Scene Deconstruction

Things to Consider

Location, Interior/exterior, direction of light, time of day, size of shots, mise en scene, depth, foreground, background, colour, hues, camera movement, outside of frame, lighting, exposure, choreography, foley, voice, music.

This film opens with two sounds; the music that is gentle and calm being played by some sort of distorted string instrument like an electric guitar accompanied by a piano and either a flute or a clarinet. There seems to be a whole orchestra waiting to be cued in.

The sound of the beach, waves breaking, the wind is also heard right from the beginning as the film titles fade in and out, black background and white font. The first shot is the camera moving up the stars of a warehouse size space someone lives in. The light is very blue which suggests that it’s really early morning. The camera moves up the stairs faster than a person. And fades out quickly again as soon as the whole shot is visible it fades out again.

The next frame is the top of the stairs where the whole apartment comes into view in the same blue early morning light. The camera focuses on the whole of the apartment long depth of field as the apartment is very big. The camera swings around quite quickly and if you look closely you can see the figure of a man in briefs sleeping in the studio bed. It fades out so quickly though it was only when I was doing this deconstruction did I realise that there was someone in the bed. The music and wind sounds continue throughout this sequence.

In the next frame the camera travels slowly through to the next room of the lofty apartment, almost like someone is actually moving through the apartment that is not meant to be there. The light is the same. It is the same scene the same time of day. There have been three separate shots to set up this place so far. Moving up the stairs, a 180-degree pan of the space and then a shot moving deeper into the space at a slower pace. What does this type of set up suggest about what is happening in the movie? In the background there is a wall with fogged windows with soft warm lighting behind it. The rest of the apartment is still lit in the early morning blue light. The camera then pans right to reveal the whole space where Astor, the main character, stands with her back to the camera doing her artwork on a long table. There are lights behind the big window at the back but again we can’t see through them because they are foggy. The lamps on the table reveal that she is busy at work. When she is revealed, another layer of audio is heard. It is her voice recounting the tale of what has happened to her and why she is here now. She is setting up the story for us. The camera moves slowly towards her.

While the audio layers continue, the camera pans slowly in a close up, to reveal her artwork, suitcases and boxes full of little decorations and ornaments to suggest or reveal a different part of her life. It fades out again to reveal more credits of the stars that appear in the film while Astor’s voice continues to introduce the start of her story. The blue light and her voice over suggest that we are hearing her in the present and that the story is about to go back in time to reveal to the audience what has happened.

The next scene is set at night, exterior of a different house, the light is more yellow than blue and it is very windy. The camera looks up towards the sky as the trees move in the wind. They also seem to be back lit by quite an intense orange light. The next shot is a dark alleyway where the rubbish and leaves are being swept around violently by the wind. A rubbish bin turns over and makes a loud sound. The alley is really dark but the insides of the houses on either side are lit up from the inside with a deep yellow light. This is the alley next to Astor’s house because the next shot is a close up of her in her bed being lit by the same yellow light. It’s incredibly soft and the edges of the scene are almost blurred.

The set up of locations combined with Astor’s voice and moments of her art are a great way to set up character. There is a lot in this scene I could use in a different way with Penelope and her music. The film so far is beautifully lit you can see a lot of work has gone into the lighting to set the mood for the film. This would be hard to emulate but I wouldn’t try to replicate it anyway. I would draw inspiration from the way the character and place is set up and try and do the same with Penelope using her footage and her story.