Next Best Step for Film Language Essay - Rewrite of my Second Paragraph which includes full stops and Information about Editing

I Am Legend

     The cinematography used within the opening of the extract is first shown in a long shot which then converts into a close-up shot of the protagonist. Due to the director having mixed these two shots together and using them as a combination the audience are able to see the main character's facial expressions in relation to what he is seeing and are able to see how he is reacting to what they see. For example, right at the beginning of the extract there is a long shot of one of the mutant-like creatures banging himself against a glass door which has been shown to the audience as we see that he wants to gain access to the man standing behind that door, this long shot then cuts to a close-up shot of the protagonist's face where we see that he is some what scared of the creature but sort of understands what it wants. In association to this is the non-diegetic parallel sound being played in the background which has come in the form of a music soundtrack with a type of haunting melody to it, with us being the audience and by listening to this we will notice that although we can see some of the actors' lips moving we cannot hear anything they are saying. This is most notable at 0:14 - 0:19 seconds where we can see that the female is holding the little boy and telling him to "shush", to the audience this gives off the effect that they are scared and don't know as of yet what is going to become of them. A straight cut has been used throughout the beginning of the extract which allows the audience to see that the ending of this film if not the whole thing has been continued on by linking the different shots used together to appear as though this part of the film has a continuous flow within it. The purpose of the director using this type of editing technique was possibly to allow the audience to be further led on into the ending of the film and to see for themselves how this type of edit will develop the narrative. Another reason as to why the director may have done this is because they wanted to show the audience how the use of this film technique builds up to the climax. It appears that there has been a jump cut used at 1:42 seconds - 1:46 seconds because from 1:42 seconds to about 1:45 seconds we are shown that the protagonist is taking a hand grenade out of a drawer, the big close-up shot of this then cuts to one of the mutants banging himself against the glass door. If the audience looks quickly we will see that at 1:46 seconds the protagonist is looking at the mutants, we do not see him put his head up in order to look; this is where the jump cut has been used. The reason as to why the director may have done this is because they did not want this shot to last longer than necessary, they most likely just wanted the audience to see the protagonist take the grenade out of the drawer and look straight at the mutants which has an affect on the audience that we know what the protagonist is going to do and cannot wait any longer for him to do it.