I’ve chosen a scene from ‘Clapping for the Wrong Reasons’ [CFTWR] (2013) by Donald Glover. CFTWR is a short film directed by Hiro Murai and written by Donald Glover. The short film is an adaption of a screenplay written by Donald Glover for his 2013 album Because The Internet (BTI). The screenplay draws on a few characters interacting within an intersection of the internet and the modern world. In short, CFTWR is an adaption of the characters, the world, and the environment that the screenplay draws upon.

The scene I’ve focused on is between two characters (unnamed characters in the film) sitting by the pool on a sunny morning.

The Shot

The shot captures a wide shot with multiple objects and the two characters in the scene. The chosen shot captures their environment so well. The audience can a sunny background in the hills behind the two characters sitting down. The shot captures a big pool that surrounds the sofa their sitting on, which tells the audience about the living standards of the character. The scene helps identify that the characters are well-off, as it also includes a spa in the shot with a hut covering it. The shot perfectly captures the world these two characters are in. The storytelling of this shot is not just the environment and characters but the depth of field. The shot focuses on the edge pool, the spa, and the hills in the background. The characters are almost the least focused objects in this shot.

Characters

As mentioned above, the characters appear to be the less-focused objects in the shot. However, their presence still tells a story about the scene. The two characters are sitting in between the two pillars holding the hut. One character is on his laptop, focused on his screen, while the other character is eating cereal. This shot can be a signifying shot, which could pose a reflection on the two different people in this world who interact with the internet in the digital age – one person who wakes up to the internet and the other who wakes up to reality.

Sound/FX

The background sound for this scene is spot-on for the shot the audience sees. The sound captures the air space, including the different birds chirping and insects in the distance. You can almost hear the air in the scene, almost smelling the warmth of the air. You then hear a plane fly over the location, giving the world a sense of realism. The dialogue is captured well in between all the sounds of the air and birds/insects – including the sounds of one of the characters’ spoon clinking with the bowl.

Overall, an aesthetically beautiful shot that’s captured here, which I believe was filmed on a 35mm film camera – the grain is subtle but adds beautiful tones to the shot. I think it’s a well-directed wide shot – which paints the world that the characters live in while also showing the audience what to focus on with subtle depth of focus.