Questions on Battleship Potempkin (1925)

1. There is a mixture of thoughts brought up in the first 45secs of the clip given. It can be said to be quite delightful for the people or uncertainty for others. Due this clip was from a long time ago, technology limitations may restrict the quality of shots.

At the opening of the clip, we can see through the happiness and jubilation in the people's faces. They're all waving, giving their stunning smiles and not trying to hide themselves from the people they are going to greet. Although we can see them waving, it did not indicate who they are exactly waving to. This creates a sense of curiosity or suspense for viewers, not knowing what would happen.

There was a moment which might bring something out to lead us to what happens afterwards. Between 6-10 seconds, there were these 'moment's which I think, didn't really fit back into the scene. The lady had troubles in seeing, needing the help of glasses and then, she moved some kind of respiratory equipment onto her nose. By not knowing what it could mean, my assumption would be that she gets excited and then couldn't breathe properly. But I'm not convinced by what it's trying to tell audience, if reflecting back on the whole scene. There also wasn't this smile that lit her face before, this might be the fact she's got sight difficulties.

25seconds into the clip, a little child is introduced to the audience. He has this nervous emotion seen on his face, which signify he isn't quite so sure what is going on around him. It is then cut to another shot, which shows a white flag, wailing on top of a sail. This hazily forebodes what would happen next- there might be a war going on in sea. It then once again, cuts back to the little child, this time with her mother, which she encourages the child to wave. This would forebode a near incident that would happen.

2. Sergei Eisenstein mainly uses the stairs as to establish the status between the soldiers and these people. At the beginning of the play, the people scattered around the stairs and had control over it. But once these soldiers arrive on the top, they were running downwards, suggesting their power has ended and the soldiers are taking over.

The soldiers, compared to the people, looked high class and powerful. They all wore the same uniform, each had a gun which pointed the same direction, and it seems they were well trained by looking at the posture. They moved in a straight line, with every movement identically to each other. Shots were zoomed onto their faces which it did towards the people, so that it shows there weren't any significance between them. In contrast, the people doesn't have the regulations of these soldiers and they ran disorderly, causing a few deaths in the process.

The soldiers had no other duty, but to kill these people. With the people all killed previously, they just stepped over them and showed no mercy when the woman confronted them to spare their lives. There were frequent close-up shots on the people to show audience their dramatic emotions. This is changed because in previous, people's faces were full of joy and delightful. After going through the 45seconds, the sudden change of scene immediately brings down the happiness and sadness creeps instead. The music follows what the scene brings to the audience, before the 45sec mark, the tone was quite cheerful but after it, a much darker rhythm knocks on.