deconstruction of camera angles in Sicario

Deconstruction of Camera Angles in Sicario

 

Sicario is about An idealistic FBI agent is enlisted by a government task force to aid in the escalating war against drugs at the border area between the U.S. and Mexico.            

• The trailer opens with a high angle establishing shot of a desert housing estate which creates an enigma to why and where they are.

• This is followed by a close up of a characters face.
• Enigmatic as the facial expression of the character is a mixed of nervousness and self reflectance.
• Additionally, the close up shot shows a tiny bit of mise-en-scene of a armed police helmet, in sighting a restrictive narrative because the audience does know why she is wearing one. 

• Immediately after the close up it switches, through fasting editing, to a low angle long shot of an impoverished bedroom with the wall being blown up.
• This angles gives the sense they are observing the events unfoling rather than from either characters perspective, possible so they can make their own assumptions on the restrictive narrative.

• Through this low angle mid shot of the character from the beginning the audience can now see more of her mise-en-scene in the form of her full armed police uniform completed with a gun.
• The audience now know through is shot she belongs to a federal authority such as the police or FBI which should give her a sense of intangible empowerment.
• This mid shot and the framing of the mid shot makes her seem less powerful due to the angle the shot has been taken making her look vulnerable. 

• In this close up shot of the now established protagonist and a man wearing tinted glasses it creates enigma because it seems that the male is the person in power and she's inferior to him conforming common media conventions.
• Moreover, the fact the shot is from the outside of a car window that is not totally visible to could infer the characters are on a journey to disequilibrium rather than tranquillity.  

• This is another establishing shot of three police vehicles to reinstate the fact the protagonist is a member of federal authority.
•  However, the fact they are driving through a run down shanty town has connotations of the film being about drugs and or gangs, adding to the restrictive narrative.

• This close up of the protagonist creates disequilibrium as the shot shows her being in pain, back up by the blood running down her face in the shower.
• Additionally, this close up shows just how vulnerable female people and characters are in jobs that do not conform to social stereotypes, in doing so it creates enigma. 

• This close up of the protagonist creates disequilibrium as the shot shows her being strangled by male hands.
• It portrays this protagonist as vulnerable which is a common convention in this film genre.
• Additionally, this close up shows just how vulnerable female people and characters are in jobs that do not conform to social stereotypes, in doing so it creates enigma. 
• Could be symbolic for the social struggle of woman to succeed but the power of men oppress them.

• This long shot of the police is symbolic as the car is driving into an area of dark storm clouds which conveys they are on a road to disaster and disequilibrium and are isolated in their environment due to their status of being members of the police.
• Creates enigma because the audience do not know why or where the car is travelling.

Evaluation

• The trailer used a wide variety of shots that we should try and complete in our trailer.
• They all have significance and do not give huge chunks of the narrative away.
• With the different shots it enables the trailer to create enigma's and keep the narrative restricted which is a common convention is trailers that we need to conform to.