At start of the film the shots are close up to the Robin seating on the branch. A Robin has connotations of winter and morning, as this is the time when the Robins usually come out and bird is a symbol of freedom. We then return to the shot of the main character; we see facial expression as he smiles, we assume that he is smiling untroubled at this bird. At the background there is Spanish music that has the fact been played tells us he is Spanish. The music is played in parallel in this scene, which makes it more realistic. After a while we have a crane shot as the Horses come marching in. From this shot we see the scenery this sets the scene and shows us where we are. It emphasis the army and how many people there are. During this scene non-dialectic sounds start to build up with the dialectic sound. The Horses galloping into the building the dramatic atmosphere, as the Music gets aggressive. The next shot we see is from behind the Romans Army, which suggests that we (Audience) are on their side. The Romans army are lined up in shiny armour, which shows that they are civilized. Whereas the Barbarians Army come running out of the forest without any stragedy making noise reflects animal behaviour which shows that they aren’t civilized. Before the fight begins between Maximus and Commodus, Commodus shows affection by hugging him this shows that Commodus wants to become the good man in the publics (us) eyes. Maximus at this point is very upset and doesn’t care all he wanted to do is take revenge and do the last words of Marcus Aeurileus. As the battle starts the camera dollies cut fourth and back from the ground view and which puts the audience right in front of the seats of the arena this is to give a variety of shots in the fighting scene and fast pace this is so that the audience can be involved in the fight. It also shows the fighter’s perspective to the fight all thought this scene have some slow motion other camera shots blurred and others normal speed. This is because whenever any of those happened it was always seen in Maximus view and so Maximus is beginning to die and would be seeing things at different speed. The fight is fast paced and the camera angles vary lots of times in a very short space of time to make it look exciting then it actually was. The only sound we hear is only sharp blades clashing the camera cuts to Maximus side once again more to show that he dying and is almost dead. The director here wants the audience to feel sorry for Maximus. As the camera spins around the coliseum silence breaks this is to give the effect that everyone is watching and reflecting on the Emperor’s death. The music starts very slowly and start to build up this is to tell us that the fight has finished. The director uses colour, music and camera shots in the battle scene. He then uses grey and blue and dark red colours. This is used to represent winter, which is a contrast of the dream scene. It also shows that the Roman army have colour uniform, which shows that the Roman army is well organized and prepared. Another colour the director also used to show that the Roman army was well organized and prepared was yellow. The colour was also used to fire trenches for lighting arrows and firing arrows and for lighting artillery. The reddish yellow was another colour the director used to fire through the trees and to show victory for Roman army. In the battle scene the music is fat and symphonic which, means it uses lots of different Instruments. There is also percussion instrument in this scene such as Drums. This part in the scene is totally opposite to the dream scene because the dream scene has slow and soft music whereas the battle scene has fast music. Also when there is a slow motion scene in the battle, then the music also goes down and quite. The director uses costumes and props used in the scene and the mood of the scene is conveyed well by showing the audience that the men are dressed for war. They are wearing leather armour and they have their weapon lowered as the man who is presumably a soldier walks past shows a sign of respect, showing that he is important all highly regarded by them. The men are dressed in mainly dark colours, which compliments by the dark lighting atmosphere. There are also splashes of red colour, which stands out against the grey, black, and brown of the warriors and the winter sky. The red also represents the blood spilled in the battle and also represents danger and fear. The background of the scene of him walking past all the warriors is various men galloping horses, creating the sense of tension and urgency. The sound is also a large part of the film and is one of the most important factors that creates the atmosphere in the film.
