Film Techniques Anna Harrison
Harold and Maude
The first scene that we watching in Harold and Maude involved Harold's mother attempting to find him a girlfriend interview style. This scene used angles to show the viewer what is happening behind the mother that she cannot see, but the viewer and the date can. The deep depth of field is also used here so that the viewer can see what Harold is doing in the yard outside along with the conversation taking place indoors. The girl sees what appears to be Harold setting himself on fire outside of the window and runs out of the home. The scene then transitions to a shot of Harold and his mother watching her leave. There is no dialogue in this shot, but the characters' body language says a lot. Harold is positioned in front of his mother, with the camera positioned from below to make Harold appear taller and above his mother to evoke a feeling that he has won over her. He has succeeded in scaring off another girl, and he is proud of how it irritated his mother. This is seen in his smirk to the camera which also acts to break the fourth wall, bringing the viewer into the film and his scheme. His mother looks him up and down, measuring him. He proudly turns to look at his mother who has already met his gaze, bursting his bubble of confidence as he loses his smiles and falls back under her control.
The second scene was a discussion between Harold and Maude, a friend he met at a funeral. Maude asks Harold about what he does when not at funerals, leading to shots of the two picnicking at a wreckage site, junkyard, and cemetery. The pair then explores Maude's interest in plants at a greenhouse, where she likes to watch things grow, and this shot is angled in such a way that the frame is almost entirely filled with plants. Another shot shows Harold and Maude sitting in a field of flowers while they discuss what type of flower they would like to be. Maude wants to be a sunflower, and Harold wants to be "one of those" because they are all alike. The shot then changes to show lots of the same white flowers, and as Maude explains that the flowers look alike from a distance, but up close they are all unique, a new shot pans across daisies close up to show their differences. There is then a shot of a military cemetery, in which all of the headstones look the same from a distance, and a deep depth of field is used to show the expanse of the cemetery's sameness. The graveyard is a commentary on individuality. Every soldier buried there was an individual with a unique life but is now simply part of the field of graves.
Northfork
In Northfork, a town is in the process of being emptied in preparation for a dam that will leave the area underwater. The first clip we watched shows a church that has no back wall and no foundation. The wall behind the pulpit where an ordinary church would have images of Jesus or stained-glass windows is gone, and instead there is a view of mountains and animals. This view of nature is God's creation and acts as a witness similar to images of saints in a catholic church.
A later clip shows two men, a father and son, searching a house inhabited by several angels. Only a young boy can see the angels; the men cannot, though one states that the house smells like death. The lighting in this scene adds to the heavenly imagery. Light streams in through the windows into the dark house like a light from heaven. The house is split into two halves for moving, and the men separate to search both sides. When they reunite on the second floor, the son urges his father to jump the five feet across to the other side of the house, a leap of faith. The man makes it across but falls and is knocked out, and at that point he is able to see the angels.
The overall lighting of this film is dim, and the color is very dull, almost black and white. This adds to the dreary, sad mood of the film.
Paris Texas
Paris Texas opens with a man, Travis, in the desert wearing a suit and a red baseball cap. There are bright colors in this scene, with contrast between the blue sky, orange desert formations, and Travis's red cap. The film uses point of view as the camera points up toward a hawk, as if Travis is looking up at it, then out into the expanse of the desert. This shot shows that he is truly alone in the wilderness. He continues walking alone, following telephone lines instead of roads. When Travis's brother, Walt, finds him walking, he initially refuses to go with him. Travis keeps glancing back at the phone lines. As Walt tries to get Travis's attention, the background reflects the characters. Behind Travis, the mountains are rugged, rocky, and lush green, reflecting his rugged appearance and experiences. The mountains behind Walt are more rounded and muted in color, showing his more well-rounded life.
The film shows imagery with themes of communication throughout including phones and phone lines, as well as modes of travel like shoes, planes, and highways used to communicate with others. This theme in the film is related to the communication problems between Travis and his wife. We do not know what happened between them, but they have not spoken in years. Travis finds his wife working in a brothel that operates through legal loopholes. His wife is seated in a room, and he can see her through a one-way mirror, but she cannot see him. They cannot hear each other through the wall, so they use a phone to talk. This separation reflects the idea of alienation in the film; the wife can only see herself when talking to her clients. It takes several visits before she realizes that she is talking to her estranged husband, at which point she gets up close to the glass and turns off the light so that she can see him. The two are reunited, though still separated. There is a shot from Travis's side of the mirror in which the viewer can see his wife's silhouette with his face reflected over hers. This shows that, even though they have not talked in so long, there is a piece of him still with her. The ending of the film is healing, but it is not conclusive. It is up to the viewer to determine what happens next. I like to believe that they reunite in the end for the sake of their son, if nothing else.
Bunny
Bunny is a short film about an elderly bunny who is continuously being pestered by a moth. The opening scene shows the moth flying toward a light, as moths do, but it is unclear what this light is. The scene then changes to show Bunny in her kitchen baking a cake. The moth is drawn to the light above her, and in her attempt to send it outside, the moth hits a wedding photo on the wall. This brings Bunny's attention to the photo, reminding her of her late husband. The moth returns again, and in the chaos, Bunny whacks the moth into her cake batter. This scene uses faster-paced music and camera work to make the viewer feel the energy of the character's actions. Bunny shoves the cake in the oven and seems to fall asleep, but at this point, the oven emits a bright light that is reminiscent of heaven. The oven is a symbol of cooking, of course, but also transformation. In this short film, as Bunny died and crawled into the oven, she transformed into a moth, but she also transformed or crossed over in a spiritual sense from the concrete world. As she transforms into a moth, Bunny is drawn to the light at the back of the oven which is the same light the moth is drawn to in the first scene. This reveals a deeper meaning and foreshadowing in the opening shot. The final shot is a reflection in the wedding photo. The two moths float in the image's reflection, giving Bunny and her husband wings. This reveals that the original moth was Bunny's husband, and now the two are reunited in the afterlife.
The Wall
Pink Floyd's The Wall is a rock opera exploring messages about war. In the first clip, a bird animated in a military aesthetic transforms out of a dove, symbolizing the destruction of peace as a result of war. The bird looks like a military plane, and there is a shot of hundreds birds in the sky that transform into crosses. There are several appearances of crosses, many of which are bleeding. These are a symbol of Jesus who died on the cross as a sacrifice, similar to soldiers during war. Skeletons dressed in soldiers' clothing show death, and they turn into crosses, as well. The bird from the original shot falls into a heap of metal, and the British flag falls apart, representing destruction. The light and color in this clip, accented by smoke and rubble, are dark and dreary, adding to the dark tone.
The second clip we watched was a comment on brainwashing, or "thought control". The teacher's wife is controlling at home, and as a result, he takes out his frustrations on his students, similar to military. The students walk single file through a factory in another scene where they are placed in school desks, implying that education is like a factory creating people with the same thoughts. Another factory scene shows the students with creepy masks that hide their individuality, making them "another brick in the wall". Their individuality is further removed as they walk single file again into a meat grinder. This turns the students into one homogeneous pile of meat. Lighting is used to form shadows of hammers and machinery on the wall which relates to the idea that education makes students a cog in the machine.
The third clip is a commentary on consumption culture, as a female figure shifts into food, then a gun, syringe, car, and finally a hammer that transitions to a live action scene of people robbing an electronics store. The scene is dark and cloudy like the others which adds to the dark and destructive tone.
The final clip deals with a psychological wall, with which feelings are repressed. Hammers represent smashing individuals into submission, and the puppets danced against the wall represent the idea of thought control. The puppet is not in control of his movements; the puppeteer, or the government, is. People are fed through a meat grinder in the roof of what appears to be a school, alluding again to the idea of uniformity seen in the second clip.
The first scene that we watching in Harold and Maude involved Harold's mother attempting to find him a girlfriend interview style. This scene used angles to show the viewer what is happening behind the mother that she cannot see, but the viewer and the date can. The deep depth of field is also used here so that the viewer can see what Harold is doing in the yard outside along with the conversation taking place indoors. The girl sees what appears to be Harold setting himself on fire outside of the window and runs out of the home. The scene then transitions to a shot of Harold and his mother watching her leave. There is no dialogue in this shot, but the characters' body language says a lot. Harold is positioned in front of his mother, with the camera positioned from below to make Harold appear taller and above his mother to evoke a feeling that he has won over her. He has succeeded in scaring off another girl, and he is proud of how it irritated his mother. This is seen in his smirk to the camera which also acts to break the fourth wall, bringing the viewer into the film and his scheme. His mother looks him up and down, measuring him. He proudly turns to look at his mother who has already met his gaze, bursting his bubble of confidence as he loses his smiles and falls back under her control.
The second scene was a discussion between Harold and Maude, a friend he met at a funeral. Maude asks Harold about what he does when not at funerals, leading to shots of the two picnicking at a wreckage site, junkyard, and cemetery. The pair then explores Maude's interest in plants at a greenhouse, where she likes to watch things grow, and this shot is angled in such a way that the frame is almost entirely filled with plants. Another shot shows Harold and Maude sitting in a field of flowers while they discuss what type of flower they would like to be. Maude wants to be a sunflower, and Harold wants to be "one of those" because they are all alike. The shot then changes to show lots of the same white flowers, and as Maude explains that the flowers look alike from a distance, but up close they are all unique, a new shot pans across daisies close up to show their differences. There is then a shot of a military cemetery, in which all of the headstones look the same from a distance, and a deep depth of field is used to show the expanse of the cemetery's sameness. The graveyard is a commentary on individuality. Every soldier buried there was an individual with a unique life but is now simply part of the field of graves.
Northfork
In Northfork, a town is in the process of being emptied in preparation for a dam that will leave the area underwater. The first clip we watched shows a church that has no back wall and no foundation. The wall behind the pulpit where an ordinary church would have images of Jesus or stained-glass windows is gone, and instead there is a view of mountains and animals. This view of nature is God's creation and acts as a witness similar to images of saints in a catholic church.
A later clip shows two men, a father and son, searching a house inhabited by several angels. Only a young boy can see the angels; the men cannot, though one states that the house smells like death. The lighting in this scene adds to the heavenly imagery. Light streams in through the windows into the dark house like a light from heaven. The house is split into two halves for moving, and the men separate to search both sides. When they reunite on the second floor, the son urges his father to jump the five feet across to the other side of the house, a leap of faith. The man makes it across but falls and is knocked out, and at that point he is able to see the angels.
The overall lighting of this film is dim, and the color is very dull, almost black and white. This adds to the dreary, sad mood of the film.
Paris Texas
Paris Texas opens with a man, Travis, in the desert wearing a suit and a red baseball cap. There are bright colors in this scene, with contrast between the blue sky, orange desert formations, and Travis's red cap. The film uses point of view as the camera points up toward a hawk, as if Travis is looking up at it, then out into the expanse of the desert. This shot shows that he is truly alone in the wilderness. He continues walking alone, following telephone lines instead of roads. When Travis's brother, Walt, finds him walking, he initially refuses to go with him. Travis keeps glancing back at the phone lines. As Walt tries to get Travis's attention, the background reflects the characters. Behind Travis, the mountains are rugged, rocky, and lush green, reflecting his rugged appearance and experiences. The mountains behind Walt are more rounded and muted in color, showing his more well-rounded life.
The film shows imagery with themes of communication throughout including phones and phone lines, as well as modes of travel like shoes, planes, and highways used to communicate with others. This theme in the film is related to the communication problems between Travis and his wife. We do not know what happened between them, but they have not spoken in years. Travis finds his wife working in a brothel that operates through legal loopholes. His wife is seated in a room, and he can see her through a one-way mirror, but she cannot see him. They cannot hear each other through the wall, so they use a phone to talk. This separation reflects the idea of alienation in the film; the wife can only see herself when talking to her clients. It takes several visits before she realizes that she is talking to her estranged husband, at which point she gets up close to the glass and turns off the light so that she can see him. The two are reunited, though still separated. There is a shot from Travis's side of the mirror in which the viewer can see his wife's silhouette with his face reflected over hers. This shows that, even though they have not talked in so long, there is a piece of him still with her. The ending of the film is healing, but it is not conclusive. It is up to the viewer to determine what happens next. I like to believe that they reunite in the end for the sake of their son, if nothing else.
Bunny
Bunny is a short film about an elderly bunny who is continuously being pestered by a moth. The opening scene shows the moth flying toward a light, as moths do, but it is unclear what this light is. The scene then changes to show Bunny in her kitchen baking a cake. The moth is drawn to the light above her, and in her attempt to send it outside, the moth hits a wedding photo on the wall. This brings Bunny's attention to the photo, reminding her of her late husband. The moth returns again, and in the chaos, Bunny whacks the moth into her cake batter. This scene uses faster-paced music and camera work to make the viewer feel the energy of the character's actions. Bunny shoves the cake in the oven and seems to fall asleep, but at this point, the oven emits a bright light that is reminiscent of heaven. The oven is a symbol of cooking, of course, but also transformation. In this short film, as Bunny died and crawled into the oven, she transformed into a moth, but she also transformed or crossed over in a spiritual sense from the concrete world. As she transforms into a moth, Bunny is drawn to the light at the back of the oven which is the same light the moth is drawn to in the first scene. This reveals a deeper meaning and foreshadowing in the opening shot. The final shot is a reflection in the wedding photo. The two moths float in the image's reflection, giving Bunny and her husband wings. This reveals that the original moth was Bunny's husband, and now the two are reunited in the afterlife.
The Wall
Pink Floyd's The Wall is a rock opera exploring messages about war. In the first clip, a bird animated in a military aesthetic transforms out of a dove, symbolizing the destruction of peace as a result of war. The bird looks like a military plane, and there is a shot of hundreds birds in the sky that transform into crosses. There are several appearances of crosses, many of which are bleeding. These are a symbol of Jesus who died on the cross as a sacrifice, similar to soldiers during war. Skeletons dressed in soldiers' clothing show death, and they turn into crosses, as well. The bird from the original shot falls into a heap of metal, and the British flag falls apart, representing destruction. The light and color in this clip, accented by smoke and rubble, are dark and dreary, adding to the dark tone.
The second clip we watched was a comment on brainwashing, or "thought control". The teacher's wife is controlling at home, and as a result, he takes out his frustrations on his students, similar to military. The students walk single file through a factory in another scene where they are placed in school desks, implying that education is like a factory creating people with the same thoughts. Another factory scene shows the students with creepy masks that hide their individuality, making them "another brick in the wall". Their individuality is further removed as they walk single file again into a meat grinder. This turns the students into one homogeneous pile of meat. Lighting is used to form shadows of hammers and machinery on the wall which relates to the idea that education makes students a cog in the machine.
The third clip is a commentary on consumption culture, as a female figure shifts into food, then a gun, syringe, car, and finally a hammer that transitions to a live action scene of people robbing an electronics store. The scene is dark and cloudy like the others which adds to the dark and destructive tone.
The final clip deals with a psychological wall, with which feelings are repressed. Hammers represent smashing individuals into submission, and the puppets danced against the wall represent the idea of thought control. The puppet is not in control of his movements; the puppeteer, or the government, is. People are fed through a meat grinder in the roof of what appears to be a school, alluding again to the idea of uniformity seen in the second clip.
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