Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

In Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, I noticed that Snow White was portrayed as a fairly lower class woman.  One cinematic element that showed her as being in the lower class was the use of camera positions.  When Snow White was in the shots, the camera position that I noticed was the angle that was used to shoot her.  Snow White tended to be filmed using high angle shots.  These shots occur when the camera is positioned to film the character or object from above.  Using a high angle shot creates the sense that the character or object is weak.  By using high angles shots to shoot Snow White, the director is showing that she is a weak and holds little or no power compared to her evil stepmother, for example.  These high angle shots make me feel like I am literally looking down upon Snow White as a character.  Looking down on a character tends to make it seem like that character has no power and is very weak.  High angle shots also make the character seem to appear smaller than normal.  This tends to create the idea that the character is not very important because of how small the character appears to be.  Looking down on a character, like Snow White, who is shown to have little or no power tends to make me believe that the character is part of the lower class.  Looking down on her also makes me feel like she is less important in the world of the film because of how small the high angle shot makes her out to be.  Since the director makes me feel like I am literally looking down upon Snow White, I get the idea that she is a very weak character who isn't significant in the world of the film, which shows that she is part of the lower class.

1 comment:

  1. Haley, I agree with you on Snow White being portrayed as a low class figure throughput the film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. During the entire films Snow White never really plays a role in making and crucial decisions that may affect the movie. Unlike Beauty and the Beast, where Belle has to do things that may effect the movie, for example when she saves her father, Snow White never accomplishes anything that makes a difference. Therefor, when the movie is all said and done, Snow White was almost a pointless character in the film other than causing trouble and getting hurt.
    All of the cinematic elements that you wrote about in your blog above definitely contribute to the portrayal of Snow White being weak and part of the low class. I really think that the director made up of using high angle shots (looking down upon Snow White), and the zooming of the camera to make Snow White not seem as big (filling up less of the screen).
    Anyways, this was a great analysis! :) -Claire

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