Clip A: This clip begins with an establishing shot of the group with a long shot so the viewer is able to see all of the characters. The lighting also begins as a soft light with some back lighting from the lights in the room, above the actors at the poker table and a few behind them. The camera then continues to show medium shots of the actors while they play cards. When the director wants the viewer to see the game as they are playing, they use a close-up of the cards and medium shots to convey the game being played. The entire scene seems to be shot on a steadicam. There is no shaky camera movement and no tilts or pans of the actors, making me believe the whole scene is shot on a steadicam. When George Cloony's character comes to play poker, there seems to be more medium shots of each actor, then a few long shots to get two or more actors in the frame. For this clip, I believe the reason there are so many medium shots, especially of the actors, is because the director wants us to get an idea of what the actors are thinking during the poker game and how they feel after each move. I also believe that the reason it is so dark throughout the clip is to give it a sense of mystery. Especially when George Cloony's character appears. There seems to be a lot of hard light on the actors and the backlight is very dark to convey that sense of mystery of what is happening or going to happen later in the film.
Clip C: The scene begins with a long shot to convey the setting while the police men crouch down outside the house and get ready to enter. When we move into the house, there is an extreme close-up shot of the main characters eyes as he looks at what seems to be a bug. The lighting is very dark inside the house with a lot of low-key soft light and bright light from he outside where the police are. I think the director purposefully does this with the lighting to convey who is good and who is evil. We as the viewer can clearly see that the police are good because they are in such bright light, and the man in the house is evil because of all of the dark light. At the end of the clip, the viewer is meant to believe that the police officers had broken into the wrong house because no one was home at the house they broke into. This shows that the director is using restricted narration. I believe the director uses this because they want the audience to have a sense that they know what is happening in the film but there are many twists and turns and the audience will never truly know which direction the film is going in.
Clip D: The scene begins with a long-shot of clouds with a statistic to be read. Then moves into a long-shot of two actors running out of the rain and into a building. The lighting in the building throughout the entire scene is soft-light and low-key light to possibly convey a sense of mystery as to where the actors are and what is occurring. As the actors move from place to place, the camera seems to be put on a tracking/dolly with no cuts or edits to show that it is simply one entire scene, and it is a long take. Throughout the long take, the camera shot is always at a medium shot only showing the actors from the waist up. I think the scene is done in this way because the director wants to convey how many things are going on at one time in this company. They want to show how busy and crazy it can be at this company.
Clip E: The scene from Amadeus begins with a medium shot of the one older character in the wheel chair talking about music with a priest who is established in another medium shot. As the characters are discussing music the viewer may notice the lighting which is soft and low-key to possibly convey a sense of sadness. As the scene moves to the opera, it is a long shot of the scene as the singer is walking down the stairs eventually moving into a medium shot of the conductor. As the audience is clapping when the song is done the scene quickly cuts back to the old man in the wheel chair like he is hearing the clapping from the audience and taking in their praise like it was the first time he had heard it. I think the director chooses to do the scene in this fashion because he possibly wants to give the audience a sense of sympathy for the older sick man and give light to the career he had. Although, when the older man is playing his tunes from his operas and the priest does not recognize them then begins to play one of Mozart's pieces, and the priest knows the tune. This gives the audience a sense of wonder of what the movie is truly going to be about. Not the career of the old sick man, but Amadeus Mozart.
