Crime Drama- Oceans Thirteen

Narrative Structure.
The third genre I chose to look at is crime drama, within this genre I found a list of movies and television programmes that are crime drama genre, out of that list I chose “Ocean Thirteen” by Brian Koppelman and David Levien, to watch and analyse. I started to watch the whole film as I haven’t seen it before, and this would give me a clear knowledge of what the films about and assist when writing about the narrative structure and the technical aspects. I chose to watch the whole of the film and then focus on a certain scene.

Oceans thirteen is a crime drama film which was produced in 2007. The part of the film I watched was part one, which was the first half of the scene. By watching the whole film and then the first half again, it gives you a clear insight into how the rest of the film follows on and the way it’s structured. The film Oceans Thirteen is a non-linear film as it follows in chronological order. The film starts of following George Clooney who plays Danny Ocean sliding down a rope into a toy store as the camera follows him through the toy store, through a hole that has been damaged in the wall; once Danny Ocean goes into the room he receives a phone call so he says he has to go to the two other men stood in the room as they’re looking all confused. We then see Danny Ocean walking out of the toy store in a suit, into what looks like an airport to get into an aeroplane. We see Danny Ocean get into the aeroplane looking for someone as he sits down. He then starts talking to another man. The next shot we see is them landing at another air port, they exit the aeroplane and walk towards a car as they’re meet by another man who drives the car. Their talk is about someone in hospital. So as a view I assume they are leaving the airport to go to the hospital to visit this person. The camera then jumps to a shot of a hospital room where we see the men’s other family members already there by his side talking to a doctor treating him.  It then jumps to a flash back of the man Reuben Tishkoff (Elliot Gould) who’s in hospital 4 weeks earlier (3:40) showing what was happening before he was in hospital. The scene keeps flashing back to the people suggested family stood around Ruben’s hospital bed and to what was happening 4 weeks earlier.  After that it then jumps to six months later (9:40) showing a shot of a man walking through a town. I watched the first scene which was 30:00 minutes long.

The techniques used to tell the story is that it follows George Clooney who plays Danny Ocean in a mystery scene investigation then jumping to him going to hospital to visit someone, we see him as a bad person but when he goes to visit someone in hospital we see him as a sweet, kind and caring person, this is very deceiving to its audience making them think a characters something they’re not. At the start of the film there is a close up of Danny Ocean sliding down a rope into an airport toy store as he walks away from the rope we see the camera zooming out getting further away from him as it suddenly follows him in a mid shot through the store and through a hole that has been knocked through in the wall. At this point we get the sense that Danny Ocean is very angry with something or upset about something that has happened in the past or has just happened and he wants to find out something. This film Ocean’s thirteen is an anti-realist film. This has an open ending as it is the opening scene leaving us wondering what happens next.

Technical Aspects.
The technical aspects used in the opening scene of Oceans Thirteen are, the camera work which is noticeable a considerable large amount of times throughout the first 30 minutes of the film such as a mid shots of specific things or characters, panning shots following people, long shots of characters walking, jump cuts cutting scenes of characters walking or in a motor vehicle, close ups of characters sitting down, talking and showing their facial expressions. High angles shots of characters in certain places and dramatic moments. There are also zooming shots used to also show the characters facial expressions whether they are talking or not. The mid shot used that I noticed was as the film starts of there is a mid shot of a toy shop. (0:32).There is also a mid shot of the man dressed in black putting the metal object onto the magnetic display which looks like a safe that he is trying to find out the code for (1:04). The other mid shot that is noticeable is of Danny Ocean taking of the balaclava and answering his phone which is ringing (1:25). Panning shots are also used especially at the start of the film when we see George Clooney as Danny Ocean dressed all in black clothing sliding down a rope into a toy store as the camera then pans around him, following him through the toy store. (0:37) there is also another noticeable panning shot of two men walking and talking at an air port once they have got out of the aeroplane at an airport. They are greeted by another man who is picking them up, they then walk over to a car that is waiting to pick them up. (2:38). The long shot that is noticeable is the scene where Danny Ocean is walking up to the aeroplane to meet another man (1:43)at this time in the scene there is also a jump cuts used to show Danny walking up to the aeroplane and getting in to find a seat. (2:00) At this point the jump cut is noticeable because we see him walking to the aeroplane one minute then we see him getting into the aeroplane to find a seat. The close ups used in the film are when Danny gets on the aeroplane and we see a close up of another man sat in a seat waiting for him (2:02) There is also an over the shoulder shot at this point showing Danny Ocean talking to the other man as the camera is focused onto the other man who’s sat in the seat listening to him. The last noticeable camera work used throughout the opening scene is high angle shots of people crowded around a hospital bead as if they’re visiting someone. (3:06). After the scene of people crowded around a hospital bed at (3:06) we then see a noticeable flash back which says “flash back to 4 weeks earlier” when the man wasn’t in hospital. The flash back shows us what the man was like when he wasn’t in hospital and what was happening at that stage.

Throughout the opening scene the light changes dramatically, this is the same for the period drama film I watched and analysed called “The Others” as the lighting in the film starts of very dark and gloomy where you can just make out shapes, it then switches to being very bright but still gloomy as Danny Ocean walks outside because it is night time, but it goes back to being very bright when Danny Ocean is in the aeroplane. With the lighting changing dramatically this gives us a very eerie feeling/ effect, this keeps the audiences interest levels high, as the opening scene engages the audience with the crime used. At the start of the film when Danny Ocean is sliding down the rope into the toy store and walking through the toy store with something in his hand, this prepares the audience for the crime as it gives us the feeling something bad is going to happen because Danny Ocean is dressed all in black with a balaclava on walking through a toy store, and putting something onto a safe so he can get the code to get into the safe for whatever is in there. The first 30 minutes of the film feeds enough information to the audience to make them engaged in what’s happening, like the film “The Others” this creates anticipation at the same time which draws the audience in to making them want to carry on.

The cinematic techniques used create a valuable significance to its audience as well as drawing them into watching more of the film as the first 30 minutes leaves you on a cliff hanger which also creates suspense and anticipation to carry on watching the film.

When watching the first 30 minutes of the film I couldn’t see much noticeable editing used, the only thing I picked up on was at the start where there is text at the bottom left of the screen saying where about the location is. (0:34) and when there are flash back because there is white writing on a red background that animate across the screen telling us that it’s a flash back. (03:36) and (09:40). I could also tell there was noticeable scripting used as like the others some characters paused before saying their lines which is also a continuity thing throughout the film. The suspense and eeriness which I mentioned before along with the cinematic effects are noticeable to building a story as the film is showing in non-chronological order, which is effective to the audience as they can follow what’s happening at certain times and still remember what’s happened.