Ted, (2012) directed by Seth MacFarlane

If anyone has seen Ted the movie, they would know this still image was taken off the scene from the film where Lori wants to reconcile her relationship with John (the guy in this picture) after receiving a prep talk from Ted.

Although the film is as silly as it sounds, a grown man with a talking teddy bear going through life, this scene stood out to me from the entire film. It runs for barely five minutes, but I get the feeling that this is the turning point of the film. Two former lovers coming together in a diner engaging in awkward small talks. It’s not like it is bad acting, but we could tell that both of them are playing a charade in front of each other. Personally, I have not much experience directing and no experience at all acting, but I get the sense that it must’ve been pretty hard to play out this scene, particularly for John, played by Mark Wahlberg. Emotions that I would presume was going through John would be surprise, to see Lori appear in the diner, depressed,  due to their relationship situation, and some anger, as he messed up badly this time. As an actor, that’s quite a handful to emote. But is it necessary to show all at once?

This still was “screen grabbed” just as he glances at the door of the diner to find Lori standing there. And his expression just exhibits those 3 emotions that I described in the above. And I strongly believe it is not purely from Mark Wahlberg’s acting, but how the filmmaker composed this shot. The emptiness of the scene with the isolation of John from the other patrons, the absence of a cook or a waitress, the use of contrasty look between blown out whites, and the deep blacks. You could almost feel the grime of a dodgy burger joint, smell the grease of overcooked patties on the grill, and charred coffee from the coffee pot that’s been sitting on the burner for ages.

The scene carries on with a simple 2 shots, over the shoulder of Lori and over the shoulder of John. And of course it was cut to whoever was talking, with some reaction shots of the person listening, especially on Lori, as she had a different agenda coming down to the diner. However, after listening to what John had to say, she had some conflicting emotions, and was just left in the diner to reflect, and the scene ends of with John saying “Thanks for coming by.”.

This might be an idea worth experimenting my use of colour and letterbox. Maybe not in terms of the location, but the whole situation of one party willing to reconcile a relationship, but the other is more or less over it. The location of where this takes place is crucial though, as there are definitely places that might be off limits, for example, maybe a shopping mall? Or a circus? But then again, it would be interesting juxtaposing the location with the situation, so that’s worth having a look at and considering the options. It’ll be an interesting shoot.