TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD ESSAY PLAN
How does the director, Robert Mulligan, use film techniques to create setting and evoke mood in the film To Kill a Mockingbird?
The director, Robert Mulligan, of the film To Kill a Mockingbird, uses film techniques such as the film being in black and white, thus creating an often uncomfortable setting. The monochromatic film allows the audience to see the divisions of segregation between the white and African American characters. The dramatized trial is another film technique used which evokes a very tense mood throughout the whole film as it effectively creates anticipation and suspense, playing into the themes of racism and prejudice. Last but not least sound and lighting, this is used to express what the characters are not always willing to express, or are unable to express, thus creating a tense and vexed mood.
The film being in black and white, creates an uncomfortable visual setting, as the monochromatic film allows the audience to see the divisions of segregation between the white and African American characters. The film being in black and white, creates an uncomfortable visual setting, as the monochromatic film allows the audience to see the divisions of segregation between the white and African American characters. The setting of Maycomb itself with where the white folks and African American folks lived, with the neighbourhood where the white people lived was a little run down and poor looking due to the great depression, it was still quite established. Whereas the neighbourhood where the African American folks lived was extremely run down and very poor looking with their houses being made out of tin, with the forest being right behind it. The black and white film allows the audience to clearly see the division between both the whites and blacks in the South. Another clear example of this is the court room scene which allows the audience to see these divisions more plainly and to experience them it as the characters themselves experience it. Furthermore, the use of the black and white film adds drama to many scenes, this is also evident in the courtroom scene in which the facial expressions of Tom Robinson, Atticus Finch, as well as, Bob Ewell and his daughter are greatly focused on allowing them to be clear and poignant. The director creates setting through the film being black and white as it allows the audience to clearly see the segregation between the white folk and the black folk, as well as adding to the tension and drama from the courtroom scene.
Finally, the dramatized trial, evokes a very tense mood throughout the whole film as it effectively creates anticipation and suspense, playing into the themes of racism, prejudice, racial equality and justice. The unjust trial is evidently driven by the undercurrent...
