Framing/Composition

The film spends most of its time experimenting with techniques in regards to structure, graphics and chronology, all of which are present in the opening sequence. The framing/composition in the opening sequence in particular, highlight the chronology of the film. The film jumps between the past and the future to help explain how the couple fell in love and what, if anything, went wrong. The old home videos of protagonists; Tom and Summer that are shown, resemble the past. The director's purpose in going back in time was to represent the film's purpose - "a guy remembering a relationship"(Director Marc Webb). The old home videos are the beginning to Tom's remembrance of this relationship, used to show how it all began. Coincidentally playing the beginning of the relationship at the beginning of the film, fits perfectly with the use of chronology and portrays the film's message; a post modern love story that is never what the viewer expects it to be. 


The intentional cropping of frames during the old home video scene of the younger Tom and Summer, is created by using a lower camera position. For example when Tom is running towards the camera, holding his mother's hand the camera is positioned lower, consequently Tom's mother is cropped and only her legs can be seen. The low camera position is also evident when the shot of Summer's birthday is shown. The frame is shot level with the table and Summer, causing the contents on the table to be cropped which illustrates how Summer's view of the table is limited due to her height. This dominant cropping allows the audience to see the younger Tom and Summer's point of view (POV) as they begin to experience the world. 

Contrastingly other frames from the old home videos are shot from a higher camera position looking down at Tom and Summer, subsequently cropping the bottom half of their bodies. For example in the frame where Tom is jumping off plank, the camera is positioned so that it is looking down at Tom causing half his body to be cropped. Similarly when Summer jumps off a slide the same camera positioning and consequential cropping is apparent. This deliberate high camera positioning and cropping makes the camera act as Tom and Summer's parents which fits with their POV. Tom and Summer look up to their parents for guidance and support as they grow up and enter this world.

The camera positioning and intentional cropping subsequently create a visual absence of adults, which emphasizes the presence of children, and shapes the viewer's emotional response into happiness and hope, that other techniques can not. Character/Performance for instance could not show this subtle representation of POV. For example, the high positioned camera shots of Tom dancing and waving in the kitchen, and Summer feeding the ducks deliberately cause their lower bodies to be cropped and a mid shot to be created. This reinforces the importance of the younger Tom and Summer's POV, which could not have been created by Character/Performance alone, and shows how each of their childhoods are the beginning to a twisted journey of highs and lows that doesn’t quite go where the viewer thinks it will. Undoubtedly this is the realistic in today's society, hence viewers can relate which is the utmost purpose of the film.