Post your sequence analysis here. Three minutes or less of a portion of a film, 500 words or more.
Think about the list of cinematic techniques I handed out in class and that are posted on the FB page.
The movie is about two women who troubled with guy-problems. Because of this they decided they need a break and a change in their address which hopefully can change their lives. Iris (Kate Winslet) is in love with a guy who is going to marry another woman. Across the globe, 6,000 miles away Amanda (Cameron Diaz) realizes the man she lives with has been unfaithful. They are in the same situation and meet online in an exchange web site. They decide to swap their homes in each other’s countries without knowing each other. Amanda moves to a countryside in England and Iris in Amanda’s house in the sunny California in the US.
In her first night Amanda wake up by a knocking on her door. It’s Graham (Jude Law), Iris brother. She finds a new romance but she doesn’t wanna start any complicated things. Ones after meeting a couple times she decides to surprise him at his house until she realized that he’s more than just a romance.
She arrives at his house: the mill house. The first shot of the door shows the expected idyllic situation that she is supposed to be in and Grahams down-home life. The small door to his garden out of wood represents the countryside of England which is typically for theses areas. The camera goes floating down to her hand opening the door. It’s no cut in between theses two shots so that the idyllic situation still exist. She enters to the garden of this perfect looking house. The camera floats again into the situation over the wall without interrupting the silence. When she rings the bell and he opens the door, a lot of reaction-shots follow each other.
She is standing outside in the dark and tries to explain the whole situation. Just her face is spotlighted, while he is standing inside this warm light that creates a cozy atmosphere. He seems to be on the higher position than her, arouse by the light. She is talking and the camera goes back and forth between the two main actors. Amanda capture the whole camera frame, while Graham is enclosed by the door and the wall. Obviously he is in an uncomfortable situation and has to hide something, cause he is closing the door a touch more. A noise sounds out of the house. Graham is turning around, but Amanda is talking more and more, until she realizes that he is not alone. She doesn’t know how to react so her movements are getting faster and more anxious. The door opens a little bit more and the camera goes down to the little girl that comes into the action. Without Grahams action, he abandon more of his life. This is the first time that Amanda doesn’t say anything and is composed with a close-up in the camera. The situation opens when the girl says something to Amanda. The camera goes out to an establishing shot to introduce the new person and the relationship between all of them. It’s like a beginning of a new scene, when all the important figures show up and the surrounding is introduced. It’s a turning point for the whole sequence.
The camera position is now behind Amanda to clarify the situation and the relationships again. Graham and his daughter are standing pretty close together and Graham has his hands on her shoulder. Although this composition shows that Amanda is even more outside, the lighting that comes from the inside of the house brightens the whole atmosphere up and makes it to a homogenous image.
Amanda and the girl are talking. Normally you expect a birds eye shot when an adult standing person is talking to a child, but here the camera goes in both parts to a close-up of each person. So there is no real hierarchy to see between the two figures. The second daughter arrives and the door opens even more. The situation gain more space and get friendly. Although there are still the three person on the one side of the door in the bright light and the one person outside in the dark. Even the clothes of all of them underline the differences between the two “worlds”. She is totally dressed up and he is like a family-father standing there with his open chemise, a little bit sweaty and his girls are both wearing these normal winter-sweaters.
They open her the door, let her inside the house and she passes over the barrier of the door to his life - inside the bright, clear and tidy room./world. She walks inside in a full figure shot to show the situation she is in, but after a while the camera changes to a close-up again to show her looking about another person - like his wife. But there are just empty rooms showed.
The scene closes when Graham turned around to close the door. This shot is a close-up of his face outside in the dark as if he wanna escape out of the situation. But he closes the door and lets the story go on.
I will be analyzing a scene from Big Fish directed by Tim Burton. The clip begins with a medium close-up shot of Edward as he paints the exterior of Jenny's house. He is dressed in his business dress clothes, which are dressed down with the tie removed, collar unbuttoned, and sleeves rolled up to indicate that he has stopped at her house on the way home from his business travel. The Spectre swamp is in the background of the shot, and it appears cheerful, with leafy green trees, clean water, and the sun shining. This may indicate that this part of the story is embellished or fabricated, or it may reflect Jenny's feelings towards this event, as she would have been happy to have Edward there. The voice-over is coming from Jenny's point of view, as this clip is a flashback as she tells a story, and the music is non-diegetic sound, which is a peppy-sounding score to the montage of home improvements taking place preceding this scene. Jenny's look is consistant with the character's costumes as a young girl, with a flowing floral dress, and a similar hairstyle, which is a way of enforcing her stagnancy in the town of Spectre, which she has never left. She has stayed the same in hopes that Edward would come back and find her there. The next shot opens with Carl the giant's hand drawing back to reveal Jenny's face and her surprise at seeing the final transformation of her home. It then cuts to a point of view shot over the shoulders of Carl, Jenny, and Edward. The camera begins at the height of Carl's head and lowers to the other two, emphasizing the difference in height. The characters are shown looking at Jenny's house, which is radiant, bright, and clean as the fog clears. The next scene is a medium shot of Edward putting the final touch on Jenny's house, by installing a coat hook next to the door. The kitchen counter is between the camera and the characters, and again the light is sunny to reflect the fondness Jenny has for these memories. Edward is dressed in his business attire once again, this time with his coat and tie on, showing that this may be a different day from the previous scene. He is telling her a story about the twins, who are characters the viewer is familiar with, but this is a small part of the story that hasn't been told yet. It reinforces Edward's sociable, comfortable, friendly, story-telling personality that he develops throughout the flashbacks in the film. Jenny stands against the wall with her hands on her face, which tells of her remaining childlike qualities of shyness and adoration for Edward, and can be looked at in contrast to the next scene where she is older and more mature. He uses the hand, which is the product he sells as a traveling salesman. The following cuts during the scene where Jenny tries to kiss Edward are all match cuts The soft non-diegetic music begins to play as she goes to sign the deed on the table, which is a full-figure shot. The childlike way she runs and the fact that she is still barefoot after all the years that have passed also reinforce her youthful, hopeful characteristic. She hands the paper to him while looking at the floor, which is also very childlike and shows her embarrassment over the events that just took place.
In this short film it is separated into drama, suspense and horror parts to create this up and down of emotions throughout the different scenes. Most of the clips are slower at first to make you feel like your leading up to the drama that’s about to happen. Up until the very end of the film you think something bad is going to happen because of the disturbing noises coming from the woman and the dead cell phone. The crow is always calling out to something throughout the whole film and I think its trying to tell the old man that something bad is happening, which gives it a more creepier feel. When the knife gets stabbed into the ground we assume that the man has killed the woman because of the low, dark music. Towards the end when we find out that the woman was actually in labor, the soothing music and smiling of the characters gives a sense of relief because we then know she was not being harmed. As for the sound, there was no dialogue throughout the whole film. Both the diegetic sound and the non-diegetic sound is what made the film have suspense and drama. Some of the diegetic sounds were from the crow, the squeaking of the sign, the knife, cell phone, and the laughing towards the end. The non-digestic sounds were throughout the whole film as well, which was more scary and horrific during the beginning and peaceful at the end. Some of the diegetic sounds seem to start before the subject was actually in the picture, such as the cell phone, the woman crying, and the sign squeaking. I think this is what makes the suspense really strong because the viewer is waiting to see the sound, and the camera is moving so slow that I was expecting to see a sudden movement or noise. The lighting throughout most of this film seems to be natural except for the part where the farmer opens the trunk. There seems to be some sort of set up lighting because his whole body is shinning in an odd way. Also when he kneels down to hand the blanket to the woman, his whole body seems to be lit up in a really awkward way compared to the woman and her baby. The lighting on him seems to be more shiny and not as warm and natural, which is under-lighting. The beginning couple seems where the grass is swaying through the wind is very slow and the camera moves from a variety of different angles, such as low-angle, high-angle, and close ups. Some of the editing devices used are the dissolve, such as in the beginning when the camera is moving through the field. At the end when the woman has her baby, she and the farmer look at each other and smile, which is a reaction shot, we get to see the reactions of both characters. The farmer is dressed in overalls and looks dirty and sweaty, just as a normal farmer would. The viewer doesn’t get the confirmation that he is an actual farmer until the end when the camera zooms out of the area they are in and you can see the tractor and its tracks where he must have saw the woman and stopped to help.
To me, the introduction to the movie is an important scene. It will set up your expectations for the movie, you develop your first impressions of character, setting, and story. In the intro of Gummo, you are only focused on one character, in one setting. It is a boy in costume which are pink bunny ears filmed without a shirt, raggedy shorts and shoes, and a chipped front tooth. Before the boy comes into the frame there are two seconds where the viewer is able to register the setting: a trashed walking bridge passing over freeway traffic. Although you are not able to see the traffic, the audio of the passing by cars cues you in to where you're located. It's amazing how all of these cues are packed into two seconds, informing the viewer where it is in only such a short clip of time. This sets up the establishing shot. As soon as the background noise fades out, a boy in costume walks into the frame with the camera at a long shot and a woman (with no music) starts singing in what I can only describe as a southern voice (bordering trashy). The boy is more dragging along, kicking at the garbage and walks towards the camera almost to the beat of the woman singing. The boy is wearing pink bunny ears, no shirt, what I am assuming are swim trunks, and weathered, worn tennis shoes, has a severely chipped front tooth, and tattooed knuckles. He's young, not old enough for tattoos, which gives more hint to the viewer this character may be a troubled character. As well as this character may pair with the setting he is filmed in, a run down walking bridge with lots of filth and litter. Though the intro scene is filmed definitely in the same time frame, the editing doesn't match each cut up exactly. There's a bit of elliptical editing happening from the establishing shot to the shot of the boy sitting on the side of the walking bridge. But because of the weather, the scene, the boy and his costume, and the setting, the viewer is aware all of these events are happening within the same time frame, and not on a different day or in another setting. The shot then cuts to a close up of the adolescent boy. First on his face, which his expression seems dull, and cuts to a close up of his feet which are kicking more garbage. Then the viewer is able to see a little more of the environment in the next shot which is a far shot of the boy on the bridge. The low angle shot shows the passing traffic and the boy in the distance, but then zooms into him on the bridge. All of the close up shots give you a little insight to what this character may be like. Since there is no dialogue, the director has to fit in all the clues possible to make this happen. Facial expressions, body language (the boy shivering, the way he holds his posture, etc), behavior (aggression with kicking the fence, spitting over the bridge, and peeing onto oncoming traffic), clothing, and setting all play into this. Before even hearing any dialogue we have already made assumptions about this boy. I think this is an effective intro because it sets up expectations without revealing practically anything. There was no dialogue, only a brief amount of information on setting, little surrounding sound, and no interaction between other characters that will be introduced throughout the duration of the film.
The Holiday - daughter scene
ReplyDelete(2:30 minutes)
Director/Writer Nancy Meyers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDJDFLUwi8M
The movie is about two women who troubled with guy-problems. Because of this they decided they need a break and a change in their address which hopefully can change their lives. Iris (Kate Winslet) is in love with a guy who is going to marry another woman. Across the globe, 6,000 miles away Amanda (Cameron Diaz) realizes the man she lives with has been unfaithful. They are in the same situation and meet online in an exchange web site. They decide to swap their homes in each other’s countries without knowing each other. Amanda moves to a countryside in England and Iris in Amanda’s house in the sunny California in the US.
In her first night Amanda wake up by a knocking on her door. It’s Graham (Jude Law), Iris brother. She finds a new romance but she doesn’t wanna start any complicated things. Ones after meeting a couple times she decides to surprise him at his house until she realized that he’s more than just a romance.
She arrives at his house: the mill house. The first shot of the door shows the expected idyllic situation that she is supposed to be in and Grahams down-home life. The small door to his garden out of wood represents the countryside of England which is typically for theses areas. The camera goes floating down to her hand opening the door. It’s no cut in between theses two shots so that the idyllic situation still exist. She enters to the garden of this perfect looking house. The camera floats again into the situation over the wall without interrupting the silence. When she rings the bell and he opens the door, a lot of reaction-shots follow each other.
She is standing outside in the dark and tries to explain the whole situation. Just her face is spotlighted, while he is standing inside this warm light that creates a cozy atmosphere. He seems to be on the higher position than her, arouse by the light. She is talking and the camera goes back and forth between the two main actors. Amanda capture the whole camera frame, while Graham is enclosed by the door and the wall. Obviously he is in an uncomfortable situation and has to hide something, cause he is closing the door a touch more. A noise sounds out of the house. Graham is turning around, but Amanda is talking more and more, until she realizes that he is not alone. She doesn’t know how to react so her movements are getting faster and more anxious.
The door opens a little bit more and the camera goes down to the little girl that comes into the action. Without Grahams action, he abandon more of his life. This is the first time that Amanda doesn’t say anything and is composed with a close-up in the camera.
The situation opens when the girl says something to Amanda. The camera goes out to an establishing shot to introduce the new person and the relationship between all of them. It’s like a beginning of a new scene, when all the important figures show up and the surrounding is introduced. It’s a turning point for the whole sequence.
The camera position is now behind Amanda to clarify the situation and the relationships again. Graham and his daughter are standing pretty close together and Graham has his hands on her shoulder. Although this composition shows that Amanda is even more outside, the lighting that comes from the inside of the house brightens the whole atmosphere up and makes it to a homogenous image.
Amanda and the girl are talking. Normally you expect a birds eye shot when an adult standing person is talking to a child, but here the camera goes in both parts to a close-up of each person. So there is no real hierarchy to see between the two figures. The second daughter arrives and the door opens even more. The situation gain more space and get friendly. Although there are still the three person on the one side of the door in the bright light and the one person outside in the dark. Even the clothes of all of them underline the differences between the two “worlds”. She is totally dressed up and he is like a family-father standing there with his open chemise, a little bit sweaty and his girls are both wearing these normal winter-sweaters.
ReplyDeleteThey open her the door, let her inside the house and she passes over the barrier of the door to his life - inside the bright, clear and tidy room./world. She walks inside in a full figure shot to show the situation she is in, but after a while the camera changes to a close-up again to show her looking about another person - like his wife. But there are just empty rooms showed.
The scene closes when Graham turned around to close the door. This shot is a close-up of his face outside in the dark as if he wanna escape out of the situation. But he closes the door and lets the story go on.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteBig Fish - 1:40:00-1:43:28
ReplyDeleteI will be analyzing a scene from Big Fish directed by Tim Burton. The clip begins with a medium close-up shot of Edward as he paints the exterior of Jenny's house. He is dressed in his business dress clothes, which are dressed down with the tie removed, collar unbuttoned, and sleeves rolled up to indicate that he has stopped at her house on the way home from his business travel. The Spectre swamp is in the background of the shot, and it appears cheerful, with leafy green trees, clean water, and the sun shining. This may indicate that this part of the story is embellished or fabricated, or it may reflect Jenny's feelings towards this event, as she would have been happy to have Edward there. The voice-over is coming from Jenny's point of view, as this clip is a flashback as she tells a story, and the music is non-diegetic sound, which is a peppy-sounding score to the montage of home improvements taking place preceding this scene. Jenny's look is consistant with the character's costumes as a young girl, with a flowing floral dress, and a similar hairstyle, which is a way of enforcing her stagnancy in the town of Spectre, which she has never left. She has stayed the same in hopes that Edward would come back and find her there.
The next shot opens with Carl the giant's hand drawing back to reveal Jenny's face and her surprise at seeing the final transformation of her home. It then cuts to a point of view shot over the shoulders of Carl, Jenny, and Edward. The camera begins at the height of Carl's head and lowers to the other two, emphasizing the difference in height. The characters are shown looking at Jenny's house, which is radiant, bright, and clean as the fog clears.
The next scene is a medium shot of Edward putting the final touch on Jenny's house, by installing a coat hook next to the door. The kitchen counter is between the camera and the characters, and again the light is sunny to reflect the fondness Jenny has for these memories. Edward is dressed in his business attire once again, this time with his coat and tie on, showing that this may be a different day from the previous scene. He is telling her a story about the twins, who are characters the viewer is familiar with, but this is a small part of the story that hasn't been told yet. It reinforces Edward's sociable, comfortable, friendly, story-telling personality that he develops throughout the flashbacks in the film. Jenny stands against the wall with her hands on her face, which tells of her remaining childlike qualities of shyness and adoration for Edward, and can be looked at in contrast to the next scene where she is older and more mature. He uses the hand, which is the product he sells as a traveling salesman.
The following cuts during the scene where Jenny tries to kiss Edward are all match cuts The soft non-diegetic music begins to play as she goes to sign the deed on the table, which is a full-figure shot. The childlike way she runs and the fact that she is still barefoot after all the years that have passed also reinforce her youthful, hopeful characteristic. She hands the paper to him while looking at the floor, which is also very childlike and shows her embarrassment over the events that just took place.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4meeZifCVro
ReplyDelete"Lovefield"
In this short film it is separated into drama, suspense and horror parts to create this up and down of emotions throughout the different scenes. Most of the clips are slower at first to make you feel like your leading up to the drama that’s about to happen. Up until the very end of the film you think something bad is going to happen because of the disturbing noises coming from the woman and the dead cell phone. The crow is always calling out to something throughout the whole film and I think its trying to tell the old man that something bad is happening, which gives it a more creepier feel. When the knife gets stabbed into the ground we assume that the man has killed the woman because of the low, dark music. Towards the end when we find out that the woman was actually in labor, the soothing music and smiling of the characters gives a sense of relief because we then know she was not being harmed.
As for the sound, there was no dialogue throughout the whole film. Both the diegetic sound and the non-diegetic sound is what made the film have suspense and drama. Some of the diegetic sounds were from the crow, the squeaking of the sign, the knife, cell phone, and the laughing towards the end. The non-digestic sounds were throughout the whole film as well, which was more scary and horrific during the beginning and peaceful at the end. Some of the diegetic sounds seem to start before the subject was actually in the picture, such as the cell phone, the woman crying, and the sign squeaking. I think this is what makes the suspense really strong because the viewer is waiting to see the sound, and the camera is moving so slow that I was expecting to see a sudden movement or noise.
The lighting throughout most of this film seems to be natural except for the part where the farmer opens the trunk. There seems to be some sort of set up lighting because his whole body is shinning in an odd way. Also when he kneels down to hand the blanket to the woman, his whole body seems to be lit up in a really awkward way compared to the woman and her baby. The lighting on him seems to be more shiny and not as warm and natural, which is under-lighting.
The beginning couple seems where the grass is swaying through the wind is very slow and the camera moves from a variety of different angles, such as low-angle, high-angle, and close ups. Some of the editing devices used are the dissolve, such as in the beginning when the camera is moving through the field. At the end when the woman has her baby, she and the farmer look at each other and smile, which is a reaction shot, we get to see the reactions of both characters. The farmer is dressed in overalls and looks dirty and sweaty, just as a normal farmer would. The viewer doesn’t get the confirmation that he is an actual farmer until the end when the camera zooms out of the area they are in and you can see the tractor and its tracks where he must have saw the woman and stopped to help.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2RoYIjBQBI&feature=related
ReplyDeleteIntro scene to Gummo by Harmony Korine
To me, the introduction to the movie is an important scene. It will set up your expectations for the movie, you develop your first impressions of character, setting, and story. In the intro of Gummo, you are only focused on one character, in one setting. It is a boy in costume which are pink bunny ears filmed without a shirt, raggedy shorts and shoes, and a chipped front tooth.
Before the boy comes into the frame there are two seconds where the viewer is able to register the setting: a trashed walking bridge passing over freeway traffic. Although you are not able to see the traffic, the audio of the passing by cars cues you in to where you're located. It's amazing how all of these cues are packed into two seconds, informing the viewer where it is in only such a short clip of time. This sets up the establishing shot.
As soon as the background noise fades out, a boy in costume walks into the frame with the camera at a long shot and a woman (with no music) starts singing in what I can only describe as a southern voice (bordering trashy). The boy is more dragging along, kicking at the garbage and walks towards the camera almost to the beat of the woman singing.
The boy is wearing pink bunny ears, no shirt, what I am assuming are swim trunks, and weathered, worn tennis shoes, has a severely chipped front tooth, and tattooed knuckles. He's young, not old enough for tattoos, which gives more hint to the viewer this character may be a troubled character. As well as this character may pair with the setting he is filmed in, a run down walking bridge with lots of filth and litter.
Though the intro scene is filmed definitely in the same time frame, the editing doesn't match each cut up exactly. There's a bit of elliptical editing happening from the establishing shot to the shot of the boy sitting on the side of the walking bridge. But because of the weather, the scene, the boy and his costume, and the setting, the viewer is aware all of these events are happening within the same time frame, and not on a different day or in another setting.
The shot then cuts to a close up of the adolescent boy. First on his face, which his expression seems dull, and cuts to a close up of his feet which are kicking more garbage. Then the viewer is able to see a little more of the environment in the next shot which is a far shot of the boy on the bridge. The low angle shot shows the passing traffic and the boy in the distance, but then zooms into him on the bridge.
All of the close up shots give you a little insight to what this character may be like. Since there is no dialogue, the director has to fit in all the clues possible to make this happen. Facial expressions, body language (the boy shivering, the way he holds his posture, etc), behavior (aggression with kicking the fence, spitting over the bridge, and peeing onto oncoming traffic), clothing, and setting all play into this. Before even hearing any dialogue we have already made assumptions about this boy.
I think this is an effective intro because it sets up expectations without revealing practically anything. There was no dialogue, only a brief amount of information on setting, little surrounding sound, and no interaction between other characters that will be introduced throughout the duration of the film.