Group Task

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.