Shawshank Redemption Roof Scene Essay
‘The Shawshank Redemption’, directed by Frank Darabont tells the story of Andy Dufresne, who is falsely accused and imprisoned for the murder of his wife and her lover and is sent the Shawshank prison. Darabont uses many important scenes throughout the film to show certain key ideas and themes to the viewer. He uses camera shots, lighting, voice-over and dialogue to help develop these ideas of freedom. One of the key scenes in ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ is the rooftop scene which uses a number of these film techniques.
An important technique used in the rooftop scene is the range of camera shots. It shows the prisoners all in one frame drinking beers. The camera in the scene has used a wide shot technique to show the contrast between the …show more content…
The scene is clearly set near the evening as it gives off a warm yellow lighting on top of the roof. The sudden sunlight surrounding the prisoners in the rooftop scene appeals to human empathy and causes the audience to share the joy and relief felt by these metaphorical ‘freemen’ as they hold on to this hint of normality. The sun gives a golden effect to the scene and reinforces the voice over from Red, “We sat and drank under the sun on our shoulders and felt like free men”. The director has combined the voice over of Red and the warmer, home-like light tells the audience that this is an unusual occurrence for the prisoners as we are so used to seeing them in the dark lit prisons.
Red’s voice over in this film is important to express the thoughts of the prisoners for the audience to understand how free they felt on the roof. As Red talks, it’s almost as if the camera pans around the roof to the pace of his voice to make the audience feel relaxed like Red. Red’s voice over offers and guides the audience an insight for example when he says, “You could argue he’d done it to curry favour with the guards…Me? I think he did it to feel normal again, if only for a short while”, but even in the voice over, Andy’s true thoughts are something of a
An important technique used in the rooftop scene is the range of camera shots. It shows the prisoners all in one frame drinking beers. The camera in the scene has used a wide shot technique to show the contrast between the …show more content…
The scene is clearly set near the evening as it gives off a warm yellow lighting on top of the roof. The sudden sunlight surrounding the prisoners in the rooftop scene appeals to human empathy and causes the audience to share the joy and relief felt by these metaphorical ‘freemen’ as they hold on to this hint of normality. The sun gives a golden effect to the scene and reinforces the voice over from Red, “We sat and drank under the sun on our shoulders and felt like free men”. The director has combined the voice over of Red and the warmer, home-like light tells the audience that this is an unusual occurrence for the prisoners as we are so used to seeing them in the dark lit prisons.
Red’s voice over in this film is important to express the thoughts of the prisoners for the audience to understand how free they felt on the roof. As Red talks, it’s almost as if the camera pans around the roof to the pace of his voice to make the audience feel relaxed like Red. Red’s voice over offers and guides the audience an insight for example when he says, “You could argue he’d done it to curry favour with the guards…Me? I think he did it to feel normal again, if only for a short while”, but even in the voice over, Andy’s true thoughts are something of a