"Shawshank Redemption" and its conventions

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The camera angles in Shawshank Redemption serve as a way of defining a characters and their personalities. The prison warden is often seen from a low angles which accentuates his higher power in the prison and his authority. Doing this effectively shows Norton's (The warden's) place and helps the audience to understand his significance. The prisoners, however are frequently shown from a high angle which has the audience constantly looking down on them. This dynamic presents an imbalance of power, and really does a lot for the character dynamic of the film.

A lot of times throughout the movie, we also see the prisoners through a bird's eye view. This is used to make the prisoners look small and insignificant. The director's choices allow the audience to see both the status and imbalance between the characters. It also helps the audience to understand the context of the movie, positioning those where they need to be in order to progress the story. While Andy (the main character) is in prison, there isn't a lot of color in the movie. There's a lot of dark blues, browns, blacks, and greys. This goes to show the hopelessness in the prison, as well as makes a statement about the place of the prison system. The shades of grey represent the dullness, lack of opinion, and lifeless the prisoners are supposed to act. Towards the end of the movie, when Andy breaks out and meets his friend who got out on parole, we see bright colors: white sand, dark blue waters, palm trees in vibrant tan and green. This later represents their free personality, which they never let the system kill.
    Thanks to both modern technology as well as what I'm capable of doing, I can use all of these. The only challenge I can foresee is a bird's eye shot, and that may just be about getting up somewhere higher. I like the conventions discussed in this movie, and really enjoy the use of color. Through the use of filters, I can mess with the colors. The remainder of the angles are also very doable.


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