The Quest for Fire

The Quest for Fire directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud uses different film techniques to show details or to emphasis a particular scene like High/Low angle shots, tracking and close ups. Music is used to create a certain mood or show the significance of a scene.

Annaud uses close ups on Naoh to show just how amazed he is when the humans start to light the fire. The human who is lighting fire starts by rubbing sticks together until embers start to appear he then cups them up and gently blows on them till they catch and burst into flames. All through this scene it keeps cutting back to close ups of Naoh who is looking amazed and making excited grunting noises. This scene is very effective at demonstrating how alien the idea of lighting fire is to Naoh and how important it could be to his tribe because if they could light fire at will, they wouldn't need to worry about their fires getting put out by enemies.

Panning is used in the opening and ending scene Annaud probably used this to display how vast and empty the land was around the ulams camp. The only other thing apart from the open landscape is one lonely fire at the center of the camp. This fire is very important to the ulams because it is their only way for keeping them warm, cooking food, protection from wild beasts and hardening their tools. This scene shows how vulnerable the tribe would be without their fire it also shows that this is a movie that is probably set early in humans evolution because if it was today it would probably be glowing with lights from buildings and street lights.

Another important technique in this movie is music it is used throughout to make a scene more dramatic or important. Since there is no dialogue in the movie it would be very dull without music and sound effects. Some of the main scenes with dramatic music are when Naoh feeds the mammoth in a attempt to get it to help them fight off the attackers. It is used then because it is a very important moment. It is also used when the fire is being light for the first time dramatic music is played then because it is basically ending the quest for fire because they can now light it at will.

The different techniques are effectively used to make the overall movie much better, if there was none of these it would be a very boring movie. The techniques that have been used are great at showing specific details and different moods.

Reading Response to Black Gold

'Black Gold' by Chris Ryan isn't the best book I have read but it does have a good story line also there isn't any boring introduction its straight into action. The book is based around a oil company called ArBonCo trying to set up a oil rig near a island called Curacao about 40km off the coast of south America in an attempt to distract the people of  Curacao they decide to crash a oil tanker with thousands of tons of oil into the cliffs.

This is where the five friends come and save the day since the islands only real income comes from the dive schools that are scattered along the coast it is vital that they stop them because no one would bother coming to dive if the water was polluted and all the fish and other species were dying. They decide to use their diving skills that they have been learning to investigate the wreck but they don't find anything interesting apart from the ship had been set on full ahead at the cliffs.This made them suspicious that it wasn't just a accident.

later on in the story they talk to a guy who said he had been shot in the arm by another diver who looked like he was running away from the ship. the next day the there was a small explosion in the ship which made it even more odd because the oil still left in the tank should of blown the tanker sky high. They decide the something very fishy was going on when a dead shark was washed up on the beach which appeared to have been blown apart from the inside with shrapnel impaled all the way around it's guts. After many daring missions they eventually solve the puzzle and stop the drilling.

I think that the main idea that Chris Ryan its trying to convey is that people can be to greedy and not think about the consequences that might happen like the dive teachers losing there jobs or fish and other marine animals dying . They just want to satisfy there want to be rich at the expense of others. If i was going to rate this book i would probably give it a 3 - 3.5.