Binary Oppositions

My groups chosen film was Romeo and Juliet, in this teen film there are loads of binary oppositions, however due to the story-line of the film there is one clear binary opposition which i will be focusing on in this blog and it is represented. The story line that is shown in the opening shows the rivalry between two families, The Capulet's and The Montague's, it is presented as a very violent battle between the two.

The element of Mise en scene is used very clearly to show the difference between the two gangs. At we see the Montague boys entering, their attire is very colorful and immature, they are portrayed by their clothing and the car they're driving as a group who are not very serious and just having fun. However when the Capulet's enter they are the complete opposite, they're wearing suits which present them as much more serious and sophisticated they are also all dressed in matching clothes. They have pistols with their gang name on it as well, this just presents them as a well prepared gang in comparison to the Montague boys which would allow the audience to take them much more seriously.

The next element that show the differences between the two gangs is Sound, when the two different gangs enter they is a very obvious difference between the sound used to introduce each gang. When the Montague boys enter there is a punk rock music playing which shows again that they may not have a strong presence like the Capulet's who when entering have a mysterious type of cowboy music playing which does show them to have a more older and mysterious vibe about them which leads you to believe they have an edge on the fight between the two gangs.

Another element is Editing, there is a lot of shot-reverse-shots used between the two main leaders of the Montague's and the Capulet's. This is done to show the differences between the character and show how opposite they are by switching from one to the other it allows us to see their physical differences as well as any other mise en scene on the screen .

Camera work is also used to show the two binary oppositions, in the clip above there is a moment when the camera uses a two shot to show the leader of each gang chuck their guns down and hold their hands up high, when this shot is done you can clearly see both gang leaders differences, from the colour of their hair, to the way they dress, to the way they stand and their presence.