It’s week 12 and that means my final assessments will be due really soon. Thus, I’ll be sharing with you one of them, which is from a subject called Cinema Studies. Basically, we have to choose a movie clip from the choices given, which are all from the movies we’ve watched in the screenings, and analyze it as a team.
I was teamed up with another two, Saaro and Tommy. From eight movie choices, we went with Tommy Lee Jones‘ “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada”. The clip is about 7 minutes long and if you have watched the movie, is from the scene of Pete, the protagonist, drinking at an outdoor cantina in Mexico, to the scene of Mike peeling corn husks with the Mexicans.
Our final assessment is pretty much similar to what we’ve been doing in class throughout the semester, which is looking at film clips in detail and discussing it in relation to the topics we’re learning that week. We’ve also done a few impromptu group presentations in class, to help prepare us for our final assessment, which is this.
Although I couldn’t include the clip I’ll be analyzing here, due to copyright issues, I’ll talk a little bit about the clip in the three perspective that I’m in charge of, which are sound, framing and editing. Also, since I’ll be analyzing a part of the movie, spoiler alert!
Firstly, I’ll be talking about sound. Sound plays a big role in the movie, as stated in a movie review by Dr Steve Taylor. The scene when Pete was just sitting in the cantina has no dialogue, all we can hear is the diverse mixture of sound from different sources. There’s the melody of the piano, the chattering of the people, the sound from the TV (diegetic) and then there’s these trumpet-like sound that was arguably comes from his own mind (non-diegetic).
Then there’s the differing voices’ texture when the phone conversation happens. When we hear them speak at their own place, their voice sounds natural, as they would usually do. However, when we hear their voice from the end of the line, the sound changes, it’s higher in pitch, while flatter and crispier in timbre (color). This differences fulfills our basic convention of sound in real life and through phone.
Secondly, we have the framing. The movie has an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 a.k.a widescreen ratio. That means that the framing will look like a band/strip with more space to work with, which can be a challenge for directors. With this aspect ratio, most of the framing will have the character slightly off center that suggests action happening off screen, while the empty space shapes our expectation about the next shot.
A very nice example would be the shot of Pete entering the room where Melquiades’ body is at, him looking offscreen to the left. The framing has him very off center to the right. This framing excites our curiosity about what it is that he’s looking at offscreen. It was also shot from a low angle, which reflects his devastating state, especially with his face is in the shadow. The framing also creates depth as it is taken in a slightly diagonal angle.
Lastly, we have editing. Continuity editing is a big part of the Hollywood cinema, especially the 180 system typical in conversation sequences. This is applied in the telephone sequence between Pete and Rachel. The sequence is constructed with Pete looking to the right and Rachel to the left, which fulfills our expectation about the system, even when the conversation doesn’t take place at the same place.
The cuts of the shots at the beginning of the clip are also quite interesting, as it’s cut on certain notes played on the piano, but without specific rhythm, which perfectly illustrates Pete’s messed up state of mind. The cuts were also quite fast paced before Pete was (spoiler) rejected by Rachel (“I love Bob, Pete.”). Right after she hung up, the shot was the longest in the sequence, showing Pete‘s defeat shown through his face and body language.
In the end, this subject in general definitely has changed the way I perceive film. Before this course, I rarely notice creative decisions made by filmmakers, like everyone else, I was mostly concerned about the plot or acting, taking everything else for granted. However, having nearly completed this course, I developed a sense of understanding that everything presented on film has certain meaning and motives. This in itself is a really valuable lesson and experience, and I hope that having learnt all this, I’ll do well in the group presentation next week.