1. How is class and status shown in the opening sequence in “Robin
Hood”?
Throughout the sequence the creators have been very careful in the way they use camera
shots and editing to display social differences. A big example of this is when we first see
Robin Hood in Mid Shot behind the tree. He slowly turns from behind the tree with the effect
of slow motion put in through editing. This represents his importance and status, the fact we
can’t see his face shows us he an enigma - mysterious character and has higher power over
the guards because they don’t know who he is yet as well as also being a mystery to us.
There are various shots where the level of status’s seemed to rise between the characters.
First of all we see the poacher hunting the deer. Which is a long shot edited to a close up of
the showing us where the deer is going to be shot. The deer is the one with the lowest status,
over to the poacher who has higher status. Then we see a two shot ms pan of the guards who
have most status. This is a clever way of showing us the differences between the characters as
well as introducing them to us.
Though out the scene poach seem to be looking up in a low angled, point of view and mid s
on the main guard dressed in black, black resembles his darkness and that he is a bad
character. Before Robin comes along, the guard is filmed at shots that represent power such
as the camera looking up at him in ms. It’s intimidating because we as an audience have to
look up at him. This is how his class is shown. Because the guard is on a horse himself all the
other characters have to also look up at him and we witness this, especially when evaluating
the misc en scene. The poacher can’t beat the guards and there is a high angled, establishing,
big close shot where the poacher is surrounded by the guard s. This shows to us that the
poacher has very low status because we discover that there is no way out and has totally been
dominated by the guards.
There is chase scene where we see the poacher running away from the guards. This is turned
into a montage, flicking from one character to the others. It shows us the poacher running
away and it looks as though he is going to get away (displaying his higher status) but then it
flicks to the guards catching up changing the higher status to them. Slow motion has been
edited in also to display the status changes also.
There is a tracking show where the guards drag the poacher towards the camera just before
his fingers are going to be cut off. This shows that there is no way out and that the poacher
cannot escape and has no class at all compared to the guards. The tree trucks the guards want
to do the punishment on looks almost like a giant finger mocking the poachers close future.
This could represent how everything has turned against him including the forest which
represents that he is also a lower class than the woods.
Emma Garner