West Side Story

West Side Story

In this musical, it uses several types of narratives, for example, after the fight between the Jets and Puerto Ricans, after the police leave, they enter the ally and the girl is begging to join the gang saying how much she wants to fight is a part of narrative sexuality (B 34). The girl is more of a tom boy who wants to be like one of the guys.

Also, in the West Side Story, it uses many camera angles and distances. One example is the high-angle shot (B 49). In the very beginning the camera shows an overview of the West Side. I think that is shows this because it gives the audience a perspective on how large the West Side is. It also shows a distance shot (B 49) when the police arrive to the fight scene where they have each gang on one side and the police in the middle. Another type of camera distance is when the Jets and Puerto Ricans start fighting in the second act the Jets are on the right and Puerto Ricans are on the left and the two guys fighting in the middle. It shows the audience how big each gang is.

The West Side Story also uses different types of lighting. One example is in the beginning where they Jets and Puerto Ricans are fighting uses a type of general set lighting (B 53). Since it is a day time exterior scene much of the lighting is not needed because it is using the sun. I may use mirrors or reflectors to use more lighting (B 53). An example of low-key lighting is used in the dance scene, (where they are in a red room and they are dancing) they director is using the low-key lighting system (B 54) because it just shows the shadows in red and black. Another example of low key light (B 54) is when the girl is on the fire escape ladder in her night gown talking to the guy in the yellow jacket. In this scene it is very dark except for both of the people. Another example of low key light is right after the sunrise scene in the second act where the picture is all red except for two black looking diamonds. Afterwards, the camera moves out and the Jets climb over the fence. Another example of lighting is in the second act when both gangs start fighting when the two people pull out the knife the light reflects off the knife to show the audience how shiny, well kept, and sharp the one knife is.

In the musical, it also uses both camera distance and lighting. In the scene where their dancing in the red room one of the Jets looks over at a distance and sees