Merlin

Mise en Scene

The location starts off in a very old luxurious castle, one that must be owned by the king or someone very rich. Spooky dark corridors show its old and occasional big beams of light emphasise the fact it has big windows showing it must be a big castle. As Merlin is caught snooping around a very posh lady finds him. Straight away you can tell that she has more money than him by wearing a purple velvet dress, with her hair nicely pruned and covered in jewellery. This automatically shows the audience that Merlin shouldn’t be here and the lady that has found him is much higher above him. 

As the scene changes, Merlin walks down the steps from the front of the castle, this again shows how big the castle is in comparison to him and makes him seem very small. The guards outside the castle reflect power (tells the audience the people inside need protecting). Furthermore the clothes that Merlin wears are old and bedraggled showing that he is a peasant, with scruffy hair and not being the cleanest of people the audience already get the impression that he’s a working boy and he doesn’t live in the best accommodation.

Finally we move onto the final main scene, ‘the fight scene’. The audience can automatically tell this scene is taking place in the peasant’s courtyard.  You can tell this because of the muddiness of the place, the people standing around are all peasant’s and all the props used like little market stalls where the peasant’s will trade there goods. As the person Merlin fights enters the peasant’s courtyard you can tell straight away that he’s not a peasant, mainly because of his costume. Covered in shining armour and blonder waving hair, with men stood behind him in the same costume you can tell that they belong with him and they’re his back-up. Whereas Merlin has a bedraggled woman standing behind him cowardly seeing what’s going on.

Editing

Throughout the Merlin extract there are many examples of Rich and Poor people. This is can be shown through the use of editing. The opening scene in Merlin starts off with Merlin in a room the camera pace starts off slow but gradually gets faster cutting back and forth to what Merlin is looking at, this is use of match on action. This match on action is also shown with an eyeline shot, him looking at objects could show his alienness to these different objects to show that he has never seen extravagant things before.

Merlin is acting suspicious this is emphasised by the fast pace cutting back and forth this makes the audience suspect that Merlin is not supposed to be in the castle, connoting his lower status. Merlin seems to be intruding the castle this makes us think that Merlin is from a lower class background as he is sneaking around. The suspense is brought up to a climax when the royal woman enters the room. The editing goes with the beat/tempo of the music in the background; this is known as rhythmic relations The shots on the royal woman is long shots, this gives us as an audience a clue of her royal status and importance in comparison to him who has shorter shots showing his status. This suspense was shown by the camera pace gradually getting faster and faster. This fast pace shows the importance of the royal woman furthermore this is emphasized by the music working in action with the fast pace. As Merlin exits the castle the editing slows down, this shows he is in his own social class.

Sound

There are many variations of sound in this clip, we start with some low, dark sounds which set the mood and give an indication that the character, Merlin, is possibly doing something he shouldn’t be.
There are shadowy, dark almost ghost like whispers which are showing that there may be something sinister around or that Merlin may be in danger.

When the old woman comes into the room there is a sudden crescendo in sound which indicates that there should be suspense, when she enters the room the music in the background stops, this may indicate her higher class than Merlin and that she is more powerful than him, also it may have stopped because Merlin may have in fact been caught in a place he should not have been in. There is also use of a sting to anchor the fact the woman has arrived. The woman's footsteps are use of Foley sound.

When the old woman looks into the mirror, you see an old woman, to me this signals that something may be wrong because she is possibly pretending to be the younger woman, a witch, perhaps? The sudden shivering sounds show the audience that there may be something wrong; it may also be signalling that Merlin is in danger. There is a use of dialogue, "What are you doing?", shows the audience that he is not meant to be there.

As Merlin leaves the room, there is no music whilst he is in the courtyard or the streets, just many Diegetic sounds such as the horse and carts and the bustling streets, it sets the mood even more and has a happy, natural scene.

When the fight begins, there is exciting, happy music going on in the background, this shows that Merlin and the Knight are just playing around and it’s not going to be a bloody and dangerous fight between the two, they are even, possibly, friends that are having a bit of a humorous fight.
But when the sounds of the weapons crash onto the tables and smash things, the sounds are loud and powerful, showing that Merlin may possibly be in serious danger if it were to be an actual fight.

Camera Angles

The use of camera angles to show the difference in class and status within the clip from Merlin is shown at many different points throughout the clip.

The first time the camera angle is used to show class and status is when Merlin is leaving the castle and the camera goes from looking up at him when he is at the top of the castle steps to looking down at him when he is in the market. This use of camera angle is used to show the difference in classes between the two environments more than a change of class for the character as it shows how the public around Merlin in the scene would look at it.  They would see the castle as a higher class place within their town and anyone associated with the castle as higher classed, hence why they (and the camera) looked up when he was there. Once he left the castle and moves to the market it swaps to show the view of the people who live/work in the castle and how they would view the people in the market, looking down on them. Once Merlin is in the market, the camera shows him as the same status and height as the rest of the people there, this is a way of the using the camera to show that within this environment, he is seen as an equal.

The second part where camera angle is used to show class and status within this clip is when Merlin is fighting with the knight. When they are fighting Merlin ducks down a lot, hides and falls onto the floor whereas the knight constantly stands tall and looks down at Merlin. The camera uses a lot of over the shoulder shots during this point to show that the character is looking at the other as higher or lower (the majority being the knight looking at Merlin on the floor) this gives the audience once again the idea that Merlin is lower and also weaker than the knight.