In a previous post I wrote about the things that I love about this scene. For this post, I want to deconstruct all the outdoor shots, which will inform my own outdoor shoot (so I am ignoring the indoor shots in front of the lockers).
Shots
- Medium close up (MCU) of Pedro (centre of frame)
- Long two shot of Pedro and Napoleon
- Close up (CU) of shocks
- CU of pegs
- MCU of Napoleon (centre of frame)
- CU of Mexican flag
- MCU of Napoleon
- LU of Napoleon, house, Pedro riding past on bike (centred)
- crash zoom into mid shot of Napoleon (centred)
- LU of Pedro, house and Napoleon riding past (centred)
Sound
- The dialogue outside begins mid-conversation, continuing from their conversation in front of the lockers.
- Sounds of birds to also demonstrate that they have moved outdoors.
- You can hear the grass underneath Napoleon’s feet when he move towards the bike. That was probably done by a Foley artist.
- You can hear the wind rustling the little Mexican flag on the bike. Foley as well, probably.
- There is a dog barking in the shot in front of Pedro’s house. It is at the same level as the birds chirping.
- The sound of the bike is heightened (louder). Foley.
- You can’t hear any cars. It is a very quiet suburban town.
- The sound of Napoleon crashing and the bricks tumbling down is loud and surprising.
Lighting
This looks kind of flat (which is similar to the whole look of the film). I think that this is all natural light. The sun seems low in the sky, behind pedro, which casts that tree’s shadow, so maybe there is a board bouncing light from the sun onto his face?
The sun is glinting of the pegs in this shot. That must be on purpose, because Napoleon is marvelling at them. Perhaps a key light made to look like a bit of sunlight (blue).
This lighting is the most interesting to me because it is natural light, the sun is behind the house, it looks like it is late in the afternoon (and this scene takes place after school). This is important to note how difficult it would be to light a wide outdoor shot, or a long distance shot. The camera must be either in the middle of the road or on the other side of the street for this shot, which is what I am planning on doing for my shoot.
Then it crash zooms into this frame, and Napoleon is beautifully backlit by the sun. He is like in a halo of light, which is interesting with the Mother Mary and Jesus statues in the background. it’s pretty heavenly, hahahaha. You can even see a wisp of spider web attached to his hair in this shot, catching the sunlight. They would’t have been able to have anyone in front of this shot bouncing light into his face. It seems to be a very very bright location.
