a couple with a distorted music at the background with a funeral bell ringing, this image connotes danger or trouble for the couple it’s showing. It then shows a tracking shot of a car moving the car is in black and the background has shades of red through editing, this also connotes danger; from this we can say that the car is the trouble and the couple are in danger. The camera focused at the couple, which showed the people in the background blurry from this I knew that the opening was to do with the couple. From what I’ve seen so far I can conclude that the movies opening starts with disequilibrium.

High angle shot showing us a wide area in mexico 

The editing of the film also plays a big part in the opening of the film it helps connote many of the images that we see in the film. One of the editing technique’s that was used in the opening of the film was fast-forwarding. It begins with the couple walking along the side-walk and as they are walking it is fast-forwarded which combined with the music gives us the feeling of trouble and danger. There is also a caption where it says ‘There is one kidnapping every 60 minutes in Latin America. 70% of the victims do not survive.’ Having a caption talking about crime gives away the genre of the opening, which is crime in this case.

The sound of the film indicates a lot as to what the genre could be. The opening of the film has screaming and shouting as the man in the couple gets kidnapped. Straight away this signals that this film is to do with crime and the screaming emphasizes danger.

The people in the car are dressed as mafias having tattoos on them and earrings this indicates typical gangstas and mafias-the first images that come to your head is crime because gangstas and mafias do crime for living because that’s what we see in the news, newspapers etc. Also after the kidnapping it shows dark alleyways in which the car in which the car that had been in the kidnapping had been in this connotes crime again because crimes are done in alleyways and also you feel sort of intimidated too. So from the opening film of man on fire you can indicate through the signs that this movie’s genre is crime.