A Clockwork Orange OTS

1. A Clockwork Orange OTS

2. Mise-en-scene: Location • The first setting is what looks like some sort of nightclub or bar with people sat around drinking milk. This gives us the impression of people stuck between being very youthful in personality and very sophisticated and relaxed. It gives us a sense of calmness and also tells us that it’s set in the 60s or early 70s where everyone was really relaxed and nothing bad happened.

3. Mise-en-scene: Location • The second setting on the other hand , is a complete contrast, the dark street tunnels are really empty and give us this feeling of a broken dystopia where everything has fallen apart and street gangs and thugs rule the cities.

4. Mise-en-scene: Performance: Costume • Each of the main thugs in this are each wearing a similar outfit. They each are wearing this strange sort of spandex jump suit all in white, with a crouch pad. This suggests an abstract gang but also suggests there cleanliness and sophistication by the bowler hats they’re wearing. • Alex in particular stand out because his hair is very neatly combed under his hat and he’s got some very large black fake eyelashes on his right eye. This exadurates the beauty of Alex contrasting between his strange outfit and sinister personality to an elegant beautiful side.

5. Mise-en-scene: Performance: Costume • In the street tunnel we have a lone homeless man lying on the ground. We can tell he’s homeless because he’s lying in the street but also because he’s covered in dirt. His hair is roughed up and faded grey under an old bowler hat showing he’s an old man. And we can tell he’s homeless also by his fingerless gloves dirty mac, and trousers. This shows us what he wears to keep warm and always wears because he has nothing else.

6. Mise-en-scene: Performance: Props • In the milk bar everyone has a glass of milk. This is used to show the youth of characters and also creates a contrast by the colour. The background of the bar is black and the whiteness of the milk along with the outfits creates to sides of the spectrum that is a metaphor for the two sides of piece and violence. • Cains are also used as a prop by Alex and his friends as use to beat the man with and hold him down. This suggests how these people take something with practical use and use it in whatever way they can.

7. Mise-en-scene: Performance: Acting • The most interesting character in the sequence (and the whole film) is Alex. This is because of the way Malcolm McDowell portrays him. He’s made out as a young physcopathic enjoying torturing people with that smug sinister grin he has but also a very relaxed elegant man. He has the constant look on his face where he looks keeps his head tilted down and looks up to people with one sided smile. This is really disturbing and makes Alex seem as a far more effective character. He also speaks in this very calm pieceful manor and talks in this rolling voice saying things really elegantly. This again makes him seem more sinister by making him sound more intelligent.

8. Mise-en-scene: Performance: Acting • Alex’s friends on the other hand act more as exited children. This is actually a little disturbing too because this childlike nature is a complete contrast to the over the top violence the take part in. They also tend to jump around laughing a lot when they’re beating the old man showing they’re enjoying what they do, only tool much.

9. Mise-en-scene: Performance: Acting • The old man on the other hand manages to show his pure sorrow and disappointment in life by lying very still. The way he just rolls his head along the ground shows that he’s drunk and tired of life, however we can also tell he’s drunk by the way he speaks. He’s speaking with a slightly crackly whiskey voice. This also tells us that he’s given up in life and is ready to die and leave the hell he lives in.

10. Cinematography: Shots • The first shot in a close up of Alex’s face. This straight away introduces our protagonist and also amidiatly tells us that he’s a sinister smug character just by looking at him. He’s also looking straight into the lense too which is like he’s looking into the eyes of the audience staring them down with his smugness. • Another shot is a long shot of the tunnel with the homeless man lying on the ground singing away with Alex and his friends approaching from behind the shot. Across the ground though we see their shadows stretching right across the shot making them seem more sinister.

11. Cinematography: Shots • AS the man is beaten a wide shot is used showing all the characters surrounding the drunk and beating him. This gets all the characters in shot and shows the change from them all being spaced out and comfortable to being tightly closed in and violent.

12. Cinematography: Movements • Tracking – in the milk bar the camera tracks out through the bar starting with a close up from Alex slowly moving out revealing the rest of the bar revealing the location. This allows us to take things in one by one and gives a sense of mystery towards where he is and why. • Zooming out – this starts with a mid shot of the drunk and slowly zooms out revealing the rest of the tunnel for the four friends to walk into. This again helps us take things in but also builds suspense to what’s going on as he lies there singing.

13. Cinematography: Angles • Other than eye level the only angle used is a down shot of the drunk when Alex pins him to the ground. This shows Alex’s power and dominance over people and how he forces them down so he has more power.

14. Sound: Diegetic • In the second part of this (in the tunnels) we can hear the man singing a familiar tune out of tune, out of pitching and with a slur showing he’s drunk. This echoes through these tunnels giving a hollow empty feel. • We can also hear the friends messing about laughing and howling away. This amplifies their sinister appeal by making them sound far more exited and energetic towards beating a man.

15. Sound: None-Diegetic • The theme tune is playing in the background as a simple physcodelic keyboard tune. This is typical to the time period and also gives us the feel that this is an abstract dystopia of some sort. • We also get the voice over from Alex introducing us to himself and his friends. He also goes on talking about “ultra-violence and later how he dislikes the homeless” this tells us that he enjoys what he does and takes pride in it and that what he does he sees as right and just.

16. Summery • From what we can see as mise-en-scene is a lot of contrast between complete opposites, in particular towards Alex. • A lot of the contrast is mostly to do with his personality between his split in what’s right and wrong, between beauty and elegance against sinister violence and between being youth and old age. From this in Alex we can see he’s in the centre in the title sequence and through the film will move over to one side of each of these over time.