Analysing Settings

The Duchess

The Duchess clip uses 4 different settings to show a change in mood and atmosphere. Before the first setting the camera travels under an archway this is a metaphor for us looking into her life so we see the following settings as she does and we experience her mood and feelings. The first setting is a crowded, busy street crammed with people and noise. We see people trading goods and running along with the carriage showing the life outside the carriage which she is separated from and we get a mood of longing from her. This is a long shot to create a real high contrast between outside and inside the carriage. The wide angle shot and busy streets highly contrast to the small and quite interior of the carriage.
The setting changes to a wide and spacious view of a courtyard. it is very empty and silent compared with on the streets and suggests her separation with the rest of the world and the walls of the courtyard acting as a cage or prison trapping her to her new husband. The archway at the beginning and end of this setting symbolise a new atmosphere. In the courtyard her mood changes to ore while still being intimidated by her surroundings.
Inside the hallway her feelings change to more of unknowing and uncertainty as well as feeling overwhelmed, there's also a sense of realisation shown by the grand, tall large setting which makes her look small and insignificant.
The bedroom is completely unrelated to the other settings because it is small and dark. The mood is completely changed to feel claustrophobic and slightly sinister creating the start of tension building up, adding to this is that the main colours in the setting is black and red which tends to mean danger. The contrast between the small, dark, intimate room and the grand, white courtyard shows how the director has used the settings to reflect different sides of their relationship.

The Last King of Scotland

The mission station appears as any normal building made of wood, only one story and is a pale brown colour. the room we first see is completely black apart from the window which is a square of light, this show that change is about to happen when he turns towards the light. This setting appears very basic and rural. Through the car journey we start by seeing vibrant green mountains and a very rural setting, then it progresses into a village with basic huts still very natural. Then the setting completely changes to a city with tall, white buildings lots of noise and people. This totally contrasts with the mission station in several ways, for example the colour goes from natural browns and greens to article white and very sterile and man made. The buildings become grand, tall and the foreground of the setting, where at the mission station they blended into the background.