Into The Wild (City Scene) Remake version

First we see Alexander crawling through a hole to get to the city, well I would make him jump over a fence to get to the other side because it looks more rebel and it looks like he’s actually running away. I would have a crane shot starting off low then following and looking at him on a side profile angle then the camera swivelling to look over at the city. Next instead of seeing the low angle shots of the buildings I would have an aerial shot of the buildings then a close up of Alexander’s face depressed and shocked. Then low angle shots of the buildings. I would keep him walking down the street listening to the chaos in the background then a slow 360 degree pan looking up and around at the skyscrapers. Now instead of Alex asking for the times I would have him look into a clock shop to see the time then look up to this lonely old guy fixing watches, then back to MCU of Alex as he walks away. The music I would keep the same at the moment because that piece of music also goes with other scenes and is the main piece of music that goes with the film. I would also keep the part where it changes to dark and we see Alex crossing the road to the city mission place. I would start off with a slow and low move back track of people’s feet before seeing tracking of everyone’s faces and the city mission sign. Also the lighting is great for this part because it give an airy sort of feeling. I would also make the main character look a little bit more scruffy and dirty and maybe a couple of scars in his arms and tears on his bag. When Alex is talking to the lady about losing his ID well we keep seeing the same three shots repeated why not chuck in a couple close ups of the lady writing his name and a side shot rather than switching between people with the same shot. All the lines that are being told I would keep because we need to follow the story. I don’t like the shot where they use the camera as if someone is watching him and the camera isn’t steady, it does not suite that part in the scene even if their are a lot of people around. Its a little bit distracting when you hear something drop in the background your concentration is instantly disrupted which is why I think that part is not entirely necessary. I part where he moves past the bunk bed I would take out and just have the shot of a close up when he puts his gear in a locker and locks it. I really like the editing when we see other people freeze when Alex looks at him, it is a well used technique to capture the audience and background sounds makes it even more freaky. I would change the music and make it louder and sharper to not only scare the audience but to give them the full intensity of Alex’s emotions. I like the low shutter speed used by the camera to give the effect that Alex is seeing but with these shots I reckon it should start off out of focus then come in focus with the low shutter speed to give a more accurate feeling. I think it would look more interesting if we saw police cars in the tunnel rather than a boring car and he should be walking along a bridge as well with a high shot zooming into him, Alex looks up and the shot freezes. The slow motion talk and laughter is greatly used which I would keep but I would have a more intimate moment when Alex sees him as that person. Instead of Alex sitting down and looking, I would have him walking past that guy which is having a drink and Alex would accidently knock it over then a freeze frame then him as that person smiling and saying waiter another please as if he could have been wealthy. I like the echoes of people’s voices which also gives a scary feeling. Instead of a side tracking shot as Alex suddenly leaves the city mission place, I would have the tracking shot low looking at his bag then moving up and around to the front of Alex to show him leaving and the lady at reception speaking. Far more interesting than just a plain tracking shot. At the end I would have a fully out of focus shot of the city then a quick cut to Alex’s face. Then an extreme close-up as a tear drips off his face. I would keep the silhouette part of him as he walks off into the distance.

So that’s how I would change the scene.

Into The Wild Language Elements

Background Music- This technique is used in the film ‘Into the Wild’ (2007) by Sean Penn to affect and create emotion amongst the audience during the scene. The background music is very soft and slow melody music. This type of background music is only two instruments playing only a couple of slow notes which drag on. This has been used to make the scene seem sad and emotional with a repeating soft tone. The effectiveness of the background music is to bring out your emotions and so you start to feel and experience just what the main character and his sister is going through. Also the soft melody makes you think more about the character and his life; you begin to want to know more because you are feeling sadness inside because you’re not sure on his outcome. Without background music you would not feel those sad emotions that the filmmakers want you to experience, otherwise the audience may not feel as if they are part of the story and may not think that it is an important part in the scene which talks about the main character. The impact on the audience from the background music is that they feel the characters emotions and thoughts because with the soft music running through your head you think about the film more and what’s happening. The audience is also able to concentrate more on the scene because their emotions are fixed on allowing them to be able to relate to the issues being stated by the voiceover.

Natural Light- This technique is used in the film ‘Into the Wild’ (2007) by Sean Penn to avoid heavy shadowing which causes the audience to not see the characters face and also can create a flat appearance in the shot. Natural light is used to increase visual appearance through the scene, allowing the audience to clearly see the character and the environmental backgrounds and attractions which the main actor travels through during this scene. The element of natural light has also been used to portray emotion, like the sky really light and blue with puffy white clouds or the dull and grey light in this rocky mountain. The natural light has also been used while the main character walks in the dark; the natural light comes from the lamp posts and shines on him allowing him and his actions to be seen clearly. The effectiveness of natural light gives an impression of hope, freedom and sadness. Like when the main character is climbing down the waterfall into a half cave area the light fades but when he looks into the distance the light shines brightly as it seems to have done mostly throughout the scene. Natural light also draws the main attention towards the moving object which in this case is the main character because during the scene he is being spoken about. The impact on the audience through natural light is they are able to fully experience the wonderful and vast environments that the main character goes through. This also allows the audience to see emotions and gestures clearly as well light also represents happiness. So even through sadness the audience can still experience happiness. This can be seen when the main character (Christopher) is by a lake throwing rocks in, the light is strong representing his freedom which the audience is able to see.

Panning- This technique is used in the film ‘Into the Wild’ (2007) by Sean Penn to swivel the camera slow or fast to give a sweeping view of an area or place. Panning is used to make a shot less boring and make a shot more interesting by giving the viewer more to see and showing more of an area in one shot. Panning is also used to flow with the pace of the scene by taking a small area and making it longer in a shot. The element of panning has been used as a follow technique as the main character walks across the vast countryside. We see panning being used to show the audience the large environments as the main character walks on. It has also been used as a flow between shots allowing for shots to fade in slowly and easily. This is shown when we notice the main characters family pictures, we see close up panning first to the right, then fading into panning to the left. This is a great use of panning during the scene as it is not too slow or fast, just nice and smooth keeping pace with the speaking and the cutting between shots. The effectiveness of panning is to drag out a shot as long as possible, like the waterfall shot, the camera pans from high to low then back across showing every inch and detail of the environment. The panning is mainly slow because it’s going with the music and how fast the speaking is. Panning also helps to create emotion in the audience by taking an awesome shot and seeing how long you can make that shot last and that emotion last. An example of this is when Christopher is walking down in this open cave with the river flowing, the panning moves around a lot as if to make the experience feel longer and with the voiceover, light and background music all connecting means that panning holds the audiences emotions longer.

Background Noise- This technique is used in the film ‘Into the Wild’ (2007) by Sean Penn to create atmosphere in the scene and to let the audience know what kind of area the character is at. For example when Christopher is burying his books, a train passes by which tells the audience that he is near a railway, otherwise if no train passes the audience has no idea where he is and it just becomes a random part in the film. This element has been used to show the audience what is happening in the background of each shot and also allows the audience to know where the character is and the location/ environment in which the characters are placed. An example of this is when Christopher is by a lake and you can hear the bird’s chirping and the buzzing of bugs then the splash of water as he throws a rock. This all lets the audience know what season it is, most likely summer and his location which is somewhere in the forest. This element has also been used to make the audience feel as if they are in that environment themselves because everywhere you go there is always background noise, like cars driving by in town or cicadas buzzing loudly in the bush. The effectiveness of background noise is also to capture the audiences emotions like happiness, I mean if you hear cars in the background during a shot of a lake and bush it kind of defeats the purpose because then the audience could change moods. Also in the half cave we hear the waterfall gushing down and the soft flow of water going downstream in a quiet tone, not overpowering the speaker. This creates relaxing feelings so you are able to understand clearly what is being spoken and the audience does not become distracted.

Depth of Field- This technique is used in the film ‘Into the Wild’ (2007) by Sean Penn to make an object in the front or back of a shot in focus and the rest out of focus. This is only used very quickly in a shot but can be switched multiple times in a shot between characters to give either suspense or to make a shot more interesting. This element has been used so the audience focuses on the main character rather than the background, which could be a distraction. For example when Christopher is swinging between these poles at night, the pole is in focus and Chris is out of focus. This technique has been used as a guide for our eye, our eye always focuses on the in focus image first but with the main character moving we look in that direction. This has also been used as an effect to show the main characters mind wandering. The effectiveness of this element is to show a sense of mystery and suspense in the shots of the scene. It shows suspense and mystery because when we first see a shot with this technique being used all we see is part of the shot out of focus, whether the character, or for example when we see the main characters family photos the shot start off out of focus but quickly becomes in focus. This is done to portray what Christopher’s life uses to be like; by using that in/out focus technique we get suspense which captures the audience’s attention. The impact on the audience is keeping them focused on the story and the main character. If everything is in shot and in focus then we tend to look at everything first and then come back to a characters conversation. Our minds wander so keeping an audience’s attention can be difficult unless you use the depth of field technique to show important parts of a scene.

Voiceover- The voiceover is his sister describing his life and his and his emotions about his parents which in turn has lead to him wanting to leave his old life and start a new one. The voiceover is also very poetic. This is done to describe him in the best way possible by giving the audience a better outlook of Chris’s state of mind and his reasons for running away. The audience is being informed and being given more information on why he is running away. His sister also talks about their parents and how they have become bastard children.

Language Features

Editing- The editing of the last scene of into the wild picked up in pace when we see Alexander, the main character is getting ready to die. When he looks up to the sky the heart beat starts to occur then cutting between shots happens fast. We see him then the blue sky cutting between each other to keep the audience occupied and to also show him in an alternative ending with his parents but still cutting towards the sky because he really still wants to be in the wild. The editing slows down as the heartbeat increases faster and faster until it stops. All we see is Alexander laying their dead with no music and no heartbeat. This is to show shock and sadness to the audience.

Moving camera shots- In the last scene of the movie into the wild when we see the main character dying. In this scene every camera shot is moving. This is first shown as he is looking into the sky the camera shot is looking down at him and spinning around slowing getting closer to his face. Same happens to the sky the camera shot is moving in a different direction every time going up down across, zooming in and out. This is done to show what the main character is feeling, he is losing is mind because of the pain that he is experiencing. Once he dies the camera shot starts off as a close up and then starts to move out from his face and into the sky. This is done to tell the viewers that he has passed away and the film is ending.

Music & Sound- The music in the last scene of the film ‘into the wild’ is soft and slow because the main character is dying. The orchestra music makes the audience feel sad and emotional because of his suffering. As the music fades we know that his life is coming to an end. We now hear a heavy heartbeat which is the main sound. This is to represent how long he has left to live; it’s just a waiting game. When the heartbeat gets faster and faster the audience prepares themselves for his death which happens. We then have silence, no music, no sound just silence for 10 seconds. This is to get the audience to feel shocked with disbelief. But when the music picks up with an acoustic guitar song, the audience gets a sad but happy feeling because he died doing what he loved and died a happy person.

Camera angles- The camera angles in the last scene of film ‘into the wild’ are mostly shown high. We first see this when the main character is lying down the camera angle is looking above him towards his face. This is done to show his expressions but also to show our last main look at the character before he dies. The camera angle also gives us his point of view into the show, this represents hope and freedom, they are the last things that he tries to grab onto. That is why we see plenty of blue sky. When he dies the camera angle slowly goes away from him and away from his location as if leaving him in peace in his happy place.