Thursday, 24 March 2011

'American Beauty' film analysis

American Beauty is a dramatic comedy as opposed to a dramatic thriller but that is not the reason we chose to analyse this film opening. We chose to analyse it because it has a voiceover. We decided we needed to research voiceovers to find the most effective way of using them. We used American Beauty because it establishes what the film will be about and why, which is what we plan to use voiceovers for.



The extract begins with a non-diegetic score that makes the scene seem happy. This is playing while we see a long establishing shot zooming into a stereotypical suburban neighborhood. The score then ends and the voiceover begins. It establishes the scene and then allows the audience to be introduced to the main character. It then cuts to a bird's-eye shot of a man lying face down in bed. The room is clean and the audience would expect the man to be happy and placid like the location he is in, but the voiceover challenges this assumption. It then cuts to a mid-shot of him turning over which allows the audience to see the emotion that reaffirms what the voiceover is telling them. While the voice over continues, the extract cuts to a close-up of him putting his feet into slippers, which is a stereotypical shot for someone with a happy domestic life. Thus, the voiceover is a constant contradiction to what the audience are used to thinking. It then cuts to a close-up of the same man in the shower with water pouring onto his face. We hear sounds of realism as well as the voiceover which makes the opening extract more realistic. The extract then cuts to a medium-shot pan across a clean bathroom of the man in the shower while the voiceover continues. It then cuts to a close-up of a red rose and tilts down to hands trimming it. We then cut to a medium-shot of a woman with a rose while the voiceover introduces her. The opening then cuts to a wide tracking shot of a dog running and we can hear it barking which again adds sounds of realism. We then cut to a medium-shot of the dog through a white picket fence, which is again stereotypical of this setting of the domestic neighbourhood. It then cuts to a wide shot of a man in a suit, once again stereotypical for this location, leaving a clean house. The voice over continues throughout. There is then a medium-shot of the main character looking out from a window. He is the only part of this opening that is not clean and wholesome and the voiceover reiterates this idealism. It then cuts to a two-shot of the wholesome neighbour in a suit talking to the main character's wife with the main character looking out the window in the background. This shows that he does not fit in the location since he is separated from the others members of the community.



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