2. Black Hawk Down Link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc7uM1AqsBQ
3. Audience
Black Hawk Down’s target audience is aimed at mainly
teenagers aged 15+ as the BBFC rated the film 15.
The genre is Action and therefore presumably the film
is aimed at an audience who are into action/war films.
(this is made clear in the opening 3 minutes of the
film.)
The Film is generally aimed at people who enjoy
factual films as this is based on a true event as it states
in the film opening. (this is made clear in the opening
3 minutes of the film.)
4. Enigma created within
opening
The first 3 minutes of the film create many questions
such as;
Why are these people dead?
Why are they living in such poverty?
What has happened?
Who is Aidid?
5. Conventions within opening scene
There are a few conventions in the black hawk down film
opening such as;
Giving the location and date of when the film is based
(Somalia, East Africa, 1992). This helps give the audience a
understanding of what the film may be about through their
own knowledge of the events in 1992, Somalia.
Also the type of text used when the title comes up at the
end of the opening scene helps to signify that this films
genre is action orientated. It is big, blocked and bold
capital letters which are stereotypically used in a action
based film.
6. M.E.L.C.S
Mis-en-scene- The clothing of the actors in
the opening 3 minutes of the film helps
signify the poverty the people of somalia are
living in. The make-up of the innocent
civilians shows scars on there face, this helps
connotate the effects of the civil war. All of
the actors in the opening scene seem to be
suffering from disease and death which also
helps to show the massacre that has
happened.
Editing- The editing is very minimal. It is
very slow cuts and the picture fades in an out
of cut-scenes which helps the audience to
endure more of the suffering the actors are
feeling within the first few minutes.
Lighting- Dark, low key lighting is used to
also help put across the mood and message
of lots of death in the opening 3 minutes.
Camera- Throughout the opening scene
there is very slow camera movement to make
the audience almost endure the pain being
shown in the film opening.
Sound- The sound used is very tribal which
helps to set the scene of East Africa, Somalia.
It is non-diagetic and it is very sad and
sympathetic type of music which suits the
mood and also helps to put across the
message of death. However, towards the end
of the opening scene the tribal music picks
up pace and helps suit the the connotations
of the text style of the title and the
genre, action.
7. Text within opening scene
The opening scene of Black Hawk Down contains a lot of
text to help show factual information, set the scene and to
give the audience an understanding of the film.
The quote “Only the dead have seen the end of war – Plato”
helps signify and hint that the films genre is action/war.
This quote also uses intertextuality as the audience maybe
able to relate to the quote from other films as “Plato” is a
significant unknown figure in many action/war films.
The text used in the film opening helps connotate the
sympathy the director is trying to get across in the opening
3 minutes by giving factual information on the masses of
death endured by the innocent somalian people.
8. Black Hawk Down film opening
analysis conclusion and Personal
thoughts
This film has a brilliant opening 3 minutes, packed
with factual texts, lots of conventions and uses every
technical element to its advantage to create a big
sympathetic impact onto to the audience. It helps set
the scene for the rest of the movie and gives the
audience a great understanding of the events that
happened in Somalia 1992.
