Nature’s role
In Charlie Kaufman’s I’m Thinking of Ending Things, the significance of the weather as well as the camera movement set the tone and support the plot. There were several scenes involving the brisk, snowy weather, but they actually all play into each other and the development of the movie. To put it briefly, the snowy weather goes from charming, to uncomfortably inconvenient, to dangerous and painful.
The weather plays a vital role in this movie’s development. The start of the movie gives an optimistic and jovial tone as a couple is preparing on a trip to meet the parents (a rather significant occasion in relationships as it suggests a successful and serious relationship). Once the couple begins their trip, the bright, snowy outdoors begins to appear more and more dull. Coincidentally, the girl’s thoughts are presented to the audience as she explains her pessimistic view on her relationship; even going so far as playing out the different scenarios of how to break up with Jake (her boyfriend) based off of the things she does not like about him and the relationship. After they had made it to their destination of the parents house, every conversation and communication is awkward, impolite, and uncomfortable. Because of this, the girl continuously uses the excuse of the weather getting too bad and them needing to leave. Of course, Jake dismisses her every time as he says his snow chains will help them get back with no problems. The repetition of Jake talking about these snow chains made me feel like the girl was being trapped (as if by chains). In the end of the movie, though there was not necessarily closure to the story, the snow finally settled, hiding many things that happened that night as if it were all just a part of the blizzard and nothing really happened.
Groups
The behavior of groups in film are just as significant as the behavior and plots for individual characters. For an example of significant movement of groups, I chose this scene from Midsommar. In this scene, Dani has just been crowned May Queen, a high honor in this community. The entire commune is seated at a table as they begin to share a meal. However, though there is a great deal of people at the table, our eyes are still drawn to focal characters. In a strange way, the crowd of people frames the important characters. The audience is forced to look at Christian as he is the only one not wearing white. They are forced to look at the girl seducing Christian as she holds no emotion compared to everyone around her as she maintains eye contact with Christian. During all of this, the food on the table is morphing continuously. This is done not only to remind the audience that the characters have been given substances that make them hallucinate, but to show that they are no longer in complete control of their own reality. The group of people in the shot is extremely important as this is somewhat like a check-in for the movie as the audience is forced to gauge the mindset of each of the highlighted characters. Of course, things only become more hectic from here as the following scenes are centered around an orgy, heartbreak, and even human sacrifices.
Shot for Shot- Looking at the shot reverse shot through dialogue
The shot reverse shot is a film technique that goes between two camera angles, typically in dialogue scenes, that go back and forth from one camera angle to the other; eliciting the feeling of a natural exchange in conversation. For my shot for shot example, I chose this scene from Donnie Darko. In this scene, Donnie and his girlfriend, Gretchen, are the only two in a movie theater until Frank, a being in a scary bunny costume that has been controlling Donnie, appears. This scene starts off with a shot with all three characters in the scene but turns into a conversation between Donnie and Frank as the camera begins to shoot in shot reverse shot. The conversation between the two is not nearly as important as for what goes unsaid in this scene. In essence, if no words were spoken in this scene, the audience would still be able to understand what was going on as there were many instances in the film that required the audience to interpret what was going on as there was no dialog many times.
This interaction between Donnie and Frank leads up to the climax of the film. Frank gives Donnie yet another task to perform before the world ends. These shots show the manic nature of Donnie as his smile and stares as this being uses him almost as a puppet. These shots also show how Frank and Donnie have grown to be somewhat like equals. With the camera going back and forth between the two, the audience is forced to be involved in this conversation. It is as if we are sitting with Gretchen, who has been asleep through the whole conversation, as we overhear the plotting between the two as well as Frank’s apology. This is the first scene that we see Frank without his costume head on as it reveals a boy the same age as Donnie with a mutilated eye. If this scene were shot in a different manner, it would be a completely different scene and the audience would not get to experience the raw emotion and tension that we did.
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