Media Homework: How is tension and drama created through camera angles and camera shots in this extract form Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York?

For this task we was asked to watch a scene from Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York and we had to list camera angles that were used in the film and describe the effect of this on the audience.

How is tension and drama created through camera angles and camera shots in this extract form Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York?

Gangs of New York is a film based in 1863. It is about a man – Amsterdam Vallon who returns to the five points of America to seek vengeance against the psychotic gangland kingpin who murdered Vallon’s father years ago.

In “Gangs of New York” we see a vast spectrum of camera angles and shots used that create a lot of suspense and drama in the audiences mind.  In the opening scene of “Gangs of New York” we see a lot of interesting and diverse camera angles used. For example, we see an extreme close up of Priest Vallon’s opening his eyes – implying to the audience that the movie has begun, this extreme close-up then transitions to Vallon’s chin while he is piercing his cheek with an old, rusted, straight razor – implying that he may be symbolizing some form of trust that may be later shown in the film, because an extreme close-up was used – the audience can really capture the fine details of Vallon gently piercing his skin with the razor. There is then a close-up of Vallon’s son’s neck as Vallon gently places a medallion on his neck – implying that the medallion could be a family heirloom. Because a close-up was used the audience can really capture the detail in the medallion and this may be a symbolic way of Vallon’s strength and power that he will one day want to pass on to his son. There was also a mid-shot that transitioned into an extreme long shot to show the workers working very hard and to show the sheer amount of workers, because a mid shot was used – the audience can capture the workers sheer exhaustion. There was also a mid-shot of a large steel cross that Vallon was marching around with, the use of a mid-shot implies that the cross was rather large and instead of capturing the fine detail in it, the directors clearly chose to use a mid-shot to display the cross’ sheer size to the audience. When Vallon and his son was walking together, there was a close-up of Vallon clasping his sons hand to show that he will be there to protect his son – this implies to the audience that Vallon was a very compassionate and caring dad and that he was vey close to his son.

In the battle scene when the natives were battling the Irish gangs at the Five Points, there was a broad range of camera shots and angles that made this scene even more “heart-wrenching”, intense and gory. At the beginning of the battle scene we see an extreme long-shot transition into a mid-shot. This has been shown to show the sheer amounts of people battling from the different Irish gangs, but once it starts zooming into a mid-shot the audience can then see the members of the gangs brutally plunging knives into other gang members. From the mid-shot in this scene the audience can feel the emotions of the gang members battling and can see the hatred and disgust they have towards one and other. This scene also includes a long shot of Amsterdam Vallon (Priest Vallon’s son) and his peers watching the bloodshed unfold – the use of a mid-shot makes the children seem very vulnerable and helpless, thus this leaves questions running through the audiences mind such as ‘are the children going to be safe?’ ‘Have the children’s parents been killed in the battle?’ etc.  Within the fighting scenes there is a mid-shot of Bill “the butcher” slashing men’s faces and lacerating their legs, a mid-shot has been used in this scene as it is an action movement and the shot captures “the butchers” stance as he plunges the meat cleaver right into the gang member’s chest’s – this shot clearly tells the audience that “the butcher” has strong feelings of anger and pure hatred towards the other gang members.  Within the scenes of the gang members fighting, there is a mid shot of a man lying dead on the floor, within a pool of his crimson red blood that is staining the pale white plush snow.  The use of the mid-shot in this scene enables the audience to capture most of the subject and also enables the audience to see the pool of the man’s blood soaking into the snow. Within these scenes there is an over the shoulder shot of Amsterdam Vallon (Priest Vallon’s son) watching the battle unfold from afar, the use of an over the shoulder shot is to show the audience Amsterdam’s perspective/view of the battle, as Amsterdam’s dad was in the battle Amsterdam must have been looking from afar to see if he could pin point his dad to see if he has been hurt or killed, there is also a close up of Amsterdam’s face and the audience can see the sheer fear in his eyes that he may never see his dad again.