Title; THE IRON GIANT

Director; Brad Bird

 

Year; 1999

 

 

 

 

The clip I chose is at 41:50 on the timeline of the film. The setting is 1950's North America and the film is based on a book by Ted Hughes called 'The Iron Man'. It revolves around the friendship between a young boy, Hogarth Hughes, and an alien giant metal robot. Hogarth saves the robot from electrocution at a power station and then tries to keep him a secret from the authorities, who arrive in the form of Kent Mansleigh, an agent from the department of unexplained phenomena. Keeping the robot a sectret would be difficult enough, considering his size, but this problem is made worse by the fact that Kent rents the spare room in Hogarths mothers house, putting Hogarths activities under close scrutiny.
(Apologies for the poor quality of the clip, I had to convert the format to AVI for use in prem pro - cutting it from the original film. This resulted in the sound being out of sync and the grainy appearance of the visual)

 

With regards to what I appreciated about the scene I think it’s the pacing, the constant stream of questions that Kent fires at Hogarth, adds to the pressure He’s under by Kent moving into their house. This interrogation style is enhanced by quick cuts to different camera angles before Hogarth gets time to answer any of the questions.

What I didn’t like about the scene was the nicknames Kent used at the end of each question, slugger, sport, buddy, etc. I found that annoying but then again I guess it’s supposed to have that effect.

What would I keep? Definitely the music, it’s upbeat and takes the stress (that we feel for Hogarth) out of the situation.

What would I change? Nothing – I don’t think I could improve the scene which means that by changing something I would probably make it worse.

Comments; I had noticed, in an earlier scene, the room for rent sign in the Hughes’ front window so I was expecting that someone would be moving in with them. The fact that it turns out to be Kent Mansleigh is an interesting twist, as it puts added pressure on Hogarth - to keep the giant a secret.

Characters; The scene begins with the main character, Hogarth Hughes, getting home after being out all night with the Iron Giant, and before he gets time for any sleep, he gets called by his mother. His mother is Annie Hughes, who’s raising Hogarth by herself. To help make ends meet she has rented out a room in their house to Kent Mansleigh. Kent works for the government (dept. of unexplained phenomena) and has been sent to the town to find out about the cause of the damage to the power station. As Hogarth wants to keep the Giants existence a secret the last thing he wants is to have Kent living in their house. There is also a telephone conversation with Dean McCoppin, the local scrapyard owner, where the Giant is hiding, and the scene cuts to Deans office/home during this conversation. Status wise Kent has the higher status between him and Hogarth as he is suspicious of Hogarth hiding something from him, and is therefore pressurising him through questioning. There is also a status change between Dean and Hogarth. Dean, being the adult, has naturally a higher status. But when Hogarth cuts short their telephone conversation, without resolving the issue of the Giant staying at Deans scrapyard, Deans superiority is ignored and so his status switches to lower of the pair. The Iron Giant is also a main character but has a lesser role in this scene.

The casting, in my opinion, shouldn’t make that much difference in an animated film that has a young target audience, as they wouldn’t be fans of particular actors in the way adults would. I think kids are more interested in the plot of a film than the actors. In saying that casting Harry Connick jr for the part of Dean works well as he has a smooth voice which suits the laid back, amiable character.

Setting; The scene has two separate settings due to a telephone conversation that gives visuals of both parties as they speak. The main part of the scene takes place in Annie and Hogarth’s house with the revelation, to a very tired Hogarth, that Kent has rented the spare room in their house. It’s relevant in the timeline of the film as it puts Hogarth (the secret keeper) and Kent (the secret investigator) in uncomfortably close proximity. It would now seem inevitable that Kent will crack Hogarths determination to keep the Giant a secret. The fact that Hogarth is unable to talk to Dean on the phone, because of Kent, and they don’t resolve the issue of the Giant staying longer at the scrapyard, we are led to believe that for now, the Giant will remain where he is. So both settings help with the telling of the story and are suitable where they are in the timeline.

Mise-en-scene;  The first interesting visual that I noticed was when Hogarth climbed in through his bedroom window in the morning and began to undress to go to bed. Watching his clothes fall to the floor in a sort of flowing motion we get the impression that he is drifting towards the bed and nothing else but sleep matters to him. Then when his mother enters the room and we realises that it’s time to get up, that he won’t get that sleep, we immediately sympathise with him. Plus it feeds into his attitude when he gets downstairs. We get a brief glimpse of Kents newspaper’s headline as Hogarth enters the dining room. It highlights the ‘mysterious’ train accident – one aspect of kents investigations. The lighting of this set is bright and sunny, making the house seem more homely, in comparison to Deans house/office which has the blinds down and therefore semi-dark. This kind of reflects his appearance, dark hair, dark clothes and a darker complexion to the other characters. Although I think the reason for the blinds being down is more to indicate that it’s still early in the morning.

Camera work; The scene starts with an establishing shot from inside Hogarths bedroom, with the window centre stage as Hogarth climbs in. The camera angle stays low, perhaps because he is sneaking in, until his mother enters the room when it rises to normal height. The camera then follows Hogarths movement with a pan, as he descends the stairs and enters the kitchen. It then focuses on Kent, centre screen, from Hogarths view point, and zooms in close as Kent lowers his newspaper. The shots of Hogarth, when he speaks, are close-ups, which highlight his facial expressions more, and when it shows the setting of the room, kent is always the central figure. The setiing of Deans office is mostly close-ups of Dean, with matching close-ups of Hogarth when each of them speak. This works well when Dean opens his door and the Giants face fills the opening. There are similar shots after this where the Giants face fills the view from the window. When Kent starts questioning Hogarth there are a series of different shots in quick succession, to match the rapid speed of the questions – Kent doesn’t even wait for a reply to one question before he asks the next. These shots are all low-angle showing Kent as the dominant figure.

Sounds and music; The scene begins with Hogarth opening his bedroom window. There are the normal sound effects relating to his movement, along with some ambient birdsong when the window is open. There is also background music, which is orchestral, that fades out as Hogarths mother enters the room, allowing their speech to be heard more clearly. There are the normal sound effects associated with the characters activities as Hogarth makes his way downstairs and enters the dining room. The ambient birdsong returns as the scene cuts to Deans place and opens the door. During the following telephone conversation between Dean and Hogarth there is a background track playing big band style music and a woman singing. This track is lively and upbeat and typical of the music from that era - 1950's. It helps to lighten the mood of the scene and distract from the seriousness of Hogarths situation. There are several licenced tracks in the movie, presumably chosen as they are representative of the era and very suitable.