This scene diverts from the key conventions of the fantasy genre, as usually, bright colours and high-key lighting is associated with Fantasy, but this film uses exactly the opposite. Instead, the film uses bluish dark colours and a combination of high light saturated colours to create this dark mystical place. The Low-key green tinted lighting in the scene, which comes from the moon, creates a mysterious, sinister and surreal atmosphere, hinting at the unsettling, and slightly depressing Gothic fairy-tale plot.
Extensive make-up has been applied to create Pan the faun from head to toe, having been designed after the god himself, and adds a sense of surrealism, adding the Gothic, mysterious and mythical element to the film, and emphasises the fact that the film is a Gothic fantasy. The director wants the creature to be immaculately designed in order to look real and believable to the audience. And from the simple poor clothing of the girl, we can estimate the time period she came from, and the fact that she wants perhaps, wants to escape to a world of fantasy or dream of one, because reality destroys her hope. Fairies can be seen fluttering around the young girl, shining.
The non-diegetic cinematic music is very stylized, built to make the fairy-tale element of the film even stronger. It is mysterious and full of dramatise, which is contrapuntal to the scene at hand. This music hints that the young protagonist is on a dark mysterious adventure. The diegetic flutter of magical fairy like creatures can be heard all around the young girl, which sounds almost mechanical, adding to the sense of surrealism. The deliberate use of having hardly any sounds, except for the main character speaking as she continues to walk builds up tension. From the diegetic speech from the Faun, we immediately understand that it is a foreign film with subtitles underneath. The Faun's diegetic speech is very interesting as it seems to have a had a lot of layers added to it, especially with being in the fairytale world, where there are lots of animalistic and crawling sounds and noises added to create an affect of the underworld.
This is a brilliant opening sequence. The pace of the scene is slow, yet unsettling, due to that fact that the first scene of the sequence uses one shot throughout. It allows the audience to feel like cold objective observers of the action ensuing in the film, almost as if we were there.
The camera movement and shots are particularly intriguing. Due to the fact that it only uses one shot, the camera is made to pan, following the female character, forcing the audience to do so too. As the scene cuts to the next, we are now on a beach. However, the character, at first, is hidden by the car door, but the camera then moves around it, leaving the girl in the frame as the camera pans towards her, giving the scene a sense of abnormality.
The establishing shot is of middle-class neighbourhood and follows a young woman running from her home in fear. This is a cliche in horror, films. The director has played nicely around with cliche's from 80's horror films, such as high-heel wearing females running in fear, which is unpractical but a common cliche in horror films. However, the film uses these cliche's in clever and creative ways, giving the scene a certain freshness to it. Driving away in her car, she has been hunted by the follower far, and the girl has now ended up on a beach in total isolation. We remain to observe the girl for almost half a minute, in an icily cold gaze, giving a sense of isolation to the character and scene.
At the beginning of the sequence, only diegetic sound can be heard, for example, the birds, cars and people, emphasising that the setting of the scene is a normal suburban middle-class neighbourhood. This contrasts with the frantic actions of the young women out of the house, and slowly non-diegetic music fades in, creating uneasiness in the audience and creating a tense and dangerous atmosphere. The music is particularly interesting since it replicates the cliche music from horror movie's in the 80's.
The establishing shot in Juno secures the primary character straight away, as a close-up of her face depicts her facial expression, and therefore, some of her personality as well. The shot then cuts to a dolly shot, which follows Juno as she walks.
As the dolly shot tracks her movement, non-diegetic country music begins to fade in, the only sound that the audience can actually hear. It is carefree and cheerful, contrasting with the expression on her face and her personality. Music in movies usually must be in sync with the genre and other components in the production, and therefore, the music in this opening is in sync with the genre of comedy, reinforcing to the audience that this is, in fact, a comedy.
From the positioning of the character, placing her at the start of the film, we immediately know that she is the protagonist in the film since they are usually the first to appear in the frame.
At the beginning of the clip, you can see that she is dressed down, with a slightly slicked back ponytail and drinking out of a 'Sunny D' jug. Her expression is laid-back and sluggish. These features combined together, portray her to be a carefree, low-key and low-maintenance individual. Her clothing indicates that she rejects the expectations of women in society or doesn't care how society views her, subverting from the stereotype of women in films. The setting in the first shot is outdoors, perhaps a park or front yard. However, the rest of the opening is set throughout the town she lives in as she wonders around, before entering a shop. The fact that she is wearing red, could symbolize love or perhaps, suggest that the movie focuses around the theme of love. Through mise-en-scene, hints at the storyline are slowly introduced. For example, her back is to the camera in one shot and she is slouching, showing her body language to be quite masculine. This masculinity is seen throughout the shots through the positioning of the character as she walks with her arms dropped down by her side and swinging carelessly as she carries the bottle of 'Sunny D'. This adds to the comedy of the film, and it shows what type of character she is as it reinforces the idea of her being a carefree individual, and doesn't feel the pressure of stress as much as other teenagers her age do.
The first shot has no special effects, and is more realistic, however as she walks, the scenery and character becomes animated, which hint that she is a daydreamer, who is trying to figure who she is as a person and wants to be somewhere or someone else. This may be due to the fact that she feels her life is boring and wants to change, which is suggested through how she is half-animated as well.
A classic feature of Donnie Darko's visual style is the liberal use of slow-motion, which is evident with the slow-motion shot of the characters jumping on the trampoline. Whilst the protagonist and damsel in distress are on the trampoline, the subtle non-diegetic music is yet suspenseful. The diegetic sound in the shot of the trampoline is the sound of birds and the gentle tap of the character's hitting the trampoline. The non-diegetic music gradually fades out after the transition, therefore only the diegetic sound of the conversation is heard. The dialogue from both characters indicates that the woman is a therapist, and Donnie is being treated by her and portrayed as slightly delusional and depressed. The protagonist's voice is heard over in this shot, meaning an L-cut is used, as you hear him before seeing him in the next shot. This allows what would have been a harsher cut, to feel like a softer, more subtle cut. The pace of the scene is due to the lack of cuts, which has been done in order to gradually build up tension and angst, making his descent into chaos even more unsettling for the audience.
The high angle shot of the characters jumping on the trampoline, to represent the trampoline as a symbol of being fragile and innocent, more significantly the fragility and mutability of the universe. During the medium-close up of Donnie and his therapist, the camera pans towards both characters extremely slowly in order to build up suspense. The medium-close up panning towards him allows the audience to build an emotional connection to the protagonist.
In terms of mise-en-scene, the setting of the first shot is in a garden, where a trampoline sits. On the trampoline, are the two characters, Donnie and Gretchen. It cuts to the setting of a room, where Donnie, the protagonist, is now sitting on a couch. The setting resembles a home or therapists room from the 80's due to the patterns and furniture, meaning the audience can presume the film is set during this period. On the other side of the room, an older female character is sitting in a therapist's chair, indicating to the audience that she is his therapist, therefore, that Donnie is slightly delusional and depressed. The clothing of the main character is casual and laid-back, that would typically be worn by a teenager. The outfit of the older women appears professional yet casual, indicating she is doing a job. The only light source appears to be coming from the two lamps in opposite corners of the room. The lighting is low-key, and it appears that a key light, back-light, but only a small amount of filler lights have been used; This hints at the darkness in the film's theme and in the protagonist's mind, making the audience feel on edge. The fact that the director chose not to have bright lights, and mainly darkness on the protagonist's face, portrays him as mysterious and shady. This use of lighting is effective since, it creates an unrealistic atmosphere, which matches the protagonist's mind descending into chaos and disillusionment.
The most beautiful thing about the scene is the camera work. It was shot beautifully. In media, if you don't have the best shots, then everything during editing will fall apart. In this scene, the establishing shot is an extreme close-up of the female character, Joel's love interest, which develops a sense of intimacy and allows the audience to develop an emotional connection to her, feeling sympathy for her and Joel's situation. As she throws the letter away, it cuts to a medium close-up of her. An over the shoulder shot is then used. The pleasant simplicity of the shots create a heartfelt atmosphere and extend the audience's attachment to the characters as they can relate to them. Some of the editing is choppy, disjointed and fast, which connotes surrealism, indicating it is not real or is in fact in his head.
In terms of mise-en-scene, the low-key lighting makes the scene appear quite beautiful. It also creates an unnatural atmosphere, indicating towards the surrealism in the film, which also suggests that it is taking place in his mind. However, it emphasises that his mind has descended into darkness and creates an atmosphere of confusion. Clementine's hair in this scene, is blue, which connotes sadness. This sadness may be, due to the fact, that Joel is erasing her memory of her. However, throughout the film, her hair changes colour and is quite symbolic. Her blue hair is referring to the time that comes after Joel and Clementine erase their memories, which could be the reason it appears sad.
The non-diegetic tender cinematic music determines that the movie is a romantic movie, or perhaps, a romantic comedy. It also allows the audience to connect with the characters. The diegetic speech of both characters is clear and soft, adding to the fact that it is a romantic film and adding to the serenity of the scene.
Brief
The brief was to produce a 30 second clip (though, a lot of the clips were longer than this) with the manipulation of basic film production techniques (lighting, sound, editing etc). You will need to exhibit the use of a match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180 degree rule. The narrative will need to involve a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he will exchange a couple of lines of dialogue.
Planning
After discussing the location, sequences of events in the clip and actors in the clip, the planning consisted of creating a short script and shot list before devising a storyboard. The most essential part of planning was the script. It is a crucial part of pre-production as it establishes narrative. Before completing a storyboard, the shot list is a key thing to do as it allows you to understand what shots you will use before drawing them. The story board fulfils the role of assisting the director to achieve a particular visual look of the film, and gives an idea of the mise-en-scene to include in filming. Both the story board and shot list, determine how you will shape the narrative and make it interesting to the audience. In terms of what I could have done better, I think I could have added more shots to the storyboard, therefore it would have been easy to edit if one shot wasn't quite right. Also, in my story board, I would write more things in the boxes, therefore I would have a better idea about what was going to go on in the shot, like sound, camera movement and pace.
Strengths and Weaknesses
The most noteworthy qualities of the production were the selection of shots. This included the over-the-shoulder shot worked well because I had angled it to make sure that there wasn't that much dead space. However, during filming the over-the-shoulder shot, I broke the 180 degree rule. A prominent issue with a number of the shots, was the lack of focus in them, making some parts seem unprofessional, which in the real production I would not allow to happen and would re-shoot it. However, during filming for the preliminary task, I didn't have time to re-shoot it due to the availability of our actors. In terms of editing, for the POV shots, I used an eye-line match effectively to convey the fact that they know each other, attempting to create a dramatic atmosphere and develop enigma codes of why the main character looks so sullen and irritated. This is a form of continuity editing, as well, allowing the narrative to piece together and the audience to understand that she is angry at her friend, developing an enigma code of why she is this way towards her friend or what her friend did to provoke this attitude from her. The range of continuity editing shown in my production is good, as it creates narrative and allows it to flow continuously. There a few continuity errors, which actually make a lot of difference if you watch the production carefully. For example, glare and the reflective image of the camera are noticeable during the POV shot into and out of the classroom through the door window. In order to over come this, I would need to change the angles when filming reflective surfaces. Another continuity error, which many students have made over the years, was the camera's bag, that was left on the staircase railing, only a appearing for a few moments, before disappearing. This will confuse the audience and, fundamentally take away the flow of the production. Quite a number of things, however, fell short in the production. Specifically, how the over use of shots, threw the pace off and therefore the pace is constantly changing, meaning it is less effective. An example of this is where the main character's hand reaches for the door and opens it. It was a match-on-action shot, and I used different angles in three different shots for the same action, however, due to the over use of shots, it changes the pace. During filming, the 180 degree rule was broken, and therefore, the positioning of the characters, confused the audience and left them engaged. In my real production, I would need to make sure that it doesn't happen by changing the angles of the two characters in conjunction with the accuracy of filming and following the rule consistently. The establishing shot extends for too long, making the pace seem slower than I would have liked, and it leaves the audience unexcited and fails to engage them. The sound was clear for most of the production, having clear dialogue which answered the enigma codes of the audience clearly, making the narrative easy to follow and understand for the audience. To add to the tension between the friends, I could have used a dramatic soundtrack to build up to the climax. However, there is the faint feedback in the background, which is worse due to the humming of the computers in the room. In some shots, the dialogue exchanged between them appears forced and unnatural, which would be more down to acting. The lighting in the scene was made to be realistic, allowing it to accurately portray school life. Next time, I will use key lighting, back lighting and most likely a filler light, in order to add more depth to characters and make it seem even more realistic and bright. Another subtle weakness that lessens the effectiveness of the piece, was the long lines of dialogue the characters exchanged in the clip, which, essentially makes the piece drone on, and lose pace, making the audience lose interest.
