The purpose of this essay is to look into the cinematography, sound, editing and camera work of the opening of the City of God that was directed by Fernando Meirelles .

City of God opens with a knife that is being scraped on a rock while the screen is repeatedly cutting to a black screen, making it hard to notice that it is a knife but the diegetic sound of the knife being scraped on the rock is very clear to the audience. The knife has connotations of violence but at the same time contrasts it’s self as the knife can also be used as an everyday cooking appliance so as an audience we understand that violence is a thing that can occur in everyday situations.

During this unclear montage we are then shown a young man who takes a picture of the tile of the film suggesting that photography will play a significant part of the narrative that will be in the film. As the scene continues the audience are shown more crosscutting between the blade being sharpened and a chicken being prepared along with a chicken that is restricted by a rope tied round his ankle and a woman preparing carrots. There are also shots of peoples feet showing them without shoes which suggests that the location that the film is set is not very rich and developed area. Music is then introduced with the small montage of cuts that has elements of Latina America and has a very upbeat carnival style suggesting that the music is samba so the location of the film would most likely be set in Rio and it would be in the favelas where there is a lot of poverty. The music intensifies when the shots are low angle and are looking up at the chicken that is being prepared and cross cuts of the chicken that is restricted, it’s as if the director wants the audience to feel like they’re the chicken and as the music is getting louder and tension is built it’s like the audience can read the chickens thoughts.

A close up of the chicken shaking its foot to try getting out of the rope is shown, the chicken then escapes and jumps into an alleyway. The diegetic sound of the drumming suddenly stops and cuts to a close up of chicken’s blood on a plate, which is very symbolic of the violence. A crosscut is then used to introduce a man that speaks Portuguese and shouts “the chicken got away, get it.” Then longshots of a herd of people with guns start to chase down the chicken that got away along with a drum beat that is iconic to a chase, this shows that the man who was shouting must be the leader of the pack. The man who is shown as the leader has the camera at a canted angle when it is focused on him which intensifies how mad this character is he also laughs at the situation of trying to kill the chicken which showing he finds death funny.

Then there are lots of low angle tracking shots of the camera moving along alleys suggesting the audience is the chicken so they have a sense of how intense it must be for the chicken surrounded

by loads obstacles that are difficult for humans to get around so it shows the full effect that once your into something it’s not easy to escape.

Then parallel editing between a young boy that wants to be a photographer talking to his friend about how risky a shot is, and the gang chasing the chicken through alleys this is used to emphasise that the chicken is the boy reflected as an animal. The gang leader tells a man who is ahead of the chicken to grab the chicken the man nearly catches the chicken suggest that this boy is about to be caught. The man who was told to grab the chicken is threatened by the leader of the gang showing that he is very determined to get this chicken, suggesting that once you cross him there’s no going back. The gang leader then laughs very mentally the young man’s friend tells him what if Lil Zѐ catches you. From this the audience can infer that the gang leader is known as Lil Zѐ. The chicken and the young boy who is known as rocket cross paths and Lil Zѐ tells Rocket to grab the chicken and the audience is shown a 360 shot of the chicken and rocket where the chicken Lil Zѐ and his gang guns pointed towards Rocket at the police and rocket has police behind him with guns pointed towards the chickens direction at Lil Zѐ and the gang. This suggests that there is a mirror between the chicken and rocket and they’re trapped there is no way out for them.

He is in the middle of all this and doesn’t know what to do and says “if you run away, they get you and if you stay, they get you too.” the camera then does another 360 shot but much faster and as the camera comes back to Rocket the camera cuts to a rocket as a child, the next scene suggests the opening scene was the end as rocket talks about having to start with his brother to tell the story of the City of God. The opening scene creates an enigma code as the audience wants to know why the gang and the police are in a gang war and how Rocket has go himself in to the situation and why is he in danger if he takes a particular shot.

The colours that are presented are very cold, with a range of blues and greys making up the colour palette. The opening scene also uses colour isolation where one colour is present, and the other colours are being dulled down. This is especially evident when an unknown woman is cutting a carrot. The orange is extremely vivid, and portrays the idea of freshness. This is suggested further by the killing over several chickens in vivid colour, this helps to set up the urban setting.

Some very obvious techniques have been used in the cinematography to portray the grittiness and the true reality of the setting of the City of God. The lighting in all the shots tend to be very natural, signifying the level of poverty in the slums and how there is little electricity. The natural lighting also allows shadows to be in mise en scene, which could be signifying the dark nature of the slums and its characters such as Lil Zѐ. The camera is also constantly moving and is hardly static. Many shots are tracking characters whilst they move through conversations and tend to be quite fluid, which could be a representation of the chaotic nature of the slums which also links in with the lighting in the film.

The gang leader Lil Zѐ creates an interest in the audience a he is not the average type of person, as he is in fact a rebel who seems ruthless and horrible person who is in control of the whole slum and doesn’t oblige to the law, and won’t have problems where people will try to stop him as he is heavily armed. Rocket also creates an interest for the audience as he seems to be quite calm, risk talking as he is willing to take the picture and the fact that he is caught up in the gang violence shows that he is the protagonist and the gang leader is the antagonist. Both of them a contrast of each other, which creates interest for the audience as it is intriguing to find out what brought them both into these situations as Rocket is shown to be a character with good intentions.