Binary Opposites and Barthes Film Opening Analysis

I will be analysing the opening to the film 'The Prestige'. I analysed roughly the first five minutes of the film.


Binary Opposites:

• The small room and the large theatre
• The small trick with the bird and the massive, elaborate illusion
• Old and young (people)
• Simple and expensive clothing
• Male and female
• The old-fashioned setting and the "modern, scientific electricity" used in the illusion
• The light room and the darkness backstage
• The small cage and the massive machine
• The bird and the magician (the subject of each trick)
• Simple v elaborate
• Noise v quiet
• Cold v warm colours (water and electricity v lamp light and warm colours in opening room)

Roland Barthes' Five Codes:


ENIGMA CODE:

• What are the top hats on the ground doing there? What is their relevance to the plot?
• "Are you watching closely?" What does this mean?
• Who is the little girl?
• Who is the magician?
• What is the big machine? What does it do?
• What is the relationship between Angier and Borden?
• Did Borden let Angier drown? Did he murder him?
• Was Borden charged for Angier's murder?
• What will happen to the little girl?

ACTION CODE:

• Flattening the cage (killing the bird?)
• Angier taking off jacket - what is he about to do?
• Stepping into electrical field
• Water tank locking - will he get out?
• Borden putting hand against water tank
• Wave between Borden and little girl

SEMIOTIC CODE:

• Top hats connote magic tricks - pulling something out of the hat
• Clothing signifies Victorian era
• Suit - rich, successful
• Dark, gloomy - mysterious
• Electricity/lightning - danger, electrocution
• Warm colours connote comfort, safety
• Wave between Borden and girl suggests that he is her father
• Shackles - he is the one being charged
• Drumming fingers, fidgeting - impatience

CULTURAL CODE:

• Builds on our basic understanding of magic and illusions
• We can link the clothing to the Victorian era
• Court scene - Borden is the one being charged
• People on stage checking the magic apparatus - standard procedure

SYMBOLIC CODE:

• Top hats symbolise the mystery to come
• The small bird represents the victim in the magic trick - the place taken by Angier in his own illusion, where he drowns/begins to drown.
• Little girl represents the audience

Photo Reflections

The photograph that I have taken is a mid-shot and represents the thriller genre. I think that this represents the thriller genre because of its use of lighting. The actor in the shot is half hidden in shadow, signifying that he is concealing something, and the darkness of his clothing and hair contrasts with the bright, natural light directly behind him. The pose of the actor is also very typical of the genre. The clawed hand has an evil, monster-like quality to it, and the fact that the actor is looking towards something we can't see makes us wonder who he could be hiding from/spying on.

To achieve these effects I made sure to shoot this photo from a slight high angle in order to make the actor look more hidden and concealed. I zoomed in and made sure not to leave too much space to the right of the actor to achieve this effect. As for the framing, the shot is wide enough to give the audience a little bit of knowledge about the setting, but close enough for them to be drawn into the actor's expression. I also wanted to make the hand very dominant in the foreground of the shot to emphasise the menacing quality of it.

I think that the actor's pose works very successfully with what genre I was attempting to portray, but if I were to retake this shot, I would make sure that the actor wasn't wearing anything other than the colour black, as the green watch distracts from the rest of the shot. I would also try to change the lighting on the actor's face; perhaps by having a light just to the right of the frame to cast the left half of the actor's face into a stronger shadow.

This excercise was useful as our opening sequence movie idea will be, or have elements of, the thriller genre.