Film Extracts

This following extract is from the film Citizen Kane (1941)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mg7VUk4DjIk

An interesting part of the short extract that I found the most interesting and different from the modern films that are now produce is the fade sequence that takes place towards the start of the extract. The part of the extract I am talking about is from 0.11 seconds into the clip and ends at 0.20/0.21. This transition is a fade in/out, of course this is still used in modern film, but because of advances in technology we don't see it  in this plain and blatant form. This is a slow transition from scene to scene and the man who is positioned on the left hand side of the screen stays in the same place during the slow change, the man doesn't disappear from the transition till it is completed. The change in scene starts with the darkness coming in from the left hand side, the darkness covers up everything apart from the mans face and manages to cast a shadow over his face. Once the darkness is gone the new scene appears.

The 2nd clip comes from the film Higher Learning (1995)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iw7qbb44tBE

At 00.35 in the clip, Ice Cube and his crew walk into a house. What I found interesting about this clip is the camera angle that the director John Singleton (who also directed Boyz in the Hood), uses, as the crew walks into the house the camera is beneath them, which means that the camera is looking up at them. This camera angle connotes that the crew are in a position of power. By using this camera angle to connote the power the group has it gives an insight into what is going to happen in the next part of the film.