La La Land: The "Myth" of Verisimilitude

La La Land is a 2016 musical-comedy-drama. The film centres around Sebastian and Mia

as they struggle with their dreams as well as their relationship. However, due to the
fantastical nature of musicals (that being bursting out into song and dance with surreal sets),
many people unjustly unaffiliate themselves with the film, its characters and the themes and
claim there to be a lack of verisimilitude. This is a viewpoint I cannot share, as one scene in
particular demonstrates a very peculiar sense of verisimilitude that not only required an active
viewpoint of the film, but also helped shape my affiliation for a particular character of the film.

The scene in question is the “What Could Have Been” scene, where Mia and Seb meet after

5 years apart. For simplicity's sake, I’m going to focus on everything after Seb starts playing
the piano.  As soon as he starts playing the camera pans towards Seb and the lights dim. We
then cut to Mia and the same happens with her. This is a subtle reminder to the audience that
this is a very meaningful/personal song for the two. We are transported back to an earlier scene
of the film where Seb gets fired for playing the song and blows Mia off. However, now we see
things differently, with Seb embracing and kissing Mia, with a triumphant score playing as they
do so.

This to me is the best demonstration of verisimilitude in the film. It’s not what’s shown, but the
meaning behind it. A lot of people (myself included) have had an attraction to someone and

has thought about what could have been if we had just changed one thing. This scene is a
phenomenal representation of that and makes these characters feel more real. The scenes

takes us through multiple moments from throughout the film, but with each being slightly

different. An interesting point of notice would be that after Mias play is successful, we get

painted backdrops, similar to that of both stage plays and musicals of old. I see this as the two

not having any other memories to change and thus have to make some up. This again adds a

sense of realism in this surreal part of the film.

For this reason I affiliate myself with Seb, as you can see that he still has unaddressed feelings
towards Mia, but knows he can’t do anything about them. He has hopes and dreams that he

wishes to accomplish, but he has to make sacrifices in order to achieve them. I see him as the

most human character in the film. Furthermore, this scene requires an active viewpoint of the film

to truly understand the nuance. What I mean by this is the fact that anyone can say this is what
could have been. Most people can say this is what the two wanted. But not many people seem

to grasp the fact that this scene is the most realistic scene in the film, showing the human side of
these characters in this alienated, fantastical world.

Winter's Bone

Winter’s Bone heavily relies on the audience’s understanding of life in the Ozark. This is due to the fact that many scenes of the film rely on the context of life in the Ozark to make sense, and the uninitiated audience members could be left feeling bewildered. An example where this is the case is the scene where Ree is beaten for her continued investigation of Jessup’s disappearance/death. We see how this society is - with women being the ones with power while also being subservient to men. This is shown when Ree is actually attacked. She is attacked by a group of women, and is interrogated by women, yet it is all the men in the room who are holding all the power. This is represented mainly by Thump. He is a large man with an authoritative, almost cowboy/sheriff-esk costume representing his power within the community. His framing is also very dominating with him always taking up a large majority of the frame. With this he’s never positioned the same way as a woman. He will always reach the top of the frame, yet the cuts to the reactions of the women will have them framed just short of reaching the top. It’s like this with all the men in the scene, not just Thump.

Even with his introduction he ushers away the woman previously talking to Ree as it’s upon his authority to see that she’s dealt with properly. This, to the uninitiated, would seem somewhat strange as why would a group of women beat and torture Ree but still back down the moment Thump arrived? This leads to a passive viewer becoming disinterested in the film and dismissing it as “boring”, as the lack of exposition in the film makes it harder for them to understand and thus they switch off. The scene would leave an air of confusion and thus audience members would benefit from the context that surrounds the film. This harkens back to the idea of film spectatorship. Your average cinema goer who doesn’t understand the context ancd who is a passive viewer won’t relate/care for the film as opposed to an active viewer who is constantly challenging the films ideas, messages and methods of delivery.

Another moment where this sort of imbalance between actions and power status is when Teardrop arrives. He speaks directly to Thump and to no one else. He asks (the men) if they were the ones who hurt Ree. Merab responds saying it was the women not the men and Teardrop continues talking exclusively to Thump. He then tells everyone that he’ll be responsible for Ree. Ree then subserviently follows Teardrop to his car. Once again this illustrates the uneven balance between action and power. Theoretically, Teardrop should be talking to the people who beat up Ree and telling them that he’s be the one responsible. However, since Thump is the man in charge he speaks to him. Then with Ree being following obediently to the car. All throughout the film Ree has been headstrong in finding out what has happened to Jessup, but her subservience seems oddly placed without proper knowledge of the films context. Despite being headstrong, she still follows the social hierarchy of the Ozark.

Fundly enough, the films context is shown during the film, so if one is an active viewer of film, then they need not research the Ozark and the type of lifestyle people live in. However, as mentioned previously, a passive viewer would get easily bored and confused without the typical expository dialogue found in big budget mainstream cinema. Overall the films reliance on social context, while building a realistic interpretation of life in the Ozark, puts passive viewers at a disadvantage as they are likely to become confused, bored and uninterested.

Upsilon Falls Backwards - Pre Production

Synopsis:

The genre of our short film is a thriller. The plot is as such - after his class gets free seating for a lesson, a girl sits next to a boy. A seemingly innocent action leads the boy to become somewhat obsessed with this girl, often trying to strike up a conversation, but most of the time he ends up staring longingly at her, leaving uneasy and sinister vibes in the air. These vibes linger throughout the film until the end, where our narrative twist comes in. We see the girl walking through a dark tunnel. The audience believes the boy will attack the girl in some way when she is robbed. The boy sees and attempts to intervene, but gets fatally wounded as he does so, leading to his demise. The last shot of the film is of the boy reaching out to the girl, whether this be as a sign of anger, content, or acceptance is up to the audience. We also see how the girl pretty much forgets of the guys existence, not even passing him a look in the hallway. The only indication that she knew who he was is proposed at the end, with the look she gives him before he dies.

Evaluation:
During the filming and editing process, some things went to plan and others did not. Most of these can be seen in the script/storyboards, but one, in particular, was when we wanted to shoot a scene where the boy and girl were in their own beds thinking about the days events. We ended up discarding this idea as it wasn’t feasible for us to travel and shoot it, however, we ended up shooting a similar scene in college. This was better as it added a connection between the two, as well as polarising the two further. For our next film it would be beneficial if we experimented more with ranged shots, as we relied heavily on close up and mid-range shots for our film, and while they worked for what we wanted to achieve, more variety of shots would, in my opinion, benefit us greatly.

Cinematic Ideas:
We mainly used close up shots. This would mainly reflect on the boy's somewhat unnatural fixation on this girl. An example of this is when he’s glancing repeatedly at her during the opening. Opposingly, the close-ups on the girl subtly reflect her discomfort/nonchalant behavior towards the boy as she doesn’t really care for/see him. During the end in the tunnel, we use a long shot to present the idea of danger, and later during the confrontation with the attacker, we use extreme close up shot to show tension/fear in the boy. Furthermore, a subtle tilt is used when the boy is leaning on the rail to foreshadow his uneasy demise. Most of the sound in the end sequence is non-diegetic, with that being the atmospheric music and heart rate monitor. That’s not to say that we didn’t use diegetic sound at all, as the grunts and impact noises are all diegetic. We briefly considered using foley sound to accentuate those impacts and convey more pain, but ultimately decided against it as time was dwindling. Finally, as the girl approached the dying boy, we used a high angle to emphasise the direness of the situation.

Script:

Fade In:

Int. Class Room - Day

Bustling Chatter of students in the room awaiting the lesson to start. Teacher Enters

Teacher:

Alright class settle down. Thank the lucky stars

that I'm in a good mood today.

Confused mumbling comes from the students

Teacher:

Free seating for today. Sit with who you want

Students move around and switch seats - Guy is left sitting on his own looking disgruntled. Girl enters classroom - sits next to guy

Shot reverse shot - Both characters smiling/looking at each other when the other isn't looking. Bell is rung. Fade Out

Fade In:

Int. Q Block Hallway - Day

Guy is sitting staring at his phone writing and erasing messages to the girl

Cut

Ext. Church Wall - Day

Girl is with friends and is similarly writing and erasing messages to guy. After a few moments of this her friends call her away. Girl walks off, another student walks in front of the camera. Camera follows. Fade Out

Fade In:

Int. N Block Hallway

Student walks in front of the camera, panning to Guy walking through the hallway. Girl walks past him and he stops in the middle of the hallway. He turns and looks for her. Shot cuts to Girl behind a corner waiting for the Guy to come but he doesn't. She turns and walks into the bathroom. Fade Out.

Fade In:

Int. Class Room - Day

Girl walks through the classroom door and sees the Teacher standing and Guy already sitting down on the right

Teacher:

Please, take a seat

Girl slowly sits down. She is sat on the left. Teacher is inbetween the two

Teacher:

Ok you two, what's going on?

The two briefly look at each other then back at the teacher. They say nothing

Teacher:

Listen, I don't know what's happened

between the two of you, but I do know

that your grades started slipping at around

the same time. So whats happening?

Once again the two give each other a look, but nothing is said. Teacher sighs. Fade Out.

Fade In:

Int. Bridge-Tunnel - Day

A train passing by is heard. Girl is walking through the tunnel alone. Cuts to close up of someone's feet as they walk towards Girl, slowly panning up their body. Stranger runs and grabs the Girls bag and runs off. Girl screams

Ext. Bridge-Tunnel - Day

Guy is walking with headphones in, Girls scream is muffled out by music. Stranger runs into Guy and his headphones fall out. He sees the bag and grabs it. The Stranger tugs but doesn't get the bag off of the Guy. Stranger leans close into the Guy - Close up of Guys face as he falls down, Stranger runs off. Girl exits the tunnel and sees Guy on the floor bleeding. She screams and runs to him, holding his bloodied hand and applying pressure to his wound. Guys is muttering, barly able to say anything

Guy:

Hi. S-sorry for taking t-this long

to s-say anything.. I-m J-

Guy yelps out in pain. Girl's eyes are tearing up/crying, apologising profusely. A heart rate monitor is heard as the camera pans away from the two. Fade Out

Heart rate monitor continues and then flatlines. Title Card and Credits

Moodboard:

Split Screen Shots

close up shots

silhouette of characters using back lights

mid shot tracking shots

establishing shot 

over the shoulder shot

Pan's Labyrinth - Scene Analysis

The introduction of the Faun is a rich piece of film making on del Toro’s part. As early as
the first shot we’re told a lot about Ofelia and her nature as a character due to the
Mise-en-scène of the scene. Her costume appears simple; A white nightdress and a grey
cardigan. However, with the lighting in the scene, as well as the general colour grading,
her costume appears to blend in naturally with the walls of the “Rabbit Hole” that Ofelia
has found herself in. This then shows the audience that Ofelia belongs in the fantasy
world with the Faun, and not in reality. The white nightdress also indicates Ofelia's purity.
This is important as it links directly to the end of the movie where the Faun needs the
blood of an innocent to open the gateway. So far we’ve been told so much about both
Ofelia and theFaun before the Faun has even made an appearance. 

Mentioned briefly before, the place Ofelia is in resembles that of the Rabbit Hole that
Alice found herself in “Alice in Wonderland”. However, it’s darker and more threatening
than that from the classic tale. This links back to del Toro’s intent and inspiration of fairy
tales with a dark twist. Moving on, we follow Ofelia with a mid tracking shot. Interestingly
enough Ofelia continues moving as the camera pans towards the wall, revealing the
Faun. The focus shifts to the Faun as he awakens. The design of the Faun, much like
Ofelia, blends him into the surroundings of the “Rabbit Hole”, albeit in a more literal
sense. This indicates that they are one and the same. They have the same intentions
and end goals, even if it’s not apparent to the audience at this moment in time. This is
also interesting when you consider the fact that the rebels always appear in nature and
look natural there too with their costumes. This links back to how Ofelia’s tasks are to
do with disrupting fascism along with the rebels.

An interesting point of notice with the Faun is that whenever he appears throughout the
film, he is always emerging out of shadow and is always illuminated in low light and
thus part of his face is always shrouded in shadow. This gives the character an uneasy
feeling and makes the audience think that there might be malicious intentions with this
character. The actors stilted performance indicates this also. I believe this was an
intentional decision by del Toro to once again emphasise his point of fairy tales having
dark subject matter. However, the audience can still tell that the Faun is a good
character, as the light that shines upon him is blue. Traditionally in fiction blue is the
colour of the hero and red is the colour of the villain.

When the Faun begins talking to Ofelia, we get a Mid Close up shot of Ofelia using top
lighting. Ofelia is in center frame and the background of the shot is not in focus. This is
to highlight the importance of what the Faun is telling Ofelia and to further convey the
innocence of the character.

As the Faun moves around the rock, we see that his movement is quite stilted and slow.
This is a visual indication as to how long Princess Moanna has been away from her
kingdom and how long the Faun has had to stay in place, lying in wait for her return.
Interestingly enough this could also be an inter-textual reference to “The Wizard of Oz”
and the character of the Tin Man, as he had also been stuck in one place and could
only move once he met Dorothy. An interesting point of notice would be the design of
the Faun itself as it represents del Toro’s theme/inspiration of dark fairy tales. What I
mean by this is that the features of the Faun, like his eyes, appear mystical and
somewhat majestic. Consequently other features, for example his teeth, are sharp
and appear to be those of a wild animal. This indicates subtle uneasiness and the dark
undertones of the film. This is the same for his body, as it is that of a tree. This can be
linked to an enchanted forest that can be found in many fairy tales, however the wood
seems somewhat decayed and old, representing evil forests filled with evil creatures
from fairy tales.

Continuing on with the scene, we get a match on action shot as the Faun walks behind
the rock. The scene cuts to Ofelia as she follows him and then back to the Faun.
Ofelia is positioned in the same place as the Faun and the framing of the shot places
them at the same height, despite the Faun being much taller. This further shows the
shared intentions of the characters as well as showing an equal power balance between
the two, as despite the fact that the Faun appears in charge, he still needs Ofelia to do
the challenges for him. Ofelia controls his future. Subsequently, the Faun can chose to
not give Ofelia challenges as he does in the aftermath of her encounter with the Pale
Man.

Despite the equal power balance between the two, the Faun is positioned higher
than Ofelia, showing that she is intimidated by his presence, specifically when he
talks of her being a princess. A mid shot of Ofelia conveys this also. Later on there’s
a long shot of the “Rabbit Hole” where top lighting illuminates the rock in the center
of the frame. The rock shows Ofelia and the Faun living in Ofelia’s kingdom. This
represents that this is the end goal for them to reach. Despite this, only the front half
of Ofelia and the Faun is illuminated. Their back half is darkened. This could represent
that dark and twisted actions that must happen to reach the end goal, like Ofelia’s death.

At the end of the scene there’s a back tracking shot of Ofelia that goes from a
Mid Shot to a Long Shot. I believe this was used to represent Ofelia’s uncertainty
about taking on the Faun’s challenges, as well as her loneliness at the house
with Vidal. This is especially interesting as these themes are conveyed as Ofelia is
leaving the “Rabbit Hole”, as she’s transitioning from fantasy to reality.

Horror - The Underappreciated Genre

The Horror Film is often disregarded. Overlooked. It’s seen as mindless entertainment with no real meaning behind it. And while it is true that there is some mindless horror out there, others have true meaning towards them. A great example of this is a movie such as John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982), where the premise of the movie was to represent the mistrust of the Red Scare during the Cold War, similar to the 1956 and 1973 versions of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

However, the Horror Genre is synonymous for having multiple Sub-Genres. Some of these include the Slasher (With films such as Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street) and Supernatural (Paranormal Activity and Poltergeist). Even B-Movie Horror is regularly celebrated, with movies that are “So bad they’re good” receiving praise (such as Killer Klowns From Outer Space and Leprechaun).

However, I find the Slasher Sub-Genre of Horror to be the most appealing of all the Sub-Genres. Movies like Halloween, Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street have had a profound cultural impact on the world of cinema. Characters such as Micheal Myers, Jason Voorhees, and Freddy Kruger have become some of the most popular characters in all of cinema. The Slasher Sub-Genre hit its peak in the mid-’80s. At this point, the tropes hadn’t been worn out and the premises of the movies were still interesting. As time went on, the tropes became staler. Some of these tropes were the silent stalking killer and the “final girl”. A final girl is usually defined as a female protagonist who would usually beat the killer by the end of the film. This would be characters like Nancy Thompson (A Nightmare on Elm Street), Laurie Strode (Halloween) and Sidney Prescott (Scream). Interestingly enough, A Nightmare on Elm Street broke these tropes by having a Killer with a personality and by having the first “final boy” in A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge. The premises of the movies also became more outlandish with ridiculous premises (such as Jason X, Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers and Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare).

However, there have been more recent attempts of Slasher movies that accomplish the goals set out by the earlier classics. A movie like Terrifier (2017) was a gruesome slasher following Art The Clown as he stalks and murders people on Halloween Night. Sound familiar? There isn’t much in the way of a story, as each scene is basically either set up for a kill, or the execution of a kill itself. The practical effects of the film are sublime and it genuinely instills terror. I believe that the film accomplished exactly what it set out to do - scare the audience with gruesome and grotesque violence.

Similarly, the phenomenal Cabin in the Woods was a movie described as a “loving hate letter” to the Horror Film by director Joss Whedon. The movie isn’t a straight Horror, in fact, it’s more of a comedy with horror elements. But I believe it’s worth a mention as it comments on all the ridiculous Horror tropes and pokes fun at them (for example how characters are always splitting up in dangerous situations and how they drop weapons after using them once). In fact, the entire movie is a metaphor for the state of the horror film - the old Gods (the audience) needs to see a senseless murder and violence (the horror film) with specific characters/ tropes (final girl, sex, gore) and if those things aren’t met they destroy the world (give the movie bad reviews and make it a failure). It’s quite an ingenious movie and definitely worth a watch, especially with all the Horror movie Easter Eggs.

Kill Bill - Scene Analysis

At the beginning of the scene, the Bride is shown in a medium-close-up shot conveying
her happiness.

There is a shot-reverse-shot sequence where the camera cuts to the door. Here we hear
the diegetic sound of Bill's flute mix in with the non-diegetic soundtrack of the scene.
When the camera cuts back to the Bride, she is visually distressed/concerned. This shows
that there is some negative history between her and Bill before we're introduced to Bill.

With a medium-close-up shot of the Bride, she lifts a cloth into the shot which she is
fiddling with, which further highlights her tense/worrisome emotions towards Bill.
When the Bride moves to the doorframe, she is followed via the use of a tracking shot.
Once she reaches the doorframe she freezes, while her silhouette is shrouded in shadow
due to the lighting of the shot, which I believe conveys the darkness that Bill brings with
him, along with conveying further uncertainty within Bill as a character.

When the Bride exists the Church, the Bride and Bill are framed on opposing sides
of the shot, with the Bride in a medium-long-shot and Bill in a mid-shot. In my opinion,
this conveys that Bill still takes up much of the Brides life/world. We can see the
juxtaposition between the costumes worn by the characters (with the Bride wearing
white and Bill wearing black) showing the contrast in the characters - Bill is the villain,
the Bride is the hero. This then hints to the audience that these two characters will
oppose each other - be it physically or mentally - by the end of the film.

As Bill and the Bride are walking toward each other, they never pass the halfway
point of the frame. This could be a subtle visual nod to both Bill’s desire to get the
Bride back, and the Brides desire to get away from Bill. Furthermore, we get a
close-up of both characters sharing the shot once they both reach the halfway line.
The framing of the two subjects in this shot is important to the conversation taking
place, as Bill is trying to point out the mundanity of what will be the Brides future life
and is subsequently trying to get her to go with him. The Bride holds her own and
stands her ground. The framing reflects this by having both characters positioned
at a similar height level. This shows the audience that the power balance between
the two at this moment is equal. At a certain point, Bill says “As opposed to traveling
around the world killing human beings and being paid vast sums of money?”, to
which the Bride responded “Precisely”. But as she did this, she leaned over the
halfway point of the frame and into Bills half, asserting her dominance and definitively
stating that she wants her new life. The entire scene is filled with rich filmmaking.
Each shot counts as a piece of the puzzle, and it’s clear that each puzzle piece is as
detailed as the end product.