Super 8 is a film about aliens on Earth. When a freak train accident occurs in a town, weird things begin to happen. Animals act strange, things go missing, and people start seeing bizarre things. A group of kids decide to investigate and it soon turns out the strange occurrences have been caused by aliens so the military gets involved and evacuates the town.
I chose this image to do my mise en scene about because it represents an important part of the film. The image also tells a lot about the occurrences in the film. The four characters here Joe, Alice, and each of their fathers are the main focus of this shot. This is closed form as it focuses solely on the main characters in order to demand the viewers attention on them and no one else. They create this form in a few ways. This is an intimate shot as it is meant to show the emotion and closeness of the characters. Another thing that is important is the fact that the characters in the background are blurry to keep the viewer's focus on the front four. During the film, each of the children get into arguments with their fathers about the occurrences. This causes a lot of tension between them but this shot shows that they are their to comfort each other in times of need no matter what. This is why the intimate proxemic is important. These techniques capture the intensity of the events while also showing the union of each child and their fathers.
Otto, Comment on Innella, Mise en Scene
ReplyDeleteI found the density of the shot very important in this shot as well. It is moderate and focuses mainly on the four people grouped together with the smokey background which is the subsidiary contrast as we see military men also frozen in awe of what is happening. This may suggest that although there appear to be corrupt people, the air force in this case, they all still have the same feelings towards the jaw-dropping scene they are viewing, although obviously their characters are not as important as as the four standing grouped together. I also find it interesting that the children are on the inside of the adults, finally getting the protection and security they seem to have been lacking for most of the film. It seemed to be a good shot to show that each family was going to be okay after what they have been through, that being the death of Joe’s mother, and the alien incident just helped them through it and to make them appreciate what they still had.
I like your analysis of this scene. I also notice the importance of the intimate distance between the four people. It shows how they’ve grown closer through the events in the film. It isn’t just the parent/child relationship that has developed, but the relationship between the children with one another and the dad’s with one another. There was so much tension between Deputy Lamb and Louis in the beginning of the film because of Louis missing his work shift, which Deputy Lamb’s wife took and ended up being killed on the job that day. The men had so much animosity toward one another they didn’t even want their children to be friends. By the end of the film though, they were able to move past their negative feelings and come together to save their children. If the movie continued, I would imagine the men becoming close friends.
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