My Analysis of Bloomington

Analysis of a Film Extract - Bloomington

Analysis of the way Cinematography and Editing create meaning in a scene from ‘Bloomington’

The scene: 1:9:45 - 1:13:00

Word Count: 1548 

This is a coming of age drama about a former child actress called Jackie ( Sarah Stouffer) attending college in order to become more independent and free but with this freedom she becomes romantically involved with one of the professors Catherine (Allison Mctee) causing problems throughout the film.

As the scene begins you are introduced to Lillian’s (Katherine Ann McGregor) accommodation who is Jackie’s mother. The scene is being shown to us in a long shot. Surrounded by other houses close by it shows that Lillian is living in a close community (Image 1). This informs us that Lillian and her family are some what rich and come from quite a middle class background due to the houses being shown to us. This contributes to the perception the audience have already identified about Lillian of disapproval and disinterest which she shows earlier in the film towards Jackie. Additionally, the house tells us that Lillian prefers to stay home and not travel due to the permanent routes she has made with the house, it isn’t just a flat or caravan it is a large suburban house in a neighbourhood telling us she knows the people there and is friends with many of them. You are able to see that Jackie does not reside at home and this is due to the old and slightly childlike room (Image 2). You are able to identify that it is a childish room due to the bunkbed which is mainly identified with young children, which could mean that Jackie has not been home for a while. This is identified in the earlier parts of the film when you learn that Jackie is a young actress and has been on a film set for most of her youth and resided with her manager rather than her family, this might be telling us the relationship between Jackie and her mother. The travelling contrasts greatly with her mother as you see that she most probably hardly leaves were she feels comfortable unlike Jackie who ventures to whole knew surroundings and experiences. This connotes to the audience that Jackie seems to hold the power and dominance in the relationship between herself and her mother or she would not have gone of because it seems her mother did not agree with many of Jackie’s decisions.

In the bedroom scene the director has used a variety of shots including a long shot (Image 3) which is used to show in this moment that Lillian is being inferior to Jackie as she is standing tall and not backing down to Jackie, this tells us that in this moment she feels she is stronger but this however is contradicted as Jackie is the one packing her boxes ready it seems to leave telling us that Jackie is in fact the inferior in this scene and is leaving again from her selfish it seems mother. When the scene starts you get a feel for the great performances being portrayed. You are able to see that Jackie is very independent which is shown when she is packing her room up instead of getting any help from anyone and this is due to the mother just standing and it seems being selfish as ever, there is no offer to help her in any way and when she offers it just seems like they are empty words. 

When Lillian enters the room the camera stays fixed on Jackie not moving up to see Lillian meaning that Jackie is the focal point in this shot (Image 4). There is an over the shoulder shot and a close up which is used to highlight the character’s relation between each other and emotions. The performance is outstanding when you feel that Jackie and her mother are slowly becoming closer by Lillian saying “It will be hard getting used to not having you around here again" and Jackie responds with “same here”. At this point i felt that maybe after everything they may be becoming more like a real mother and daughter, however then Lillian states “we will make do”, this response truly opens my eyes to the real dysfunctional relationship presented to us between Lillian and Jackie which tells us that not every family has a great relationship and many present issues in the everyday life.

Jackie seems to have a certain angered and mysterious expressions about her due to the stillness of her expressions and her face which is being projected to hold everything in and not let it out with her expressions (Image 5). While her mother’s face and body stance is quite scrunched up and her arms crossed showing that she is with held and not open to much or scared to open up to face the consequences (Image 6). In relation to the context, this seems to be perfect as her mother seems to hold everything back emotionally and Jackie is holding everything back physically and emotionally it seems, so in the end this connects them in the situation and also the relation between the characters.

The camera is used in this section of the scene to communicate the two sides of things, Jackie’s side were she feels she need to leave and get away from her mother as she seems unwanted and uncared for and her mother’s side of everything that communicates that she seems held back from her feelings towards her daughter and doesn’t feel she really has a say in things as she really hasn’t cared for Jackie or her career for a long time so she is really there just because she is the mother and feels she has to be seen in shoots to show the dysfunctional relationship.

In this next section of the scene you are able to see how elements have been edited and drawn together to help create a two sided story presented as one. The scene starts with the lighting being imminent with Jackie, she is important with the lights on her and really the attention (Image 7), while Catherine has a dull and unimportant light it seems (Image8). This reflects to us that Jackie seems to be doing well and going somewhere due to the light showing hope and then it seems Catherine is going no where or is but not forwards. The two viewpoints edited together are cleverly presented as you see that they are going through the same sequence however totally different situations. The over the shoulder shot has been used for both situations (Image 9&10), the over the shoulder for Catherine is used to show the emotion she is feeling using a slight close up, the emotion shown is slightly confused and scared it seems while Jackie seems all bright and happy. This is evident due to the emotion being shown in the shot and the amazing portray that each character is performing. The editing really opens this scene up with the same music playing more each character which seems to me that both Catherine and Jackie are connected still and not everything is lost.

The next few snippets show the similarities between the situation that Catherine and Jackie are both in but not the same circumstances in the end. The similarity here is the pieces of paper being presented to both Jackie and Catherine (Image 11&12), however you are able to see that Jackie’s is going to be around her future and the show while Catherine’s you get an idea of the paper being something bad and life changing. This is clear to us (Image 13) as Catherine is given the pictures of herself and Jackie while their relationship was going on showing that it has been found out, the emotion is clear that now everything will change and for Jackie that means her career taking of and for Catherine it seems that the career is at an end. This edit is clever in showing near exactly the same thing happened however the shots showing totally different viewpoints and situations. The side view of Catherine and the boss shows clear tension (Image 9) while the over the shoulder shows a quite intimate shot (Image 10).

The best piece of editing i feel was the edit of both the hand shaking (Image 14&15) which was done by cutting the two frames together to fit each other, the lighting also carries on throughout this scene showing the difference between a bright future and a career that has just ended showing there doesn’t really seem to be a bright future ahead. The farming of both the two scenes and two viewpoints shows both the similarities of the path ahead but now thing you see is when it is all over there is still a hope it seems for both of the with the light in the corner (Image 16) and the dull but imminent light on the board in the classroom(Image 17), showing how both their lives are about to change but they still have the connection they once had and that one day they would be connected again.

To conclude, the director has applied Cinematography and Editing to create meaning effectively and intelligently. This was done and shown as power and futures. The director has also ensured that the audience understands and the plot of the scene being presented which was greatly done.

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Selfish Giant Review/Analysis

Selfish Giant Review/Analysis

Selfish Giant was produced on the  25th October 2013 in the UK. The film was directed and also written by Clio Barnard, and also written by Oscar Wilde (inspired by the 'Selfish Giant'. 

The selfish giant is about a 13 year old called Arbor (Connor Chapman) and his best friend called Swifty (Shaun Thomas). Arbor and Swifty were both expelled from school and now seem to also be excluded from their own neighbourhood so they begin to start looking for something else to do. This is when they come across Kitten (Sean Gilder) who is a local scrap dealer. Arbor is seen to have a natural talent while you see that Swifty has a gift for horses. They start to travel around town picking everything up and then you see Kittens favoritism for Swifty causing Arbor to feel angry and neglected. This drives a huge wedge between the boys, this causes Arbor to become greedy and uncontrollable, this leads to a lot of tension which leads to the devastation.

• Mise en Scene

Setting

The film is seen to be shot in Bradford which fits in well with the overall idea of the film and also the people. You see the run down houses and flats that give the overall feel of the position most of those families are in and also their earnings. Overall this seems to help the fact that this film is a social-realism drama. Certain details explain what kind of place it is and these things are the huge power plants and the large expanse of electrical cable, this tells us that it is a very primary place with most of the jobs labour intensive and low waged.

Props

It seemed like all the props used in this film were done so professionally that i felt nearly all of the props looks realistic. The scraps used were done to perfection. Having the props looking realistic meant that you got the whole feel of the film and these helped you to truly connect to the character and each of their jobs.

• Cinematography

The cinematography was shot extremely well for this film, each scene you grasped what they wanted you to understand and also your emotion. A good example of well shot scenes was when the large expanse of land was shown you could see how different it was from the panoramic view with the harsh skies and the large power plants in the distance showing how soon this was going to cause a lot of heartbreak. The skies were a huge part of this also because when they scene was happy the skies were bright, however when the skies were dull you understood that something bad could be happening to cause the sadness.

• Sound

Each sound in this movie is reflective of what they want you to feel and the emotion that should be felt due to the nature of the scene. A part that connected well with is when the music is soft and sheltered, this is played in quite meaningful scenes and powerful ones. Then when a sad or harsh hitting scene comes along the music seems to stop as it wants you to think about what they would be feeling in that moment making you connect to the character a lot more.

• Performance

I felt that all the performances in this film were professional and all the lines were delivered well. I felt that the performances that touched me the most were the ones of Arbor and Swifty, their connection and chemistry on the screen is so heartfelt and each scene is delivered to the full extent to their ability. The scene that touched me the most was when Arbor stayed outside the house of Swifty after his swift death, i felt that Swifty's name in this connected to his death and the way he was there one minute and seconds later he was gone. Arbor stays there in all the weathers and then ventures home to be left with no one. Until he imagines Swifty and his hand coming towards him, this touched me because you don't truly understand what each of them meant to each of them as one leaves the other is left alone.

Overall the feel of this film was completed and captured because of the incredible performances of each of the cast members in it making it possible which i find incredible.

• Editing

All the editing done in this film was done perfectly, each of the scenes connected with nothing missing. This made the film flow smoothly and not make it confusing at all. Certain scenes in the film were sped up because it showed the time flying by and the concentration that was going into each of the jobs, but i felt that created an atmosphere which worked well with the film and messages being put across.

I liked this film because of the characters and their roles that lead you to feel very little emotion to nearly flooding the floors with tears which i find quite incredible that anyone can change your emotion in a few minutes. Overall the film was worth the watch and it surprised me from what i first thought it would be like which was a nice surprise.