This particular piece of writing is going to be based on a film called Hotel Rwanda. This film is set in Rwanda and it shows the horrific lives of people during a Great civil War between the Hutus and the Tutsies. The director uses Non-digetic sounds and different camera angles to identify how the people of Rwanda’s perspective or point of view is shown. Hotel Rwanda was filmed and directed by Terry George. He used may non-digetic sounds as well as digetic sounds. The film is a documentary because of the fact that it does show how the people of Rwanda lived. Maybe there were some sounds from the effects but excluding all of that it is a sort of a documentary.
Our scene that we will be analyzing will be when Paul has been instructed to take the “river road” by George he takes it, because he trusts George even though he is the person ordering men to kill the “Tutsie Cockroaches”. So as they drove the van through the “River Road” the director has done an over the shoulder shot. Probably because he wants to view the fact that Paul and Thomas are having a conversation but also so he could see what they are seeing through the front window. While you watch this scene you will notice that the van is bumping over something not revealed because of the fog as they drive, this is because they cannot see where they are driving. There is also a mirror in the van which you will notice, this gives the audience a legitimate response, on the fact that there is no camera shown on the mirror.
After they drive through the misty road we see that Paul falls out from the shot but the camera is still kept from the shot. After this we witness the fact that we see his reaction before we see what actually is being seen by Paul’s wide eyes. By seeing his reaction first the director is trying to build suspense. So it makes the viewer wait for a longer time to know on what Paul is looking at. This makes you want to actually know what it is. By looking at his eyes it clearly horrifies him on what he sees. This really builds suspense because if the film finished like that, it would make a great cliffhanger. When we see the dead bodies which Paul sees in close up shot, we also hear a non-digetic sound. It was a kind of knife shin sound. now this really effects the scene because if there was no sound it would just be a dead body with silence. But the sound shows horror like it was a big surprise too the audience.
All comes too my conclusion is the fact that it is a documentary because it is all true but made up. A documentary with non-digetic sounds. A documentary would be too boring, by adding sound effects it builds suspense and horror. This really Enthasises that particular scene.
React!