Screening Notes

Rear Window

·      Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

·      Filmed in 1954

·      In the beginning of the film, behind the credits showing the window has the curtains coming up to get a view of the city outside.

·      Camera begins to move toward the city outside.

·      The camera circles around the neighborhood, leading into people’s apartments as the people in them go on with their daily lives.

·      We start to go into a man’s apartment where we see a broken camera, a lot of posters hung up on the walls, and finally a man in a cast.

·      We find out that the man in the cast is a photographer and his name is Jeff.

·      It is through Jeff’s view that we look into other people’s apartments to see what they are doing.

·      Jeff over the phone begins to speak about how wives nag their husbands. As Jeff is explaining this he is looking into a couples apartment as they fight but the audience cannot hear what the arguing is about.

·      The audience begins to learn that looking out into these apartments is Jeff’s only way of entertainment since he cannot move anywhere.

·      A nice older lady comes to help Jeff and to give him a massage every morning.

·      Through Jeff’s conversation, we come to realize that he got the cast due to an accident when he was trying to take pictures.

·      We come to realize as well that Jeff is somewhat afraid of marriage and commitment.

·      We can only observe into other people’s apartments but can’t hear anything.

·      Lady calls Jeff a “window shopper”.

·      There are a lot of medium frame shots.

·      Jeff is always in his wheelchair next to the windows.

·      Jeff looks into the apartment where the woman creates her own romantic dinner with no one there. Then the woman begins to cry.

·      There is one window Jeff tries to look into the room, but the blinds are down. Blocking the view for Jeff to look into.

·      We begin to hear the sound of a piano and then the camera begins to shift to the neighbor’s studio where the neighbor is the one playing the piano.

·      As Liza is trying to leave and says goodbye, there is barely any light by the door and her face is somewhat dark.

·      The sound of the rain is diegetic.

·      Jeff can never see anything further than the neighborhood he lives in.

·      There is a high angle shot when Jeff is writing the note. The camera slowly draws into what Jeff is writing.

·      High angle shot as Jeff slowly turns around when he hears the sound of the footsteps.

Atonement- 2007

·      The opening scene begins with the typing of the title of the movie with a typewriter as the camera slowly leads to a young girl sitting at her desk typing up a story. We later learn that the young girl is Briony Tallis.

·      In this opening scene, Briony’s room is very light up with the use of natural sunlight coming through all the windows. But as she begins to travel around the house, certain rooms become darker.

·      The score of this scene blends in the sound of the typewriter and as well as classical music. As Briony speeds up walking through the hallways, the typing and score gets faster.

·      Out in the garden it is very bright. There is a lot of natural sunlight. The characters faces are always very lit up.

·      When Briony is looking through the window, soft music is playing in the background but the sound fades as the sound of the bee takes precedence.

·      Close up/ medium frame shots.

·      Medium frame shots allow the characters to move without stepping out of the frame.

·      In a lot of the scenes, light only shines on one side of the characters faces.

·      The music that plays is very old classical music. Somewhat opera like. The sound gets louder as the scene progresses.

·      In the bathroom scene when Robbie is taking a bath, the room is gloomy with little light.

·      The score uses both the sound of the typewriter and the sound of the lighter to incorporate it with the music.

·      As the day turns into night, the rooms become darker. No more use of natural light.

·      When Briony is walking towards the library, the hallway is very dark but only a small crack of light allows the audience to see her face.

·      As we transition through the scenes, the noise of the typewriter becomes present. Almost as if the story is being written as we watch the movie.

·      There is soft music playing in the background as everyone looks for the twins outside in the garden. The music gets louder as Briony is about to uncover something.

·      When Robbie and his men arrive to where the rest of the English troops are, the music in the background is very subtle and soothing.

• When Robbie and his men are walking around the forest, as Robbie looks up at the sky the scene becomes brighter and when he looks back down it goes back gloomy lighting.

 
Breathless-Godard

·      Filmed in 1960’s

·      Consciously shot in black and white

·      Opening scene is a close up of a man with a newspaper. Then the camera shifts to a shot of a woman that is coming from the characters prospective.

·      When the Michel begins to drive, the scene fades signaling that we are traveling. The audience can also notice that we are changing scenes because we see from Michels perspective a road ahead as he passes cars and trees.

·      The sound of the gun flaring off is non-diegetic. But when Michel makes that gun noises that is diegetic.

·      As Michel is running away after shooting at the police officer, the camera follows him running along the field in a long shot.

·      When Michel visits his friend, the audience is able to see that he stole her money but the actually character doesn’t notice.

·      When Michel is at his friend’s apartment the audience can see that he doesn’t have a jacket on but in the next scene where he is walking down the street with the New Yorker he has a jacket on. The audience doesn’t know how he got it.

·      As Michel and the New Yorker walk down the street talking, the camera is positioned behind them as if we were civilians following them. But as they start walking back the camera is positioned in front of them.

·      Medium shot frames give the characters enough room to move around without stepping out of the frame shot.

·      There are close up frame shots whenever Michel plays with his lips.

·      As Patricia is leaving the restaurant the camera begins to zoom out and the audience is able to realize that Michel is there waiting for her.

·      As Michel walks down the stairs the camera is positioned at the bottom looking up at him.

·      When Patricia is walking up the stairs, the camera is positioned at the top where it is looking down at her.

·      The sound of the sirens and the noise of the typewriters is diegetic.

·      When Michel and Patricia leave the apartment a face away and an overlook of the city is what signals a movement in the scenes.

·      Music as Michel tries to runaway is non-diegetic.

Reaction:

      I would consider Breathless one of my favorite movies. Although it used many of the rules for continuity editing, I think it lacked in the plot and grasping the audience’s attention. I think the plot of Michel running away from the police could have been a bit more exciting. Maybe I’m too used to the idea of todays films where they are filled with action and drama where I think this is what Breathless was lacking. The editing was perfectly executed but for the movie itself, it got a bit boring after watching it for an hour.

Key Moment:

      I think that the key moment in this film is when Patricia calls the police on Michel and tells them where he is staying. This entire time Patricia is trying to figure out how she feels about Michel and throughout the movie they are kind of playing cat and mouse with their emotions. But as soon as Patricia calls the police everything changes. She says she no longer wants to be Michel and that she is not in love with him but at the same she gives him a chance to escape.  This scene is also important for Michel because throughout the movie he has been running away from the police and as soon as he finds out that Patricia does not want to go anywhere with him, he does not seem to care that he could get caught as the police are on their way. That is why I think this is a key moment in the film.

The Hurt Locker – 2008

• ·         Won 6 Academy Awards, one of them being for Best Editing.
• ·         In the opening scene, audience is first shown a quote in white letters against a black screen. Then the camera starts from the ground on a shaky robotic dolly and then slowly zooms out into the city where there are soldiers and civilians running around in chaos.
• ·         The scenes shift from the camera on the robot and a camera that is looking down at the soldiers.
• ·         In the opening scene there are many medium close up frame shots with tight frames.
• ·         There is a shot where the camera is positioned looking down at the soldiers as if it were a civilian looking down on them.
• ·         When the explosion goes off, the scene is in slow motion and the camera slowly captures the ground shaking, the sand lifting up from the roof of the car, and the rocks coming up from the ground.
• ·         The shots of the civilians moving around are a lot quicker and sharper which help portray the idea of chaos and commotion in the scene.
• ·         The audience is told how many days are left in the squadron’s rotation to make it more personal for the audience.
• ·         When Sergeant James goes to disarm the bomb we can hear his breathing as well as the frame is shot from James’ perspective.
• ·         The loud music in James’ room, sound of explosions and gun shots are all diegetic sounds.
• ·         As Sergeant James is trying to disarm the bombs, camera angle is positioned so that we can see James but also we’re on the ground.
• ·         There are many instances where there are frame shots where there are over the shoulder point of view.
• ·         In the bathroom scene we only see the characters facial expressions through their reflections in the mirror.
• ·         Civilians are always watching the soldiers as they disarm the bomb. Specialist Eldridge makes a comment about being on youtube.
• ·         All the soldiers struggle with the idea of life and death except for Sergeant James.
• ·         The final scene is Sergeant James back at war and the audience see’s that there is 365 days left until rotation.

Capturing the Friedmans

• ·      Won an Academy award
• ·      Filmed in 2003
• ·      Opening scene: Jesse Friedman and Arnold Friedman. Arnold is Jesse’s father. Jesse is speaking to the camera introducing his father.
• ·      As they introduce the family there are pictures flashing of the family.
• ·      The documentary documents the life of Elaine, Arnold, David, Seth, and Jesse Friedman.
• ·      For the beginning of the documentary, the interviews are conducted without the questions being asked in front of the camera.
• ·      While Elaine and David are speaking, the documentary shows pictures of the families past.
• ·      Elaine and David both begin the documentary talking about their relationship with Arnold.
• ·      During Elaine and David’s interviews, there is a sense of hostility coming from their voices.
• ·      Elaine doesn’t really like to go into details when speaking about Arnold. David on the other hand holds off on talking about his parents divorce. He only mentions that his mother divorced his father before he died.
• ·      We finally hear the interviewers voice when they ask David if his parents were together when he died.
• ·      As the commissioner is speaking, scenes of the family’s private pictures are shown.
• ·      Scenes switch between Elaine’s side of the story as well as the commissioners side of the story.
• ·      Topics are first introduced and then the film goes into depth of details of what is happening and present contradicting arguments.
• ·      There is few times where the audience hears the voice of the interviewer.
• ·      The documentary uses real footage from the family along with present interviews.
• ·      Many of the shots in the film are close up shots. The camera frame mostly captures from the shoulders up.
• ·      The music in the background of particular scenes is non-diegetic.
• ·      The director uses some scenes where they are out of focus.
• ·      When the director uses voice-overs from certain tapes recorded from the family, the camera focuses on a picture of the family and then focuses on the face of whoever is speaking. 

A Single Man

• ·      Directed by Tom Ford in 2009.
• ·      During the opening credits, there is the scene of a man underwater.
• ·      The opening scene is one of the many scenes where George reminisces on the past.
• ·      When George is lying in bed after waking up from his dream, the camera is positioned looking down on him.
• ·       Our main character George is narrating throughout the movie.
• ·      The sound of the clock, the phone ringing, and the sound of the rain are all part of the movies world therefore diegetic.
• ·      While at breakfast George has another flashback of his significant other, Jim. It is only through these flashbacks that we are able to see how George and Jim interacted.
• ·      There is also another flashback of when George first finds out that Jim has died when the phone rings.
• ·      A lot of the frame shots are tight frames.
• ·      When George is looking into his neighbor’s front yard, the camera is positioned from his perspective.
• ·      As George is driving to work everything slows down. The camera moves at the speed of the car.
• ·      After George has parked his car, the camera is positioned so that we see him from the rear view mirror.
• ·      Throughout this entire scene, there is music playing in the background that is non-diegetic.
• ·      Throughout the film there is a constant reference to time.  An example of this is when the camera focuses on the clock in the office.
• ·      As George is looking at the men playing tennis, the camera focuses on the male bodies and faces.
• ·      The camera follows the movement of our main character in a lot of the scenes.
• ·      When George and Kenny are speaking the camera switches angles with the corresponding speaker.
• ·      When George is in his office, the camera is positioned behind the glass windows.
• ·      The camera is constantly zooming into people’s eyes and faces.
• ·      There is always something that leads George to have a flashback about his partner who he just lost.
• ·      As George is having his heart attack, we hear the sound of a clock ticking which only gets louder as George is dying and then stops as when he dies.

Gosford Park – Robert Altman

• ·      Filmed in 2001
• ·      In one of the opening scenes, the camera is set up behind a tree branch looking into the house. This also occurs multiple times when the camera is filming thru windows.
• ·      The sound of the rain in the opening scene is diegetic.
• ·      When the camera is following Lady Constance Trentham in the car, the camera has a wide frame shot to capture the landscape of the English countryside.
• ·      The movie takes place in an English country house in November 1932.
• ·      One can tell from the beginning of the movie that the house servants are treated extremely differently as the servants must go in through the back door to enter the house. Only the upper class guests enter through the front door.
• ·      There is a lot of movement in the scene where the servants are all getting settled.  They’re many characters in and out of the camera frame.
• ·      The director uses a deep frame when Mrs. Wilson is directing the servants where to go.
• ·      The camera is constantly moving and therefore capturing many different angles and frame shots at a time.
• ·      When the upper class guests are gathering before dinner, people are constantly in and out of the frame. Many conversations are also going on at once.  The voices of all the other conversations that we cannot see happening is diegetic.
• ·      Costumes also contribute to the mise-en-scene because the upper class guests are dressed with fur coats and expensive jewelry while the servants are wearing plain black clothes.
• ·      The servants are also called after whomever they are attending to not after their own names.
• ·      In the scene where the servants are setting up the table. The camera starts off focused on the table setting and then slowly focuses out into the dining room.
• ·      As the movie progresses the audience comes to realize that it almost seems as though the upper class guests are supposed to have this amazing life are actually the ones who seem to be most miserable.
• ·      When the servant goes to wash Lady Constance Trentham’s shirt, the camera zooms into a bottle of poison that actually alludes to the idea that something bad is going to happen.

Shark in the Head- Maria Procházková

• ·      Filmed in 2004.
• ·      Opening scene is in a night setting. For the first couple minutes no character is shown. The camera focuses on the building, window, and the door.
• ·      Then the next scene is the following day in the morning where the camera frame is shooting the street in a diagonal manner.
• ·      The audience can see an empty street and a few people walking by. The buildings on the street are painted in soft plain colors.
• ·      We are then introduced to our main character that seems to be extremely upbeat and social.
• ·      When the main character is showing people walking up and down the street what is in the garbage can as they look down the camera shot is in their perspective. When the camera shot looks up at the characters we are in the ducks perspective.
• ·      The noise that is coming from the construction workers is diegetic because the main character hears it and goes out to help them.  This demonstrates that the character enjoys the company of others.
• ·      The music in the background as the character helps the construction workers set up and bring them beer is non-diegetic.
• ·      We notice that the construction workers are there to paint the building a shade of grey.  This only helps emphasis the simplicity of the colors chosen for the color of the street.
• ·      We are constantly hearing the sound of the rain, which is diegetic.
• ·      After watching the movie for a bit, the audience can come to realize that there is a lot of focus around the window where the main character comes out to interact with others.
• ·      We come to notice that the main character is very imaginative.  There are scenes where he imagines figures up in the clouds and when the red pill begins to draw on a white screen.
• ·      When the main character looks at his hands, the camera shot is thru his perspective.
• ·      In the scene of the Christmas tree, the camera focuses on the ornaments and the pictures that the main character has collected. The audience has also learned from previous scenes that the pictures he has are pictures of other people. 

Memento- Christopher Nolan

• ·      Independently produced in 2000. Adapted from his brother’s short story.
• ·      The first scene the camera is positioned so that the audience is looking down at a photograph of someone murdered.
• ·      The scene begins to go backwards to show the audience what happened.  Audience realizes that the guy holding the picture is the one who killed the man in the picture.
• ·      Movies main character is Leonard. That is who the focus in on. We realize Leonard has short-term memory. His memories are based upon pictures he carries.
• ·      Leonard lives his life based upon what the pictures tell him about people. Since he cannot build new memories.
• ·      After a few scenes in the movie, it is now understood that the movie shifts between the past and the future. The scenes shot in black and white is representing the past. The color scenes represent the future.
• ·      The notes written on the photographs are what Leonard writes so that he may remember who to trust and who not to trust.
• ·      When Leonard tries to remember memories of his wife, the camera zooms into his face and switches scenes between his face and his wife’s memories.
• ·      Natalie, the woman trying to help him, points out that even if Leonard has vengeance on whoever killed his wife he will not remember. This also correlates when Leonard is burning his wife’s things, he states that he can’t remember to forget her.  
• ·      When Leonard is speaking on the phone explaining his situation, the audience is set up in a way where we are listening in on his conversation.
• ·      Many of the shots throughout the film are close ups of the characters faces and from the waist up.
• ·      The music playing in the background in certain scenes is non-diegetic.
• ·      When Leonard is speaking about his feelings it is diegetic because Natalie can hear him.
• ·      When Leonard opens the closet and the camera focuses on Dodd, the shot is through Leonard’s perspective.  
• ·      The phone ringing when Leonard hangs up the phone spontaneously after seeing the tattoo that reads, ”Never answer the phone” is diegetic.
• ·      Audience realizes towards the end that Teddy is the guy Leonard has been speaking to on the phone the whole time.
• ·      The structure of the film is set up in a way so that the audience feels as confused as Leonard feels on a day-to-day basis. The film switches between past and present but at the end both past and present merge.

Psycho

• Opening credits with music. Overview of the city as Hitchcock informs the audience the movie takes place in Phoenix, Arizona on Dec. 11^th at 2:43pm. As camera is closing into a room with the music become softer.
•  Hitchcock uses a lot of side angles in the first opening scenes and the audience is positioned as an onlooker.
• The soft music playing in the background of the scene in the apartment is non-diegetic.
•  Individual frame shots as Marianne and Sam speak.
• The music in the background when Marianne is at home packing with the money is non-diegetic. It also leads the audience to believe that Marianne is stealing the money and running away with it.
•  The enigma of the movie would be whether Marianne would be able to get away with stealing the money from her boss.
• When Marianne is driving away the voice that she replays in her head is diegetic because she is thinking about it.
• When Marianne is driving the camera focuses on her face until she sees her boss crossing the street and then it goes back to her face of worry. The audience also hears music, which is non-diegetic.
• Visually the camera is able to portray Marianne’s nervousness after the police officer confronts her because as she is driving away she keeps looking back at the officer.
• The film continues to make the audience believe that Marianne is running away with the money because as soon as the police officer becomes suspicious, Marianne trades in her car for another.
• Every time Marianne reflects in her head of the voices it is diegetic because even though she is thinking about it, it’s still in the film world.
• Throughout the movie, audience wonders where Marianne is going. We are lead to believe that she might be going to go find Sam.
•  When Bates and his “mother” are fighting, Marianne can hear them so it would be diegetic.
• Compared to Marianne, Norman Bates is portrayed as an innocent, gentle, and kind individual.
• Another side of Norman is revealed when he starts to peep into Marianne’s room.
•  Camera never captures a frame of Marianne’s dead body. The frame also continues to look back at the newspaper as Norman is cleaning up the room. The audience is lead to believe that Norman’s mother killed Marianne.

Full Metal Jacket

·      The movie has arranged the events in chronological order. The opening scene begins with men shaving their heads and trainees enrolling and training in the Marine boot camp.

·      The audience is aware of the time period the movie is taking place.

·      The movie continues to arrange events chronologically by demonstrating the trainees during training, graduation, assigning soldiers positions in the Marines, soldiers now in the war in Vietnam ending the movie as the soldiers continue their path in war.

·      Music in the background of the opening scene and other scenes is non-diegetic.

·      When the General is yelling at the trainees was in the movie world so it was diegetic.

·      After the trainees hit Lawrence with the soaps, Lawrence’s crying would be diegetic. Because you could that Joker was trying to cover he’s ears.

·      While in Vietnam, when the US camp site was being attacked the soldiers could hear the bombing even before the audience could hear it.

·      Joker narrating toward the end of the movie would be non-diegetic.

·      Kubrick would fade away the frame when introducing a new scene in the film.

·      Kubrick had many frame shots were he would have a close up of the characters looking up into the camera.

·      Kubrick used a lot of strong sexual language while the soldiers were in training camp.

·      When the soldiers were going to hit Lawrence with the soaps, there was low music warning the audience that something was going to happen. This also occurred in the scene where Lawrence shoots both the General and himself.

·      There was upbeat music when the Joker reunites with his old friend from the Platoon.

·      Kubrick also has a couple of shots where he just shows the destroyed cities in Vietnam as the soldiers travel.

·      When Cowboy is dying after being shot by the sniper, the noise of the bombs around the character is lowered so that the audience can focus on Cowboy.