Case Study Once Upon a Time

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Case Study: Once upon atime in AmericaBy Louis Coles

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lighting When the lamp is turned on by Eve the light is a very yellowy

orange colour. his creates a calm !eeling" ma#ing the audiencesympathise that Eve is innocent" which in result turns usagainst the $detectives%.

Also the start o! the opening shows a good use o! chiaroscurolighting. his is when a minimum amount o! light is usedagainst a dar# scene to create suspense" you can see this typeo! lighting used a lot in &oir thrillers. We also see this beingused in the start o! Esse' Boys.

When the detectives appear they are standing around in thedar# where as Eve is standing ne't to the lamp (the light). hisalso gives the audience an understanding o! who is in the right*innocent and who is in the wrong* not innocent.

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lighting

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Cultural signi+ers Once upon a time, is usually used within !airy tales (which

tend to have happy endings). As this is used within the titleo! the +lm $Once -pon a ime in America%" we soon

understand that it is a sarcastic comment on what peoplethin# America was li#e compared to what it actually is.

 here is a song playing in the bac#ground o! the +rst clip o!the opening and it is $god bless America% this song wasabout how great the country was and shows that there was a

very patriarchy society at that time. Accents are also a big signi+er to what type o! culture we are

going to see and we uic#ly realise its /ueens American.

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costume We can tell by what Eve is wearing in the opening" that she is a

0emme !atale. his is a women who tends to be very attractive"wear lovely dress with pearl earrings and nec#laces. 1n manythrillers and other +lms the !emme !atale is led or +nds

themselves in dangerous situations. his gives us a hint that theopening is not going to go that well !or Eve.

 he other costumes that we see in the opening are the ones o! thedetectives. When the detectives appear !rom the dar#ness we seethat they are wearing the typical old American loo# o! a trilby hat

and an overcoat. 2etectives used to wear this type o! clothingwhen investigating crimes" !rom this the audience are set thin#ing

that a crime is going to be involved. We can see the samecostume being used in other thrillers such as $the third man%.

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Costumes

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sound diegetic sound is used a lot in the opening scene. his is

sounds that are heard by the characters on screen and aeseen on screen. 1n this opening we hear the smashing o! thepicture. his gives tells us that it is not a secret meeting" this

can re!er to the bigger picture and say that this type o! crimewas happening everywhere.

A!ter the con!ronting with Eve it changing to &oodles 1n aopium den. 3ere we see sound4bridges used" in this case it isthe phone ringing that lin# to noodles 5ashbac#s and bac# to

the current day. Other sounds such as the music right at the beginning $6od

bless America% shows the contrast between what people thin#America is li#e and what it actually is.