In the movie hotel Rwanda directed by Terry George there are a multitude of techniques used to enhance tension in a film that tackles the difficult events of the true story of how one race was separated into two classes of people the Hutu and the Tutsi, when Belgium colonised Rwanda they divided it between the tutsi who were classified as light skinned and thin noses, they were originally in charge of Rwanda. When the Belgians left they gave the power to the Hutu,who had darker skin and thick big noses and the Hutu were manipulated into thinking that the Tutsi are the enemy and so a mass genocide begins and Thousands of Tutsi men,women and mainly children were killed without remorse ,so a new generation of Tutsi wasnt possible. The techniques that Terry george used consists of Special effects,Audio,camera angles,camera movements and focus. The director uses these features to change the way a viewer understand the film and how they would see It.
One of the techniques that the director uses in Hotel Rwanda is special effects, when Paul the main character and Gregoire, one of Paul’s hotel staff are driving down the river road, which George a Hutu soldier told them was clear,The windows of the van turn foggy due to special effects which forces Paul to stop the car because they couldn’t see and Paul didn’t want to crash.When Paul gets out the car it is foggy and Paul falls out onto a heap of dead bodies when he gets up it is foggy until the camera changes to a point of view shot and the fog completely clears revealing the true amount of dead bodies there were. At this point in the movie paul came to the realization of how serious the situation was.
Another aspect that Terry George added was tension and he used eerie silences and music to build tension in Paul’s epiphany scene. The audio and sound effects the director adds are sinister and fast paced sounds that gives the idea that something bad is coming or has already come the sounds build tension and suspense and a when Paul sees the bodies through the fog the music stops so we can hear the noises that he is making which is a gagging sound like he is going to throw up.
The most important feature of the film is how it was filmed using the right camera angles to show tension in a scene or so the viewer can see the surroundings of the scene to give them an idea of where they are or why they might be there. In Paul’s epiphany scene it starts with George and Paul talking about george wanting paul to join him in getting rid of the tutsi. This first shot is a mid shot to see Paul’s face when george proposes his plan him and the reaction to this proposal. After paul drives off the shot changes to a shot of the van they are in and then changes to an over the shoulder angle to show what paul and gregoire see which is a foggy window.When Gregoire stops the car because its foggy Paul steps out of the van and falls out of the cameras view onto the dead bodies and then the shot changes to a p.o.v (Point of view) of Paul seeing a dead child.The next shot after that is when Paul sees the rest of the dead bodies and then the camera zooms in on his face to see his expression which is disgust and distress in the face of him discovering what the Hutu had been doing.
Focus,taking the camera in and out of focus has many uses but in this film just before Paul’s epiphany when the camera is close-up on his face the background was taken out of focus to give show that Paul’s face was the most important thing in the shot and the viewers should be looking at his face and nothing in the background because just seconds after the Paul’s epiphany the whole shot comes into focus.
Camera movements can change the way a film looks and can also make the story easy to follow because a camera on a track following the person from the side or from behind instead of having multiple cameras and having to switch cameras which can confuse the viewers because the are having to catch up with why the cameras are changing. In hotel Rwanda the camera follows Paul from when he falls on the dead body when he gets up of the floor the camera is still following him all the way to his “epiphany”.
In my opinion the feature fit in well and were used well and the features enhance the scene and mad it easier to understand the director of Hotel Rwanda used cinematographic techniques to develop tension in Paul’s epiphany scene In my view I felt the scene to be fast paced and it was easy to see what
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