Paper 2A exam question:

In both Pan's Labyrinth and City of God, cinematography is commonly used to help build context, for instance in the flashback apartment scene where we see the progression of the apartment becoming less and less domestic as the lighting changes as the scene starts with very hot lighting and eventually becomes much colder making the apartment look like a husk of its former domesticated. We see lighting is used a lot in City of God to reflect the darker reality in the present
and the nostalgic light hearted past as the lighting is very warm at the beginning as Rocket recalls his childhood. The camera in the flashback scene is still fully static and does not move one bit.

Particularly the Pale Man scene inside Pan's Labyrinth as the camera is on a dolly zooming out of Ofelia's face to show the long hallway creating a sense of mystery as she entered the underworld again not knowing what could be lurking, as Ofelia enters the underworld we quickly realise the warm lighting that reinforces this magical atmosphere as reality has such cold dark lighting within the film Ophelia's situation is during the film having all of the scenes which take place in the underworld be a escapist fantasy. As the scene continues we see a dinner table mirroring an earlier scene in reality as the pale man is in the same seat as Captain Vidal we see the large spread of food and the room through wide angle shots creating a fantasy atmosphere. The condition of Ophelia during the film is that all the scenes that take place in the underworld are an escape dream. As the scene continues, in fact, we see a dinner table mirroring an earlier scene as the pale man is in the same seat as Captain Vidal, we see the vast distribution of food and the room creating a fantasy atmosphere through wide angle shots.

In both films, Mise-en-scene is used to help build context, for example in the City of God apartment scene as the scenes continue to transition as we see the apartment becoming more empty as furniture is
taken out and the apartment becomes dirtier to take away the domestic homely atmosphere that is seen in the beginning to later become a drug den only used to pedal drugs in the City of God

For example, in the Pale Man scene, the underworld instantly creates a bizarre atmosphere inside Pan's Labyrinth mise-en-scene as we see the walls are coloured in 'blood red' with decayed pillars creating a sense of danger that the room illuminated behind the Pale Man creates an evil atmosphere and imminent danger as Ophelia meets the Pale Man.