Main Task - Research Part 2

Another film which is based on the troubles of Northern Ireland in the 1970s and 1980s is Five Minutes of Heaven. This film has a meeting of UVF members arranging to kill a young catholic man. This meeting is useful for us as it shows that some groups don't think about the severity of their actions as they laugh and joke about how their reputations will improve with this killing, but others in the group feel worried about this plan. The camera in most of these gang meeting scenes always shows a close up of one member of the group looking frightened or seems to want to not conform to the gangs plan.




In this clip, the gang meet in a car to discuss killing a young man that they are all familiar with. This film reflects just a small bit of the troubles in Northern Ireland at this time, yet it still portrays the country as one that is still violent and hasn't moved on. In this film the two main characters represent the loyalist and republican communities and when the man who's brother was killed by the UVF, threatens to kill the man who killed him, the bitterness and hatred is evident and represents the current feeling around Northern Ireland. This is a very derogatory way to show the country.
The mise en scene for this film, when there are flashbacks to the times of the troubles, the location is perfect as it is clear that Belfast is a violent city. The costumes used in this film are exactly what we would use for our film as they represent the poverty in Northern Ireland in the 1970s and the hate that is in the group of young men's hearts. The props were also very authentic to the time the film is set, the cars and guns.
The lighting is mostly artificial as the flashback scenes are set at night. The darkness of these scenes gives the audience a sense of danger and suspense, the type of feeling we would aim to have for our film. The camera shots in this film are effective in that, when peace is being made, after the troubles, the shots are steady and seem to focus highly on facial expressions of the characters. But when danger is ahead or there is violence happening, the shots seem to be frantic and ever-changing to replicate the madness and unnatural effect of this conflict.