Film exploration - 21 The Movie

Production:
Director: Robert Luketic
Writers: Peter Steinfeld , Allan Loeb
Main actors: Jim Sturgess, Kevin Spacey and Kate Bosworth
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Source of finance and Production companies: Colombia Pictures
Relativity Media (in association with)
Trigger Street Productions
Budget: $35,000,000 (estimated)
Opening weekend: $24,105,934 (USA) (2,684 screens)
1,649,855 (UK) (354 screens)
Movie rating: pg-13
Running time: 2 hrs and 3 minutes
Filming location: Las Vegas and Boston and Massachusetts, USA
Year released: 2008

Distribution:
The film was mainly distributed by Colombia Pictures across America but the film was in
association with Relativity Media. The movie was distributed in 4 different ways DVD, Blu-ray
DVD, PSP and in movie bundles. The movie is PG 13 rated so by distributing on PSPs theyre
reaching out to the teenagers and gamers. PSPs are portable so people who like watching
movies on the go might buy the movie and watch it whenever they want. They included movie
bundles as well suggesting the movie did not do so well by itself or they teamed up with different
people to earn more money together by putting their moneys together and splitting the profit.

Exhibition:
It was showed in all types of cinemas like multiplex and independent and arthouse. This shows
that they were trying to appeal to all types of audiences. The film earnt $24,105,938 in the USA

across 2,684 screens. 21 the movie won the ShoWest Convention, USA and were nominated
for the Golden Trailer award and the Peoples Choice awards. Domestically the movie got a
gross of $81,159,365 and foreign it got $ $76,767,975 which in total worldwide grosses equalled
$157,927,340. The MPAA Rating (American rating system) is PG 13.

Explore the ways in which two Micro-Elements of film language creates

meanings and responses in one sequence of the chosen film. 21 the movie
[0:02 - 2:30] cinematography and mise-en-scene.
The sequence I have chosen is the opening scene from 21 the movie; a voiceover is used to
describe what will happen in the movie and explains a little about the character himself. The
director does this by using CGI effects and all kinds of cinematography.
To start of with cinematography the scene starts out with a really zoomed in tracking shot of the
kind of spades. The camera then zooms out and an ace is thrown down. This immediately
makes the audience think of gambling and knows that gambling brings bad fortune most of the
time. Then it zooms on the chips that the person is using but we still dont see the gambler
(Main Character). Wehear voice overs. After the chips we get a tracking shot of all the cards
being dealt out and a glimpse of the table. This creates tension because the music is fast and
the pans and tracking is fast. This keeps the audience intrigued. When the racking stops we get
some CGI effects of an extreme close up of a human eyeball and the pair of ace and kings.
Soon we get a zoomed in deck of cards being shot out of a dispenser. Following that we get
another tracking shot of the cards on the table and then finally the audience see the a bit of the
face of the narrator. We get a extreme close up on his eyes and nose. This finally makes the
audience feel like they know who he is but he is still quite mysterious as they have not seen his
whole face. In the wake of that we see a really extreme close up of the ace of spades and we
get a tracking shot of the whole card (CGI effects used throughout the showing of cards and
chips). Finally, for the poker table, we get a camera angle that goes all the way around the table.
At this point I think the audience have enjoyed the slick CGI effects and camera movement and
they want to find out more about the character that is doing the voiceover. That is what they get.
We get several extreme close ups of the narrator doing his hear, them combing it, putting on a
fake moustache and putting on the fake glasses. After those glimpses of the character we once
again see the table and the cards and the constant zooming out of the close up of the cards but
immediately after that we see the character whole face in a close shot. We get several different
zoomed in shots of different people afterwards. Finally we get close ups and long shots mystery
men who start walking but end up running. This is a sort of cliffhanger used by the director.
Mise en scene consists of different things but what this movie mainly used was props, setting,
costume and lighting. The props are quite obvious, we have the cards and chips, the fake
moustache and hair the character uses. The characters in this scene used smart outfits with
fake accessories included. The setting was in the casino and mostly focused around on table.
The lighting was very important in this scene because they used a lot of shadowing and tried not
to reveal too much to the audience so they would feel anxious to find out more. There was a

particular moment in this scene where we see the casino police coming for the people who
were illegally counting and we couldnt see their faces because there was no lighting on them
and this was really nicely used to create the effect of mystery on the audience and get them
thinking if the people who were shadowed out would be in the movie again. The performance of
the actors was good and the facial expressions were really clever because they werent talking
because of the voiceover. The cliffhanger at the end was a nice touch by the director.
In conclusion I think 21 The Movie used the micro-elements very well and there was a lot of
detail on cinematography. They included all kinds of camera shots and movement. The
response the audience would get from this scene is a sense of mystery and tension. They would
want to continue watching the movie to find out if the gamblers succeed and to find out the
faces of the men who were not lit up at the end of the scene. In my opinion cinematography was
the best micro-element out of the two because they put in a lot of hard work and detail on it.