How is meaning presented in 'The Wire'?

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.