Titanic And The Techniques Used In The Film

Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Number: Date: Titanic and the techniques used in the film. Titanic is an epic romance film with numerous depictions of the history and authenticity of the time it was created. The film was released by 1997. It was created, co-written, written and directed by James Cameron, the renowned film maker whose directing expertise is extended to the film, Avatar. Brearton states that the historical aspect of the film is that it is an adoption of the tragic historical event of the sinking of RMS Titanic in 1912 (120). The creators and developers of the film have employed several techniques of film making as well as numerous aspects of film language that will be discussed in this paper. Although Titanic describes the real tragic historical event of 1912, its subject matter and moral lesson lies in the romantic expedition and the fictional love story of two members of the cruise ship represented by actors playing the characters of Jack and Rose. The film shows the message of love evident in in the Heart of the Ocean diamond and the growing love between Jack and Rose as well (Brearton 123). Also, in the film, the rich are depicted as being unable to love since a character known as Ruth would prefer that her child would live a loveless life but Jack and Rose prove that love is way more important than any amount of riches. Secondly, there is the message of class and status in the film since there is a clear line between the rich and the poor when Cameron shows how Rose, from a wealthy environment nearly kills herself then later falls in love with Jack, from a poor state of life. Finally, Brearton states that the film also contains the message of time, symbolized by the clock, the power of the male gender symbolized by the power of the large cruise ship, the message of greed shown by most of the characters on board and lastly the message of loss when the ship sinks, claiming over a thousand lives (126). The film is made using several techniques of film making. This first part covers the cinematography of the film where certain aspects of the classical Hollywood style and cinema. In the first section of the film, Cameron uses the technique of panning, a wide shot to draw the viewer in to the scene then moves at a fixed position to show the viewer the normal activities going on around the area (Bordwell & Thompson 127). Then, the director uses a long shot to show the viewer the actual size of the ship as well as different camera angles within the same shot to create an effect and establish the background of the actor and actress in the film. In addition, a wide angle shot was employed in the scene where jack is playing the game of cards along the window of the bar in order to show a perfect background where Titanic can be perceived through the window. The shots in the film are high density each lasting for approximately five seconds while the last shot takes a much longer time to fit the general length and the story of the film. Finally, there is a significant use of denotation and connotation while the film appreciates modernity in its filming process when it uses shot or reverse-shot followed by a skillful axis action and fades for instance when Rose finishes her entire narration (Bordwell & Thompson). The aspect of Mise-en-scene is also used in the film. This technique refers what the audience are shown in the film including the actors and actresses (McIntyre 420). This is revealed using the lighting system used in the film and in Titanic, there are several different types of lighting depending on both the overall film and specific scenes and from an analysis on Titanic, the kind of lighting used can be termed as low-key. This is the type of lighting used in films that contain scenes and concepts of drama, mystery and horror. The film contains several aspects of intensity and drama such as in the scene where the fiancé is chasing down Jack and Rose, the part where Rose cries explaining her story to Jack and the scene when the shit hits the iceberg causing it to sink as well as the tragic death of people on board among several other scenes. This type of lighting is important in the film because, basically, low-key lighting contains notions of shadows that definitely manifest aspects of drama using drama...