The enchanting story of Tom and Summer is effectively captured through the use of mis-en-scene, music and camera shots. The director, Marc Webb creates a tone of pursuing happiness. This then sets a mood of excitement and hopefulness.
The use of mis-en-scene emphasizes this joy and optimism. The first part of the opening is made up of a park scene. A wide angle shot is used to capture Tom and Summer on a park bench. This gives the viewer hope that this will be a happy story because of the fairytale-like appearance, which is portrayed throughout the film up until the turning point. From the wide angle shot there is a transition into a close-up of Summer and Tom's hands holding, this introduces a romantic element to the scene. In continuation with the enchanting mood, mystical yet pleasant music is played. The music is relatively slowly paced creating a warm but pondering mood. Over-top of the music a narrator is explaining the story of Tom and Summer. The dialogue is simple, yet told in a fairytale-like fashion; "this is a story of boy meets girl".
The narration is continued through to the next scene back at day one, when Tom and Summer are introduced. Gradual close-up shots of Tom and Summer's faces are used, as well as an over-shoulder shot of Summer looking in a mirror as a child. However during the mirror shot the viewer feels sadden by Summer's expression and the narrator's dialogue regarding Summer's disbelief of love. As the joyous music fades out the narrator says "however you should know up front, this is not a love story", this puts doubts in the viewer's mind, however the pause in music and narration emphasizes and strengthens these doubts that the movie may not be a fairytale after all.
In the final scene when the credits begin to roll, the viewer is taken a-back by the sudden joyous music returning. However this music is louder, and at a faster pace creating excitement and "butterflies" for the viewer for what is about to happen. The viewer begins to question if the fairytale is going to return. Their question is answered as soon as old home videos of Summer and Tom growing up are shown, and the viewer comes to the realization that there will be a happy story, or at least some happy part to it. There is an extreme close-up shot of the "younger" Tom's eye opening and the "younger" Summer's eye opening. This represents optimism, that there will be a happy ending to the story. The screen is split so that the viewer can see both Tom and Summer growing up together, Tom is on the left, Summer right. A mid-shot is shown of both Tom and Summer smiling so that the joyous mood is restored. A long-shot of Tom splashing around at a beach and Summer going down a slide at a park is shown. Again happiness is portrayed as well as a unity being created. This unity is continued when the next shot is of Tom looking back over his shoulder at the camera, Summer is doing the same. The following shots are of Tom and Summer's achievements as they grow up, such as Tom learning to play the guitar and Summer learning to ride a horse. These shots symbolize hope, the viewer is given hope that these young children will grow up to be great. Finally, the last two videos are shown, one of Summer blowing a dandelion towards the frame of Tom's video and Tom catching the bubbles coming from the frame of Summer's video. This gives the viewer the sense that there will be something fairytale-like about this story but as the music fades earlier doubts return to the viewer and they begin to ponder what will be the twist to this love story?
Well done! Great description of how the intro sets the mood and tone for the film. You have identified some film techniques here, so go into more detail as you move onto C. For each, use the describe-explain-analyse framework explained in the handout: I have put some more questions and info about it on my blog. Remember you need two at Excellence level to gain Excellence, so maybe do three and the other one just to Merit. Keep up the good effort!
ReplyDelete