The scene which I have chosen to deconstruct is from a popular teen film called Juno, which showcases a sixteen-year-old girl falling pregnant and working to find perfect adoptive parents to take on her child once it is born. This scene is early on in the film when Juno is faced with having to tell her parents that she is pregnant. What I love about this scene is the setting which has been created; the two parents on the couch, Juno standing in front of them and the supportive friend by her side. The director has set up this awkward situation so well as many teenagers can relate to having to tell their parents big news, whether good or bad, while their parents sit in front of them. As teenagers were the audience which Juno was to appeal to, the production was accurately done. However, as this film is also comedic, the director had to establish what would be a serious situation into something which also featured humour and witty-ness. Hence, the father character is seen joking about who the dad of Juno’s child is, rather than being upset with his daughter for getting herself in the situation. Although this could occur in real-life, it is less common to make light of the news of your child’s teen pregnancy.

In terms of shot construction, there are shots which I love and shots which I can’t quite wrap my head around. The director focuses heavily on dirty over the shoulder shots in this scene to establish the point of view of Juno and her parents. However, it is only over the shoulder when set on her parents, and it particularly only features a tiny portion of Juno’s arm rather than the traditional whole shoulder. When focused on Juno, it is not over the shoulder but rather set in front of the parents. This would have been done because an over the shoulder would have been to awkward to construct due to their being two parents and only one of Juno. What is odd to me is the slight pan to the right the camera does when it goes back to Juno. It does it a couple of times throughout the scene and seems almost pointless. If anything, it could symbolise how Juno is looking towards two different directions as her parents are sitting not right next to each other, and hence the camera mimics their positions. However, this seems unnecessary and makes the shot distracting.

There is minimal sound work in this scene as the focus is heavy on dialogue, however, there was folly conducted for the beginning when the parents are seen shifting nervously in their seats. It adds to the tension being introduced in the scene as they anticipate their daughters news.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDa6VWffCX8