Recording “in some way, may be a product of our written-visual culture” (Mason, The discipline of noticing, p.33)

In this particular scene from Date Night Tina Fey and Steve Carrell’s characters’ notice that the restaurant is filled with couples, thus marking the individual circumstances that each couple are in. Further along, they communicate by recording the intimacy of each couple; their body language and lip reading to establish the current state that each couple are in.

As the audience, we notice that Fey and Carrell are currently on a date as couples also surround them and are a married couple due to their wedding rings. We mark that the fact they have been married for a fair amount of time from their banter and how comfortable they are around each other. As we record, we analyse the marriage that they’re in; a marriage that lacks the excitement they once had. In particular, the actual fact that they’re criticising and teasing the couples only reflects their insecurities and comparing their lack of spark to the development of others. The dialogue and lack of camera shots together further suggests their love for each other is still prominent but their marriage is in jeopardy from their own responsibilities in life; their career, their children etc.

From this short sequence we can distinguish what Mason explains to be the three levels of noticing in intensity and energy.

Reference: Extract from John Mason, 2002, Researching your own practice: The discipline of noticing (London: Routledge), pp. 33