Film Techniques for: Quest for Fire

In J. J. Annaud’s film “Quest for Fire”, Annaud utilizes film and editing techniques like cross-cutting, close-up camera shots and background music.

During the opening sequence, the Ulam are attacked by the huge, ape-like Wagabu tribe, and are driven out of their village/cave, and into the wolves’ territory. However, not everyone escapes from the wolves. During this sequence, the film cuts from the terrified Ulams running through the woods, to the wolves chasing them. Annaud also shows us brief shots of the dead Ulam. He ends the scene with a lone Ulam being attacked and killed by the wolves, while continuously cross-cutting to the group getting away. This sequence creates a scene of terror, that the Ulam are being set upon by a pack of wolves, have suffered devastating losses, and that anyone out of the group has almost no chance of survival.

At the most important moment of the movie, where a human tribe-member teaches Naoh the secret of fire, Annaud uses close-ups to show exactly how important this moment is. He focuses on Naoh’s reactions to the fire; from his casual interest in what this scrawny little human is doing, to when his attention is grabbed by the smoke coming from the wood, then finally his breaking into tears as the fire roars into life. Annaud is getting across to the audience that what Naoh is learning is something huge, the most important thing of survival, how to make fire.

The final technique is an editing technique, when Naoh and his group are about to be attacked by the cannibalistic Kzamm tribe, whom they stole the fire from; a herd of woolly mammoths appear over a ridge, and start to roar. At this point, everything is silent, but the mammoths’ roar. Soon, as Naoh slowly makes his way up to the lead mammoth clutching a few straws of grass, the music builds. Just as Naoh hands over the grass to the huge beast, the music builds to a crescendo, Annaud effectively yelling at the audience from the editing room “This is important! Watch!” He is telling us that this is what he imagines the domestication of animals to be, or at least an understanding of how to make peace with wild animals.

In the movie, Annaud utilizes these techniques well so as to alert the audience to what he is showing them, conveying emotion to them.