Boyhood

Boyhood

Camera Shots/Angles/Movement

1. In one scene, Mason is now a teenager, taking pictures of his school's football game. In between taking photos of the players and actual game, Mason turns his camera towards the net, blocking the ball from hitting him, and also the stands where you can see a happy crowd, cheering the team on. The camera then shifts from showing Mason to Mason's perspective through the lens of the camera. The audience becomes Mason's camera and he points it around, capturing a few artistic shots. I thought that turning the viewers into the camera was an effective way of grabbing one's attention. As an audience, we get to become Mason for a few seconds and really see what he wants us to see, which is not something that happens very often in the film.

Another scene where camerawork was used effectively was when Mason comes home late and is greeted by his second stepfather on his porch. In the scene, it is clear that his stepdad had been drinking and is very angry with Mason. He begins disciplining Mason, which is nothing out of the ordinary. However, for the first time, Mason stands up to him and essentially tells him off, arguing the all-too-typical "you're not my father." Every time the camera cuts to Mason, it seems to be using the handheld technique, perhaps to show the drunken state of the stepdad. When the camera cuts to the stepdad, as if Mason were looking at him, it is clear that a tripod was used to steady the camera. This effectively shows the difference between the state of mind of both characters. Even  though Mason is younger, he seems to have it together more so than his stepfather.

2. I think that the camera could have been used better in a scene that was fairly early on in the movie. In this scene, the two children are spying on their mother and father through the upstairs window. Their divorced parents are arguing outside and it becomes clear that their mother is forcing their father to leave. Samantha grabs a pair of binoculars to watch the dad as he turns for his car. The kids pass the binoculars back and forth, looking into them. I think that the camera should have done a point of view technique, zooming in on the father every time a child looked through the lens. That way, the audience could be put into the child's shoes, as they are later in the film when the audience becomes Mason's camera whenever he looks into it. Instead of this POV technique, the camera continues its consistent medium shot of the father. I almost felt that the binoculars were unnecessary without the POV shot, which would have benefitted the scene, in my opinion.

3. This movie is incredibly realistic, something that the director was really pushing for. Because of this, there is a lot of handheld and POV camerawork, that puts the audience into the movie, bringing each scene to life. Realism is a very important aspect of this film. If the movie were more Hollywood and used a tripod in every scene, I feel as though it would be boring. A movie about a boy growing up into a young man, from ages 6 to 18, where the boy is actually the same aging character is an incredible idea. However, the movie would not have been as successful if it were any less realistic than it is. Nobody wants to see another Hollywood coming of age film that is picture perfect and nothing like their personal life. There are just so many movies like that already. Boyhood really captures audiences because of its relatability.

4. Boyhood is an incredible story about the life of a maturing young boy. The movie is based on its realism and ability to be relatable. A similar movie that I watched recently was Napolean Dynamite that focuses on a young man and his strange home and social life. In both films, a lot of handheld camera work is used to show certain scenes, especially ones that involve movement, as realistic. There is also no real plot line in either film. There is no specific rising action, climax, and falling action as seen in most other films. Instead, both movies kind of take things day to day, showing the typical activity of both characters' lives.

MYST: Matilda

Matilda

After recently rewatching Matilda for the first time in a decade, I realize that the movie is very well-done. As a little kid, I obviously never paid close attention to the editing of a movie. However, after viewing this film and realizing how brilliant some of the scenes are, I reward this movie with 4 DiDomenicos.

Summary
Matilda is a children's movie about a young girl who never "fit in" with her, well, trashy family (to say the least.) Her parents only care about money, looks, and living the seemingly high life. Matilda is virtually invisible to them. Her father is a used car salesman who constantly rips people off and her mother is a neglectful "housewife" who spends her days out of the house playing bingo and shopping. When Matilda grows old enough, she has to beg her father to send her to school. It is there that she meets her wonderful teacher, Miss Honey, who is likely the first adult to truly be kind to Matilda. Miss Honey is the one to realize that Matilda is absolutely brilliant. However, after Matilda's father sells one of his notoriously awful used cars to the evil principal of the school, Ms. Trunchbull, she is enraged. While chaos ensues, Matilda also must deal with something much bigger than the all-too-horrifying adult problems: her magical powers! Because what's a good children's movie without a bit of magic?

Editing
Because Matilda is a children's movie, there are many scenes that are meant to hold a child's attention. In order to do so, very interesting editing was used. During a few scene shifts, I noticed not-so-typical transitions were used. For example, after a scene when Matilda's family goes to a nice restaurant and all hell breaks loose, a fun, triangular transition is used to cut to the new scene.

I also noticed a bit of a fisheye lens used with a close up when the antagonists (Matilda's parents or principal) are speaking down to Matilda or simply yelling. This is most likely used to intimidate the audience– who again, is most likely young children.


Specific Scene
In one of my favorite scenes from the movie, Ms. Trunchbull is screaming at a class for god knows what (this is a daily thing with Ms. Trunchbull). As the yelling escalates, Matilda decides to take things into her own hands and begins to use her magic against the principal. However, her magic ability to move items with her eyes takes a bit of concentration on her end. So, as the screaming continues, a close up of Matilda's eyes is shown, with a very stern look on her face. The camera then jumps to a water glass with a newt inside of it (from a previous prank on Ms. Trunchbull.) The camera jumps again to Trunchbull's furious face then again to Matilda's concentrated look and then again to the water glass, this time shaking a bit. This pattern continues with the jumping back and forth until Matilda's powers have grown strong enough to flip the cup of water (and lizard) upward so the newt lands directly on Trunchbull's chest. Matilda's eyes immediately relax, showing her job was done and Trunchbull, in turn, has a mental breakdown, losing it at the sight of the newt crawling towards her face.

This scene reminded me a lot of the scene from Juno that we examined in class. In the Juno scene, a teenage girl has just walked into an abortion clinic after learning from a protestor that unborn babies have fingernails. As the main character tries not to let that bother her, the camera jumps to scenes of women using their fingernails, eventually making Juno run out of the clinic and ultimately have the baby. In both scenes from the very different movies, the camera does a lot of jumping back and forth between shots. As the jumping progresses, the speed in between the shots quickens, giving the viewer a sense of urgency and anxiety. Paired with suspenseful music in Matilda, the scene really grabs the viewer's attention and proves to be quite humorous if you stick around through all of that Trunchbull screaming.