Wallander- Analysis

Wallander

Cinematography-
At the beginning of the film Wallander, it starts with an extreme close up of the sea water, this shot very much looks like a black out. However it pans out slowly and tracks across the sea water to the land. At this point the viewers have the knowledge that this scene is an isolated lonely place to be. Its a shot with fields. There are two characters walking away from a car, shot after this is a close up of two girls who look like they are in their mid teens. At first they looked as they are just walking through the fields, however the close up shot in the car gave it away that someone has been killed and it may be the two girls. There is blood scattered over the car window, there is the man’s head on the bottom left on the frame. There is an over the shoulder of the two girls and this shot is also a tracking shot. After there is a mid shot of the main character, which gets out of his car, he looks like he is a police man. There is a shot reverse shot of him and police women. There is a point of view shot from the two girls who are leaving the scene they look directly to the man. The next scene there is close- ups of the actors in the interviewing room.

Mise-en-scene-

The mise-en-scene of the opening sequence, there is blood scattered on the car window and the two girls. The whole scene looked cold and doll due to many factors such as the clouds in the sky was dark grey this expressed a horrible feeling as an audience. However if it was a nice bright day it would express a happier, nice atmosphere. The setting of the place seems to be set in an isolated place, seems no one really goes. The props used in the scene also reflect some stereotypical thoughts that might come into the viewers mind. Such as one of the girl, was wearing a hood type jumper and a t-shirt. This straight away gave the image of ‘chav’ and uneducated girls who may be from the council estate.

Editing

The editing for Wallander is well composed; each of the shots runs very smoothly. The transitions at point were the camera is tracking at the start is covered by fast, scratchy sound which plays when the transition happens. There is the shot reverse shot used when the two police are talking. Also the main editing is just before the title, the technique match on action is used where the knife is dropped and it transforms into the letters of the film.

Sound

Sound is very important in a film, at the start of Wallander there is a low pitch sound which is non-die-getic it expresses fear, and danger its very mysterious. After this there is hyperbolic sound used to emphasise the two girls breathing which is loud and continuous. This sound affect makes the audience think what has happened and why? When the knife was dropped there was also a loud exaggerated sound of the knife being dropped. This sound affect is the transition into the next shot which was the titles.