Analyse
Sequence
·
View your chosen sequence and
take notes on: cinematography/mise-en-scene/sound/lighting/editing/performance
·
Discuss and debate meaning
production (personal responses)
·
View and pause the clip again
to construct a detailed analyses
·
Continue to take more detailed
notes and discuss ideas.
Revolutionary Road Clip:
In the first shot used, there is use of an establishing shot of what
seems to be a school corridor with two people (a man and a women) walking down
it. The shot lasts 20 seconds with only the diegetic sound of footsteps
featured in the scene, this could suggest that the two are not getting along
for some reason, this idea can be supported by how far apart the two are
together, towards the end of the sequence we see the man is ahead out of the
frame, where as the woman is a few seconds behind.
In
the next shot, we can see the pair in the car, with the male driving. The shot
was filmed as a two shot/medium close up. There is a silence for approximately
5 seconds and the two look quite far apart. It becomes apparent that the two
are in a relationship when the male refers to her as ‘baby’ when the silence
has been broken; this has been used to establish that the two are together. The
woman becomes increasingly frustrated within the scene as the male is trying to
comfort her, about something she may not have achieved. The two become
increasingly agitated. The next shot shows the male parking the car on the side
of the road (long shot), this is to establish where the car is parking.
The next shot is a long shot of the car and
the pair sitting in the car, we can see they are sat even further apart. The
male tries to talk to the woman, however, we see her move further away when he
tries to touch her; this connotes that the two are in a fight. The next shot is
a medium close up/over-the-shoulder shot of the woman; this is to show the
woman’s emotion; this is an example of low key lighting as we can only see the
only her face. We then cut to a medium close up of the male from a low angle;
this could suggest that he is superior in the situation. We then cut back to
the female in a reaction shot of the man trying to sort things out, she seems
very distraught as she shouts at her partner, saying “leave me alone!”, this is
followed by a reaction shot of the man, who becomes increasingly agitated to
the womans arrogance to talk about the problems the two are having, these are
examples of shot-reverse shot.
The next shot is a medium close up of the woman sitting in the car. She
looks quite calm within the clip, however you can tell that the man and woman
are distant with each other because you cannot see him within the shot. There
is only lighting from the left hand side, which highlights her emotions of
sadness. The next shot shows the man through another medium
close up. He is seen to be moving to face the woman, which
suggests that they are in conflict. He is also pointing his finger at her,
which suggests that he is being authoritative towards her. His facial
expression suggests that he is frustrated with the conversation as he is
frowning his eyebrows. He also used explicit
language which suggests that he is arrogant. This shot is almost 20 seconds long, which suggests the diegetic dialogue is important to the
narrative.
The next shot is another medium close up of the woman. This time she
has her hand on her forehead, which suggests that she is frustrated by the conversation.
Her facial expression shows that she is confused. Also the setting of this scene is within a car at night. We can
see this from the low key lighting outside of the
car.
We then cut to another medium close up of
the man who is getting aggressive towards the woman and using offensive terms
towards himself. This shows that they might not respect each other. In the next
scene, there is the use of another medium close up, however the man comes
within the shot. We see him through the use of hard
lighting, where we see a part of his face and he finger, pointing at the woman.
This shows that the conflict is getting worse, because he is invading her
personal space. The whole of this sequence is a shot reverse shot, which
intensifies as the clip goes along.
In the next scene, we see the woman get out of the car in anger,
through the use of another medium long shot. Which suggests that she has had
enough of his shouting at her. The next scene is a long shot, which shows us
the front of the car that they were sat in. The
lighting from the headlights is beaming intensely which suggests that the
argument could get even more heated.
The next shot is a mid-shot of both characters, although they are very
close to each other in proximity, they share a very negative aura and both have
a confrontational demeanour
. The rule of thirds is used
in this shot as both characters utilise the middle and left side of the screen,
leaving the gloomy darkness lingering on the right hand side of the shot, this
could express their dark relationship or the impending doom that could be yet
to come.
As the male lead
starts to walk off, the shot changed to an over the shoulder, mid-shot focusing
on the female lead. Both characters have immense aggression towards each
other this is shown by their tone and dominating body languages. The distance
between the characters shows emptiness in their relationship and as the male
lead turns away, a car is shown in-between them highlighting the obstructions
in their relationship.
The next shot returns
to the original position, a mid two-shot, by using shot reverse shot to
emphasize their interaction. There is also an increase in tension and physical
violence. The male lead regains his dominance by attempting to hit the female
lead. As she cowers away he proceeds to take his anger out on the car. This
shows the change in roles, as at the start of the scene both characters
portrayed the same level of dominance and anger towards each other but after
the incident the male lead holds more control over the female just due to violence.
All of these scenes
are shot statically to focus on their argument without any distractions; this
shows that the argument is the only thing that is in their mind at that moment
and they have put all their energy into it.
As the male lead
strolls off after the injuring himself, the camera angle stays the same and
does not track him, to show the females reaction to what he has just done, she
seems shocked at the situation even though she isn't facing the camera. The
male lead then stands in the way of the car lights making him his body the only
well lit object in the frame. This puts emphasis on him and makes it seem like
he's seen the light and regrets his actions.
The next shot is a part over the shoulder mid-shot of the male
lead cowering over the car bonnet, with the female lead standing over him, this
allows her to regain the dominance and control over him. She then dramatically
gets into the car leaving the male still in pain outside the car,
however regardless of what has occurred she still allows him time to get
into the car with her, showing that she still cares about him and could never
leave him.
The camera angle then changes to a close up of the woman's face in the
car whilst waiting for the male to get in. The lighting is very low-key and
there is only a small amount of light on her face to show her distressed
expression to the situation. The complete darkness around her emphasises her
dark thoughts smothering her and there is no escape. The male then enters the
car just as she manages to pull away her hand and show her distraught state.
The last few shots of the scene are silent and are close ups of their
faces looking horrified after the events which had taken place. A series of
shot reverse shots then take place with the camera focussing on the character
closer to the camera at the time, leaving the other character
blurred in the background this emphasises that although they are sat next
to each other they are both very alone and are taking no notice
of the other person and are essentially lost for words.
The last shot of the
sequence is a still, long shot of both of the car showing both characters sat
inside. There is a huge distance between both of them which shows the hollow in
their relationship and the intensity that the nights events had caused to both
of them. The lighting is low-key except for the single street light and two car
lights, these emphasise the light at the end of the tunnel for them and signify
that they can work through their issues.
