The Quick And The Dead

The Quick And The Dead

being a western film, the quick and the dead features may specific techniques in the mise en scene, editing, sound and camera directions that are used solely for the western genre, from the very first shot (straight after the opening credits) we know that the film will be set in a hostile, vicious world as the director uses a sweeping pan with a wide angle to capture the sun baked sand of the desert. by using this specific type of shot the audience will not only get a basic understanding of where the film will be set, but also that the film will feature dark, grimy coflicts.



directly following this scene is a track right, along a path of tools and clothes that a treasure hunter has discarded, the shot has obviously been filmed with a handheld camera, with there being dips in shot due to the dips and cracks on the uneven floor, by using a handheld camera a much more detailed view of the path and treasure hunter can be shown, if a dolly or a stationary camera the visual would still be of high definition, but a handheld camera is able to get a lot closer to a subject, with the dips camera resulting in a much more realistic feel to the scenario



every colour in this shot is tinted orange and covered in sand and dust, this use of colour makes me(as the viewer) belive that this is an accurate representation of how colour would be in this time era.the wood is worn and stained much like the treasure hunters face and clothes. when focus shifts to the treasure hunter, rather then cutting to the shot, it zooms in on the subjects face slowly, this results in the scene looking like a continuous shot rather then a choppily cut stereotypical western, the colour orange is often referred to as a determined colour, which could potentially represent the treasure hunters emotions during this specific shot, a further interpretation for this choice in colour would be that the colour orange (to the human eye) is a colour that resembles heat, which could  again be a
representation of the setting of the desert, and its obvious heat.


what follows this is an interesting shot, that is very rarely used in cinema. an extreams close up, point of view shot following the gun barrels fire path. the closest thing this type of shot can be linked to is video games, specifically more violent, brutal video games, which only serves to show the movies violent nature. this shot was probably filmed using a small stationary camera tied to the barrel of the gun, most likely a go-pro or other variant. by using this extreme close up of the gun, we can see every imperfection, blemish and scratch, which helps to add realsim to the scene.