Film Techniques In The Shawshank Redemption

The Shawshank Redemption is my favorite film of all time and I can almost watch the whole film just by closing my eyes. The film is about a man named Andy Dufesne who is sent to prison on belief that he had killed his wife and the man she was cheating on him with. He is only a banker who claims to be innocent to the crime and is found guilty and sentenced to life in prison at the Shawshank State Penitentiary. While he is at Shawshank he remains to believe that he himself is innocent while the viewers remain in the dark on the matter. While in prison he creates friendships and makes enemies along the way. One of those friends being Ellis Boyd Redding or as we know him, Red, a man who can get anything. Andy Dufesne becomes an untouchable after …show more content…
This film as well as the Green Mile are both movies that fit to his drama category. The styles that he uses can be found in a lot of him movies and in the Shawshank Redemption I found a few of the shots that he used through the majority of the film. The first shot I noticed was an establishing shot, this is used in the first shot of a scene where the audience needs to know where this is taking place. It is a wide shot or an extreme wide shot. The first time I saw this shot was when you first see Shawshank prison. This is a wide shot of the yard that shows all of the inmates coming to see all the newcomers on the bus. This shows us how the prisoners find something as dull as new inmates to be so amusing. As we view this shot we are almost being prepared for what is to come for us and Andy as we are dumped into this prison. Following this is another shot of the front of the prison, and is again used right away to show the inside of the prison. Another wide shot is used in the cell block as Andy enters showing us this is the new and horrible world we are going to live in with …show more content…
This film used a lot of natural light but during more serious scenes the lighting is low-key. You can tell that all of the colors are dull and depressing. There are lot of uses of grey in the prison, from the concrete walls to the inmate’s shirts. Frank Darabont also shot a lot of the actors from the sides that were not exposed to the sunlight to assist in this feeling. This went both ways as during the more lifting scenes they would film where the sunlight would hit the actors. This is done well on the roof of the prison when the inmates get cold beers after fixing the roof. The sunset is hitting their faces showing happiness with Red’s commentary and seeing Andy smiling is one of the happier moments in the