This scene being presented was taking place through the mise
en scene of Baltimore. This area is located within the United States of America
and is specifically known for being a place filled with poverty. We can
understand as an audience that Baltimore is poverty ridden by the artistic
props used with graffiti and garbage spread around the setting of the filming
and being made visible by the camera lens. The actors used were not all professionals
and many were simply members of the public who were willing to shoot for this
show. The majority of the actors are black raced. This show contained the most
black race in show history and had made the filming in relation to Baltimore to
be the most realistic as possible. The benefit of ‘The Wire’ using general
people from the street for actors was the great fact that their accents of
street talk was the strongest and less improvised.
The clip was indicating that their had been a drug problem,
this was first shown in the clip when one of the main actors was moving rather
slowly towards a fridge with many others standing around him, the slow motive
feeling was done to create more suspense and as the fridge was opened it was
made quite clear what sort of criminal act was taking place. Crime scenes can
also be emphasized by types of sounds used. In this short clip a diagetic sound
of the police vehicles sirens were heard. This may show that Baltimore has
either a lot of crime happening or this siren was in relation to the drug crime
which had recently occurred. Furthermore, there was another use of diagetic
sound which may have been enhanced for a more dramatic effect. The car tires
were making a loud screeching noise which was presenting the fired angry chasing officers who were after the criminals.
Different types of shots were used to portray different
perspectives of happenings. As police officers were barging through a closed door to
capture the criminals, at the beginning of the chase, the camera men were
filming the perspective behind them as if the audience are chasing the
criminals. This showed a feeling as if they are equal with them. As the chase gets more
intense the camera uses cross cutting to a perspective of the camera being in front
of the chase, this aspect may be indicating from the criminal’s eyes as the
police get closer, we see their anger driven faces and bold body language
attempting to attack and arrest the necessary people. Also, a dolly shot has
been used, when moving around one of the criminals, this important shot is used
to gather attention to the actor’s body language and how anxiety filled he was, looking around him in panic.
In addition, different camera angles were used. Then the
police had caught their criminals, many were on the knees with their arms
behind their backs. This position was shown with a higher camera angle. The
police who were standing by them alongside a few innocent people from the
public, from the lower angle of the criminals this now signifies that their
bold, powerful personalities have ceased and rapidly decreased due to the
positioning of themselves through their body language.
Symbolism has been used within this short clip. Time. Time
can mean several things but in this scenario, the prop of an object of a clock
was shown to the guilty criminals in the hands of someone who seemed rather
important. He looked as if he was hiding the clock from the officers but made
it clear to one of the criminals what he was holding. This could symbolize that
time was over, and that it is now late and the crime scene has come to an end.
Following this brief moment. A scene followed when a group of young boys were
running into a house, where it had gone from sunlight hours to dark really
quick, as they were gathered around a television, one of the boys had taken his
hat of whilst shrugging. This non verbal communication portrays that everything
is over with the day and has come to an end. Moreover, another use of symbolism has been used. One of the officers was holding a small mobile phone
The group of the boys were watching with great
concentration, a case on television which looked to be a type of conference.
Different shots were used. It commenced with a shot of the television from the actor’s
eye view, then it moved to the televisions view of the actors watching, then
lastly, the audience are taken to the live conference which was happening at
that moment in time. The jump sensation between the locations indicates that a
lot was going on in a small period of time. There was cross cutting between the
man providing the speech and some of the press who seemed to not be taking
matters so serious, there was smirking and giggling directed from one of the
women, this may be set of non verbal communication that symbolizes that she found the matters of the day not so serious
and rather humorous whereas the man holding his speech had a contrasting
opinion to her.
