There was a still camera used with a medium angle, just behind the ropes of the ring, in a way I felt I was part of the audience. I also believe that the director tried to show importance in the scene by not using a selective focus but also using smoke and mist. The director covered the audience with smoke to show that this movie is about this important boxer. We can just see a few faces behind the ring, however you cannot distinguish who they are. The smoke however also creates an atmosphere (historic, legendary), that this man is like a Japanese warrior fighting not for money but for honour. This was almost like a still picture, the overhead lights’ rays were visualised by the smoke, the frequent flashing of the cameras created the mood in this scene.
The intro is obviously where the cast, the directors, the producers and the helpers are shown. I realised that the “RAGING BULL” was shown on the top rope all capped and coloured in red, while the boxer on the left was looking at the title. Red signifies danger and problems. The all caps signifies how important this story is. The cast were all shown on the rope below, which signified that the main focus was the RAGING BULL himself, the boxer.
These factors made this scene and the boxer look so important. It made me (audience) feel the historic and legendary moment. The director really controlled me in that scene specially when he used a dissolve in the end of the intro.
SCENE 2
This second scene is also filmed in black and white stock. I believe the director did that to connote to the audience that this is a piece of history and it was a very important and crucial part of the boxer’s life.
There was a lot of sound involved in this scene. The sound bridges and non-diegetic sounds were the of the shouts of the crowd, the commentary and the camera flashing. The commentary was used to feed the audience (us), it informed me that the boxer (di nero) did not lost any fight. So I felt the commentary was very important in that scene. The camera flashing and the shouting of the crowd made it feel and look real. The diegetic sounds I noticed were the ringing of the bell, the swinging of the punches, the referee counting the other boxer out, the impact of when the other boxer’s body hits the ground, when the trainers talk to the boxers, the screams of the crowd when the fight between the crowd occurs and the sound of di nero shouting confidence in the end. All of these were used to make the scene look at real as possible. There was no soundtrack played in the second scene, because I feel the director wanted to transports us, he wanted us to be part of the action. The director tried to make it as real as possible.
The mise en scene created an atmosphere as well. The setting was at an arena which contained a ring. There was a lot of audience in the arena which showed that this was an important fight. There was a lot of old fashioned suits (1940’s) and popcorns which was being eaten by the audience. The crowd got involved at one point of the scene where two people had a brawl. The fighters were both wearing boxing shorts, boxing gloves and boxing boots with mouth guards on. The trainers had training shirts on with the name of the boxer on the shirts, they also had water and towels for their fighters. In the first round the adversary looked dominant, with his scary expression that made me feel the punches. However di nero did not looked scared, it looked like he was used to it, or as if it was part of his routine to be punched like that. However in the second round, the roles switched, the opponent lost control and I began to see how fearful he looked. Di nero looked like a raging bull, full of passion and scary expressions. In the first round the opponent was moving freely in the ring, this signifies he was in control. In the second round Di Nero was moving better and more freely which showed that he was in control. However he looked disgusted when the fight was won by the opponent. At the end of the second round we see Di Nero happy and confident that he won the fight, in the other end we see the opponent suffering not being able to open an eye, which showed that although Di Nero lost the fight overall, he won the mental and physical fight. The mise en scene created an atmosphere, it made me feel the action during the fight.
Editing played a big role in this scene. I noticed two styles of editing used in this scene; straight cuts and jumps. To me the speed of the straight cut depended on the action. For example at the start of the first round, there was silence around the arena and it was a long picture before there was a cut. However I can rely on the swinging of the punches. For example the director used cuts at each swing which intensified the moments. It made the action look faster and made the audience sit at the edge of their seats. I conclude that the use of straight cuts are clever, because if we look at a modern boxing match, there wouldn’t be any cuts because first it is live and there is not enough cameras. So you would enjoy the edited version with a lot of cuts because there is more suspense involved. I noticed some jump cuts when there was a break at the end of the first round, where the camera jumped from the centre of the ring to a close up of the boxers and their trainers. However the main use of editing was straight cut editing which depended on the swing of punches.
I noticed a lot of techniques used in terms of camera framing and movement. There was a lot of POV framings used, for example when Di Nero was dominating the opponent in the second round we were continuously being put in the opponent’s POV. I believe that through out the fight we were being put in the referee’s POV, not always though. There was a lot of manual movement to fortify that we were being put in the referee’s shoes. I noticed a low angle shot when Di Nero knocks his opponent out during the second round. The signifies the power of Di Nero and how much strength he holds. Also there was a crane shot at the same time, to show that this was a historic, vital moment of this fight. I also noticed that when there was a low angle shot when the opponent was being counted out which shows his weakness and how low he is. There was close-ups used when the boxers where punching each other, this showed the emotions of the boxers during those punches. It made see how they felt at that specific time. Through out most of the fight we were put in the eye level of the boxers. We felt like we were in the ring and part of the action.
I noticed a few other things which I felt were also important. The darkening of the audience during the fight showed that they were not important and that the director wanted us to focus on the fight. I realised that the sound during the brawl in the audience was loud, and there was a use of low key lighting, which showed how intense and important this game is, that even the crowd got involved. There was silence at the start of the final round which signified how crucial and important this final round is. I realised that there was smoke behind that opponent’s head during the break, which could signify that he was the bad one.
I conclude that these five important factors were used to create atmospheres and to connote to the audience what is the situation.