Miami Vice Analysis

Having thought about ideas for our film, I knew of a film that had a similar scene to that, that we wanted to produce. The film was Miami Vice so I have analysed still images that I print screened.

This wide shot shows one group of gangsters already at the scene. This shot also sets part of the scene which is at night so it is dark with little lighting.

This is a sort of over the shoulder shot and a wide shot, although not directly behind them it sets the scene giving us a wider picture of the area they are in and shows a car pulling up. It also shows them in relation to the car and that they are looking at it.

Once the car has pulled up the characters get out of the car. It’s a mid shot of the car and as the people get out of the car, this is when we would use our still image introductions but have close ups of the characters.

This is an over the shoulder shot showing the people who just arrived and their view of the gang at the other end. We see the points of view of both groups of people and again showing us the part of the scene we hadn’t seen before.A wide mid shot shows other characters that have arrived again an opportunity for our freeze frame introductions.

Another wide shot shows the number comparisons between each group, the camera is also low and slightly looking up to give show the power of these people.

A wide mid shot shows two characters heading across to speak to the other gang. It shows the main people who are involved in the action.

An over the shoulder shot whilst speech is taking place sort of makes us feel we involved in the action just as if we standing behind the person speaking.

A close up is used for speech as well to establish this character.

Another over the shoulder shot shows the deal commencing. The over the shoulder shot is used a lot in these scenes. It allows us to see the big group all at once and also the other group moving over.

Firing begins with a mid shot of a man shooting.

A mid shot shows a prone shooter firing. It allows us to see the whole gun.

The two above stills show over the shoulder shots over men firing showing us what they are looking and shooting at this tries to involve the audience in the action.

Another mid shot of a shooter. What I notice is that the camera allows us to distinguish who is firing at whom by having one group’s guns all aiming to the right and the other group’s all shooting to the left. Which is good as the audience would not know the difference between the two due to lack of lighting and as their costumes are sort of similar.

The getaway has mid shot showing a man entering a car to drive off, showing there will be movement away from the scene.

In our own work we will use the over the shoulder and wide shots because they are good at establishing scenes and characters. We can use mid shots of the cars when they pull up just like in this scene.

Jordan