The Gold Rush Micro Elements

Chicken scene:

The set is very rickety-looking, snow is against the windows, and creeping in through the doorway and windowsill. The whole house is at a slant and shows how unstable the structure is. It’s shabbiness, made clear by the cloth hanging from the ceiling and differently sized wooden planks in the walls, emphasises their hopelessness and solitary state. It’s barely furnished and is only one room big, showing how scarce food and comfort for them is. The lack of furniture also allows the actors to move around the set more easily and makes their body language more accessible and obvious for the audience.

The most obvious comments on costume are those on the chicken costume. The chicken is meant to be humorous and unexpected for the audience, as well as keeping up with a sense of narrative. It takes a desperate situation and makes it funny, as the movement that the chicken costume allows for the actor inside is limited, so most of his expression is reliant upon the flapping of the wings and the swivelling of the head. The costume of the men before Charlie’s change to a chicken are less notable. Chaplin is wearing his usual ‘tramp’ ensemble, his tie is loosely done up and to the side, his trousers are baggy, and his shoes are big, he also has the mass of rags around his foot from when he cooked his shoe. This aspect of his costume gives him a comical limp, as well as making his appearance that more peculiar. The other man is wearing clothing that is slightly more appropriate for the harsh environments they are in, as he came there with clearer intentions. His outfit is not complicated, all parts are the same colour, and there is a belt for his nice, this allows the audience not to be distracted by what he’s wearing, but also has practicality for the narrative. The make-up on the both of them is centred on the eyes, giving them dark rings, showing how tired they are.

The camera is mainly facing from the fourth wall, showing the layout of the room from a straight-forward angle, this is then added to with close-ups showing the facial expressions of the characters clearly. The wide shots used don’t show the faces as well, but they show the body language, making a more suitable shot for slapstick comedy, which is the most easily portrayed comedy without the use of sound.

Generally there is not much editing outside of going from one shot to another in most of this film, which is where this scene stands out. When Charlie’s character turns from a man to a chicken the shot fades from one to another, transitioning from reality to the other man’s mind. The rest of the editing is made up from jump-cuts. The shots tend to be long as short, complicated shots had not been experimented with yet in the film industry, and it was easier to have one long reel of film for one shot.

The lighting is not dramatic in anyway, some comes from the windows as well as from behind the camera, so to ensure that the set is evenly lit. The light from the windows go in the direction of the left side of the screen, the side that Charlie’s character is usually on, bringing more attention to him. The light also falls upon the table very well, bringing more attention to the space where the two men have communicated the most throughout their stay, making it the most important part of the set for narrative purposes.

Dance scene:

The set is made to appear naturalistic and lively - it is full of people having a good time and dancing in the same space as Charlie and Georgia. It seems to be the place in the town that everyone goes to at the end of the day for a good time with their friends, which makes the solitary, wandering Charlie stand out even more than he already did through his clothing.

His outfit is the same as the rest of the film, which was labelled as his ‘tramp’ character. The rest of the crowd are well dressed, especially Georgia in her sequinned dress, making a large contrast when they dance together. The large amount of cloth bandaged around his foot makes his efforts in the dance seem even more hopeless as he waddles his way through the steps as best as he cam. His costume fully involved in the comedy in this scene as he tips his hat to surprised onlookers and looses his belt during their dance. He desperately tries to pull his trousers up with his cane, but ends up tying a dog’s leash to his waist unknowingly just to keep his trousers from falling. This leads to even more confusion as he continues the dance with a large dog following behind him, which allows more visual humour for the audience.

The camera positions switch throughout the dance so their movement across the dance floor is more obvious, it also reveals more of the set, making the place look bigger, therefore housing more people of the town. This helps create the atmosphere of the place, as well as the attitude of the town. The angles of the shots are again straight-forward, not with any differing angles. The camera’s use was to capture the story, not to make each shot look glamorous individually. There are some shots that are slightly closer to the actors, but not to reveal anymore detail, just to determine the focus of the audience. There is one closeup however, at the very end of the scene, when Charlie notices that the rose from Georgia’s hair fell out, the shot is from above and is very close to the rose, as well as revealing part of Charlie’s foot. This would not have been very clear to the audience if the shot had remained as a wide or mid shot, this close-up of Charlie’s shoes also reveals how shabby they are in appearance, showing again how the costume was designed to make him look poorer and out of place.The editing is much the same as throughout the rest of the film, with quick jump-cuts, and generally long shots. This allowed the film to show a wider view but in more detail; there could be mid shots of part of the set which then cut to a close-up or wide shot, making the visuals more interesting for the viewer, as well as present them with more detail concerning the set and the characters.

The lighting before the dance actually begins, when Georgia is trying to push off the man who wants to dance with her, comes from a door behind them, it stretches their shadows out in front of them, and leads a path from the back, to them, to Charlie; guiding the viewer’s eye through the shot. The rest of the scene is lit as if it were the bar that it is, making the atmosphere appear more realistic.

The Visit Scene:

(This scene starts at 49:18 in this video)

The setting of this scene lies in a cosy shack in the town. This home seems much more comfortable than the last shack Chaplin’s character was in. It’s more orderly and it’s space is fuller, making it feel more lived in. You can still see the snow against the side of the windows, reminding the audience that the town is by a mountain and it is in the midst of winter; the shack seems to have been made to survive these climates and keep whoever resides within comfortable. There’s more furniture in the space too, making it more likely to have guests and be a happy and communal place to live.

The outfits of the women vastly differ from Chaplin’s usual ‘tramp’ outfit, whilst he looks untidy and poor, the girls all look glamorous and cosy in their big fur coats. This illustrates the clear difference in wealth between Charlie and the people of the town, especially those who he is trying to fit in with. This, in turn, makes his efforts with Georgia even more useless through the audience’s eyes. His bandaged foot comes into the storyline in this scene, as the match used to light a cigarette lights it on fire. This leads to confusion and quick action on Charlie’s part and makes Georgia more sympathetic towards him.

The filming is much the same as it always is, with the view from the fourth wall, looking straight forward, and showing the set in it’s entirety. The shots are long, with pieces of dialogue appearing on screen every now and then, as well as close-ups on the characters, showing their facial expressions, so that they don’t need to use exaggerated body language through the whole scene.

The editing is simple, with jump-cuts from shot to shot, with each shot normally being quite long, so to get the set in as well as people’s movements for long enough to show character as well as narrative, and the same for close-up shots.

The lighting is soft, not bringing attention to any particular characters or objects in the wide shots, simply showing the light from the windows, and then probably some from behind the camera, to make sure the set is fully illuminated. In the closer shots, however, it is possible that the lights were more directed at the characters, so to make them stand out from the background a little more. A sort of vignette is also made around the photograph of Georgia and her rose found under Charlie's pillow.