City Of God : Analysis on Opening Scene

 The opening scene begins with the sharpening of a knife, followed by traditional Brazilian music, which essentially is preparing us for the snappy, fast-paced violence that's going to happen in the scene and the film. Right off the bat the scene is followed by constant jump shots of the chicken and the people around it killing other chickens, the whole opening scene is constantly switching shots from the chicken to the people around it. When the chicken starts running away we're introduced to Lil Z' and his discomforting smile, constantly bossing everyone around telling them to get the chicken, and when someone fails to he becomes aggressive towards them and instantly takes out his gun, showing us how violent he is and how violent it can get rapidly in the film.

Throughout the whole chasing bit of the scene the Brazilian music is played constantly to add that element of a fast-moving chasing scene,  however when the shot changes and we see Rocket for the first time, not only is he presented in a higher angle making him on equal with everyone else, but the Brazilian music stops playing, and the camera follows Rocket smoothly and slowly , adding an element of relaxingness  portraying us the audience to feel calm when we're around Rocket, showing that he is a safe person to be around, unlike Lil Z' who we see from a low perspective and get a constant close-up angle of his horrible discomforting smile which is ethical to show what type of character he is because he is clearly not a good guy.

The constant cold lighting in comparison to the warm lighting in the sixties presents an element of nostalgia, it portrays the sixties as it being part of the good times and then the present going to a downfall with constant violence, etc.

Another scene that is good to look at would be the apartment scene, where the style of this scene is quite unique, and in my opinion really cool because you can see how the apartment slowly starts shifting from this cosy home-like feeling to a drug dealing criminal-filled apartment. From the lighting change, to the change in furniture, you can really see the change that happens over the years and can easily assume what's also changing outside of the apartment.

The prop change in this scene you can see that it starts out with a sofa, kitchen, anything that you'd normally see in a house. However as the apartment changes and changes it slowly starts getting removed from the scene and you can slowly see it begin to get filled with drugs, a table that's not longer used for dining but to count money and pack drugs, etc. Furthermore, the lighting in this scene I believe is quite ethical for the change to fully happen, if you recall back to the opening scene when we first see the sixties, you can see that the lighting is quite warm and bright, whereas the present in this film the lighting is cold and darker. Same thing goes to the apartment and you can see how it really starts changing as the apartment gets passed down more and more.