Week 65: Socials Roundup
Posts from 25 March to 31 March
Week 65 saw posts on American Fiction (2023); Misbehaviour (2020); Crazy Stupid Love (2011); "The Sun and the Looking Glass - for one easily forgets but the tree remembers" (2020); and Pain & Gain (2013).
American Fiction
I (Mel) am an absolute sucker for stairwell shots and 'leading lines' - this shot has both.
The railings draw our eyes to Monk's eyes, while reflections on both walls to either side signify how he's divided within himself.
As DP Brett Harrison points out, “His body is exactly abutting the vertical centre line of the frame, also enhancing the sense of division.'“
Misbehaviour
Many biopics give story updates at the credits; Misbehaviour uses an unusual technique for theirs.
As scenes play, each actress 'breaks the fourth wall' before a cut to another person looking at the camera. We don't need a "heeeeere's the real Jennifer!" card - the technique speaks clearly.
Crazy Stupid Love
This simple dialogue scene (there's only 4 setups) from Crazy Stupid Love is elevated by a simple directorial choice... Cal (Steve Carell) is blocked by a pillar.
It’s really well setup: we follow the boss, cut to an objective angle on him, the dialogue is clear he's speaking to Cal ("Hey, Cal") and the j-cut/pre-lap lets us hear Cal return the greeting, so when we cut to the reverse OTS onto Cal we expect to see him.
But, instead, where Cal should be (based on eye trace) is a grey pillar! Cal then wheels himself into shot, squeezed between the pillar and his boss. It's a great gag that continues through the scene. Even when we go to the clean single on Cal he's still obscured by the pillar!
The discomfort of the composition (and Carell's masterful physical comedy) makes us feel Cal's awkwardness. But because we're inside of his Boss' POV we're invited to laugh at Cal.
The button on the scene is great too. The WS reveal of Cal's terrible wardrobe (too-long Chinos + NB sneakers!) makes us laugh at him but the shot lingers long enough for us to see Cal's pain. So we go out of the scene feeling for Cal.
Simple. Effective.
"The Sun and the Looking Glass - for one easily forgets but the tree remembers"
The Sun and the Looking Glass is concerned with time, and this carries through everything from visuals to crackly audio to text.
Amongst shots of nature which seem not to move (and a few which don't) is a unique way of 'revealing' captions with a looking glass; it takes much more time than voiceover or most on-screen text, yet in relation to what its juxtaposed titular qaiqab tree has witnessed, this takes no time at all.
You can see the film in full here.
Pain & Gain
We’ve got an upcoming deep dive into the opening two minutes of Pain & Gain
But first, a super-close look at this perfect nine seconds.
In a MCU, Daniel twists his head; cut to a similarly-twisting POV shot of cops arriving, complete with slight shakiness to simulate his upside-down body.
Back to the starting MCU, as Daniel's arm reaches through frame, cut into the medium of his arm grabbing the situp bar to hop down.
Halfway through the hop, cut into a medium wide until he lands and begins to run, then wider as he flees.
The freneticism echoes his heartrate (pounding from workout, then adrenalised fear) and the rapidly increasing shot size seamlessly uses the motion of Daniel’s body to guide the edit flow.