Senor Love Daddy And The First Scene example essay topic

The first scene begins with a close up shot of Senor Love Daddy's mouth, the top of a microphone, and an alarm clock. The alarm clock, being used as a prop, is making a very loud, annoying, ringing sound. This is done in order to get the viewers attention to the problem of racism. After the ringing stops, we start re framing in, and zooming out slowly, seeing more of Senor Love Daddy and the microphone. There is hard lighting present in the scene. The entire shot has a reddish color to it.

A slow zoom and the reddish color are used to show the viewer how hot the setting of the movie is. The color also reflects tension, conflict, anger, and frustration, things that are not being expressed in the film yet. As we are zooming out, Senor Love Daddy says 'Wake up, wake up, wake up... ' This part of the scene is also is intended to get the viewers attention to the problem of racism. The foreground and some of the middle ground are in shallow focus. This is a get in your face type of shot, letting the viewer know that this movie will be in your face for the next two hours and that the viewer better pay attention to the problem at hand: racism.

This shot is solely for the viewers, to get their attention. We stop zooming out once we see the whole microphone. At that point, we start tracking out and the camera starts moving slowly up, via a crane. We now see the reflection of the street outside Senor Love Daddy's workplace, on the glass window Senor Love Daddy is facing.

We also see hats of many different cultures sitting Senor Love Daddy's desk. This shows that he respects many different cultures and shows he is a very open person. Also Senor Love Daddy's workplace is street level. He talks to all the characters in the movie like Mookie, Radio Rheem, and the people playing outside with the fire hydrant. This shows he is willing to communicate with the neighborhood and also show once again that he is a very open person.

He is always looking outside the window at the community. Senor Love Daddy is not hiding from anybody. He is the voice of the neighborhood. The camera continues moving up on a crane until it is at an high angle, and we start panning to the left. While we are panning to the left we see that Senor Love Daddy works at FM 108. Also written on the bottom of the building are the words 'WE LOVE'.

This is very ironic since the ending of the movie shows anything but love. We pan to the left until we see the street this movie primarily takes place in. While the camera is at an high angle, there is a deep focus, extreme long shot of the street, to show the neighborhood to the viewer and to give the viewer some sense of spatial orientation. The reddish color is still being used to show the intense heat and reflect the things mentioned above. The next scene begins with a high angle, long shot of Da Mayor sleeping in a small bed in a bedroom. Coming from a broken blind covering the window, are a combination of amber, orange, and red colors.

The colors are shown on Da Mayor, his bed and other surroundings near him. This is done to show the intense heat of the setting and to show the frustration and tension still not yet present on the film. We see that the room is very cluttered and small. It's obvious that the inhabitant doesn't have much money. He is lying down on the bed so still he looks dead; he resembles a corpse. This is done by Lee to emphasize how ineffective this character is.

Lee wants us to think how ineffective Da Mayor is going to be in this movie, and how this character is not good for a whole lot. Lee wants us to stereotype him based on what we see. Next the camera zooms in very slowly. We see a really old radio turned on, on the left side, and a really old fan that is turned on, on the right side, that doesn't seem to be doing anything to reduce the heat. We hear Senor Love Daddy's voice coming from Da Mayor's radio. The radio, along with the tracking out of the first scene and the zooming in at the beginning of this scene, help ties these two scenes together.

In essence, the linking shot is done with lens movement. As the camera zooms in, we see the enormous amount of sweat on Da Mayor's body and lots of beer bottles on a table by the side of the bed. Next Da Mayor gets up, moves the blind, looks out the window, and lies back down. This is done to show that it is one of those days you wish you slept through. The next scene begins with low angle, medium shot of Smiley. He has a very large church behind him to serve as the background.

Use of the low angle shot makes the church look huge. Lee does this low angle shot to create an amazing and dramatic effect. The church has a reddish color due to its red brick construction. This once again is done to emphasize the intense heat and to tie this scene with the previous two. We notice that Smiley has a beard making him look like a prophet or preacher.

Interestingly enough, Smiley is the only character in the entire movie with a beard. Smiley is wearing a red / pink faded long sleeve shirt, khakis, and has a black belt on; a very old fashioned ensemble. Smiley is very conservatively dressed considering it's a very hot day. He has a yellow tape player around his neck and is holding a picture in his hands, but we can't tell of what the picture is.

The yellow color of the tape player here serves as a warning sign to us. We meet Smiley while he is preaching an important message and we see that nobody is there to listen to it. As we listen to Smiley preach, we notice that he has a speech impairment. This impairment is the reason no one listens to him. Smiley is preaching a very important message but no one in the movie realizes it till its to late. Prophets in this movie are looked upon as outcasts and Smiley is an outcast with an important message.

The church plays no role in the film and we never see it again. Lee is either telling us that people in the neighborhood are not taking advantage of the church or the church is ineffectual and is doing nothing. The church in this movie is a lost cause. This shows that religion does not play a serious role in these people lives. The next shot of this scene is a close up shot of the picture Smiley is holding. We see that Smiley is holding pictures of Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King.

Both these men were assassinated because of their beliefs. Smiley draws an X on Malcolm X, and a crown on Dr. Martin Luther King with a red marker. This is warning sign by Lee, to get people to think about finding solutions to the racism problem. The third shot of this scene has the same setup as the opening shot of this scene. The important aspect of this scene is Smiley talking about the fight against apartheid. However, Smiley pronounces it 'Apart hate' because of his speech impairment.

There is no discrimination officially in the United States, but apartheid is apparent. Smiley is a combination of races. He's perfect for this role because he represents all, not just one. Also he is a very deliberate choice to choose for this role, because Smiley has a disability. Lighting in this shot is high key, very bright, with few or no shadows in the background. In the next scene you immediately notice strong back lighting with a silhouette of Mookie.

The shades on the window are an unpleasant volatile, intense red. Haziness in shot indicates some sort of filter was used. The filter gives the shot a murky and mysterious appearance. Low key lighting is used, very strong key light from back is apparent, and there is little or no fill light. The camera is positioned at an extreme long shot and the camera height is waist high.

This height is used because Mookie is sitting on a bed. As we move in behind Mookie, we can tell the shot is being filmed with a hand held camera. Mookie's wearing a white Bull's jersey with Jordan's number stitched in red on the back. As we move in, we notice he is counting money. We see Mookie is a young black man with a fade, hipster haircut. His haircut suits the time the movie takes place in.

Mookie has a small silver earring in one ear. Mookie is wearing a leather bracelet with shells on it and a medallion shaped like Africa. This shows that Mookie has cultural heritage and pride. It looks as if we are sneaking up on Mookie as we move up on him. It looks like we are watching an episode of COPS. We stop at a close up shot of him counting money.

We are being set up by Lee to think that there is no way Mookie earned the money in his hand legally. Lee wants us to stereotype and racially profile Mookie. Every characteristic of Mookie in this scene makes him appear as a criminal. There is a large picture of a dollar bill in the corner while Mookie is counting his money. This shows that he likes money, he wants more. We see a hide-a-bed.

He is probably not in this current dwelling permanently. The bed is used as a temporary means to sleep in. In the second shot of this scene we get a close up shot of Jade. She is sleeping and the color pink is very apparent in this shot.

It shows that Jade is very tranquil and peaceful. Next Mookie comes over to bother Jade and wake her up. Mookie says 'Wake up, wake up... ' This is done to tie the first scene with Senor Love Daddy to this one, as it reminds us of Senor Love Daddy and the first scene. We start zooming out slowly and are in shallow focus as we start to learn about these two characters.

Through Mookie and Jade's conversation we learn that they are brother and sister. We learn that Jade must work a lot since she says Saturday is the only day she can sleep in. She tells Mookie to get to work and from this we can tell that she is the responsible one of the two. The scene concludes by Mookie getting up off the bed and going to work.