Rain Man Airport Scene: Analysis of Editing and Performance. REV 1

The scene opens with a wide shot of Raymond, he is sitting in a chair watching television. The director uses a wide shot to establish the scene and show the current location, the audio is that of Charlie talking with one of his employees. The camera then moves to an over the shoulder shot from Raymond’s perspective, we see him watching the television on a little screen on his chair and in the background we see Charlie standing by a pay phone, arguing with his employee; telling him to be more forceful with the clients. The camera then changes to a close up of Charlie on the phone; his brow is furrowed and he looks distressed as he continues to argue. It switched to another over the shoulder shot but this time from the perspective of Charlie, the camera faces towards Raymond as Charlie covers his face with his palm, Raymond on the other hand is calm as he sits there peacefully. This is a clever juxtaposition as we see Charlie clearly exasperated at the situation and Ray calmly sitting there unaware of the situation but perfectly content to just sit there.

From there it switches to another wide shot as Charlie puts down the phone and picks up his bag.  Ray meanwhile is still calmly sitting there watching the television, the camera does not follow Charlie as he walks towards Ray and begins to click his fingers to get his attention, the camera then cuts in with a focus of Ray as Charlie continues to attempt to get his attention until finally Ray  jumps having noticed Charlie. It isn’t until Charlie pulls Ray’s bag that he gets to his feet, the Camera transitioning to a wide shot as both characters walk off frame. All the while Charlie is asking Ray what he is watching and Ray responds familiarly with “I don’t know”. The next shot is another wide shot from behind the subjects as they walk towards their gate. Ray’s bag between them as he is almost pulled along by his brother; this is clever because it shows that at this point of the film Charlie thinks little of Ray; treating him almost like a dog as he pulls him about and clicks his fingers at him. At this point Charlie doesn’t seem to see him as a person yet but rather keeps him with him due to necessity and treats him poorly as a result.

The next shot is a close up of Ray as he is being pulled along by Charlie, he  bends down for a moment as he sees the aeroplanes, he displays a worried expression as he exclaims “Oh, oh”, stating that there is an airplane out there. The camera then transitions to a two shot of the pair as Ray worriedly exclaims his disdain for aeroplanes, and Charlie attempts to coax him into getting on one. The director uses this shot for the scene as he is trying to show us the contrasting emotions on the subject’s faces, one a look of exasperation and the other a look of panic. There is then a long sequence of dialogue as Ray tells Charlie about a list of airline accidents all the while trying to explain to him why he will not get on a plane. The next shot is a close up of Ray’s face as he is being pulled by Charlie, he looks scared. Charlie then comes into frame as he questions Ray about his specific objections. The shot then changes to another wide shot facing Charlie’s back but showing Ray; the camera follows Charlie as he moves over to the flight information board and begins telling Ray about the various flights, only to be interrupted by Ray with various crash information. The Camera focuses on Ray with a close up as he tells Charlie about the crashes, his face contorted with worry. The next shot is of Charlie who is staring at Ray, his face a look of calm annoyance at his brother’s supposed ineptitude at doing common and every day things. As Charlie turns back towards the flight information board there is a cut in of the boards showing us a list of the flights. During the close up of the screens showing the flights Charlie starts listing flights, his voice has clear annoyed tone to it. The actor does this during the performance to show us that he is annoyed yet he does not seem angry. Tom cruise, who plays Charlie does a good job at making the Character of Charlie seem not wholly bad. He plays him as an impatient but perhaps selfish man who cares only for himself; this is exemplified during this seen as despite Raymond’s clear objections to flying he insists on doing it anyway. Although he has some redeeming qualities and the character development is well done as nearing the end of the film despite little difference in Raymond’s affection towards him Charlie Begins to love his brother and care for his interests instead of his own, seeing him more like a person and less like an animal.

After Charlie lists a flight for American Airlines, the camera cuts to a close up of Ray’s worried looking face as he lists the reason they should not get on that flight as an American Airlines plane had crashed before, The shot then changes to a close up of Charlie’s face as he stares at his brother. In this instance he does not seem annoyed and instead offers and alternative, looking back at the Board he quickly sees a Continental flight and rushes off towards the gate, possibly in hopes that he could move to quickly, leaving Raymond no time to reject the flight. As Raymond enters the frame the camera stills follows the moving Charlie despite, Raymond being the one who begins dialogue, the director chose to do this to show that this particular shot is focused on Charlie as he rushes off, it helps us know who the subject is at the time and also show us that Charlie is trying to ignore Raymond’s protests. Raymond Begins telling Charlie about a Crash that has happened, Charlie continues walking for a second before turning about and facing Raymond, he sighs heavily and his face looks annoyed now. Raymond does not look Charlie in the eye, this is a common theme through the film that is linked to his autism yet in this particular instance it is done because he is nervous and also perhaps is weary of his brother growing annoyance to his objections. The character that Dustin Hoffman plays is done so well that he won an Oscar for best Actor in a leading Role in 1989. This could be attributed to the well done research into autism and those with Savant skills; specifically the character of Raymond is based off a real life “Megasavant” named Kim Peek, Hoffman’s performance takes into account of Peek’s mannerisms. He learned this during meeting with Peek and developed this into the character, everything from his speech pattern to his posture. It is likely this research that gained Hoffman the Oscar as his performance so closely mirrors that of a real life counterpart.

After stopping and sighing at Raymond, Charlie attempts to reason with him. Though at this point in the narrative Charlie doesn’t fully understand Raymond’s strengths and limitations. During this monologue where Charlie try’s to appeal to Ray by explaining his precarious situation, Ray continue to not maintain eye contact and stare vacantly ahead, this shows us that Raymond does not care. Not because of any selfish desire on his own part, but more so due to his lack of ability to reason and see another person’s perspective. During the monologue Charlie becomes increasingly exasperated and takes on a more forceful tone, almost commanding Ray to get on the plane; despite the fact that the stern nature of his tone has no effect on Ray as he does not understand human emotions well enough, I think the director uses this shot to illustrate that and continue to help paint a picture for the audience by telling us his limitations and help us understand the situation from Raymond’s perspective.

Charlie continues his Monologue as he lists other planes they may take, with brief rebuttals telling Charlie information about when a certain plane has crashed and what were the casualties. As the situation becomes increasingly more heated, we can see that Ray becomes more visibly agitated. He begins to rock on back and forth on his heels and briefly touch his neck; this performance helps strengthen the overall image of Ray, and his autism. The acting is cleverly done as Dustin Hoffman uses these subtle nuances like touching his neck and rocking back and forth to help sell his overall performance as a man with autism, whilst using little dialogue. This also foreshadows the part later in the scene when all the stress of the situation causes him to have a fit; the actor uses these little gestures to show us the build-up of stress, without verbally telling us.

As the section continues we can see Charlie’s increasing annoyance through his voice which becomes more stern and loud, this is a good contrast that shows us the difference between how someone with autism may be getting agitated but would struggle showing that to us with words yet it is their body language that would indicate this. And how Charlie shows his agitation through a more normal method of raising his voice. This build-up of Stress and annoyance by both parties comes out in different ways, Charlie attempts to force Raymond onto the plane by dragging him, much like a pet owner would a disobedient dog. This causes Raymond to go into a fit causing him to begin hitting himself and screaming loudly. This is of course not a normal reaction but it is these kind of nuances in Dustin Hoffman’s performance that make Raymond such a believable character, he reacts how someone with autism might and does it convincingly.

In conclusion I believe that during this scene the director has used subtlety used editing to help with the actors stellar performance, it is a combination of these two micro -features that make the scene as stellar as it is.       

Rain Man Airport Scene: Analysis of Editing and Performance

The scene opens with a wide shot of Raymond, he is sitting in a chair watching television. The director uses a wide shot to establish the scene and show the current location, the audio is that of Charlie talking with one of his employees. The camera then moves to an over the shoulder shot from Raymond’s perspective, we see him watching the television on a little screen on his chair and in the background we see Charlie standing by a pay phone, arguing with his employee; telling him to be more forceful with the clients. The camera then changes to a close up of Charlie on the phone; his brow is furrowed and he looks distressed as he continues to argue. It switched to another over the shoulder shot but this time from the perspective of Charlie, the camera faces towards Raymond as Charlie covers his face with his palm, Raymond on the other hand is calm as he sits there peacefully. This is a clever juxtaposition as we see Charlie clearly exasperated at the situation and Ray calmly sitting there unaware of the situation but perfectly content to just sit there.

From there it switches to another wide shot as Charlie puts down the phone and picks up his bag.  Ray meanwhile is still calmly sitting there watching the television, the camera does not follow Charlie as he walks towards Ray and begins to click his fingers to get his attention, the camera then cuts in with a focus of Ray as Charlie continues to attempt to get his attention until finally Ray  jumps having noticed Charlie. It isn’t until Charlie pulls Ray’s bag that he gets to his feet, the Camera transitioning to a wide shot as both characters walk off frame. All the while Charlie is asking Ray what he is watching and Ray responds familiarly with “I don’t know”. The next shot is another wide shot from behind the subjects as they walk towards their gate. Ray’s bag between them as he is almost pulled along by his brother; this is clever because it shows that at this point of the film Charlie thinks little of Ray; treating him almost like a dog as he pulls him about and clicks his fingers at him. At this point Charlie doesn’t seem to see him as a person yet but rather keeps him with him due to necessity and treats him poorly as a result.

The next shot is a close up of Ray as he is being pulled along by Charlie, he  bends down for a moment as he sees the aeroplanes, he displays a worried expression as he exclaims “Oh, oh”, stating that there is an airplane out there. The camera then transitions to a two shot of the pair as Ray worriedly exclaims his disdain for aeroplanes, and Charlie attempts to coax him into getting on one. The director uses this shot for the scene as he is trying to show us the contrasting emotions on the subject’s faces, one a look of exasperation and the other a look of panic. There is then a long sequence of dialogue as Ray tells Charlie about a list of airline accidents all the while trying to explain to him why he will not get on a plane. The next shot is a close up of Ray’s face as he is being pulled by Charlie, he looks scared. Charlie then comes into frame as he questions Ray about his specific objections. The shot then changes to another wide shot facing Charlie’s back but showing Ray; the camera follows Charlie as he moves over to the flight information board and begins telling Ray about the various flights, only to be interrupted by Ray with various crash information. The Camera focuses on Ray with a close up as he tells Charlie about the crashes, his face contorted with worry. The next shot is of Charlie who is staring at Ray, his face a look of calm annoyance at his brother’s supposed ineptitude at doing common and every day things. As Charlie turns back towards the flight information board there is a cut in of the boards showing us a list of the flights. During the close up of the screens showing the flights Charlie starts listing flights, his voice has clear annoyed tone to it. The actor does this during the performance to show us that he is annoyed yet he does not seem angry. Tom cruise, who plays Charlie does a good job at making the Character of Charlie seem not wholly bad. He plays him as an impatient but perhaps selfish man who cares only for himself; this is exemplified during this seen as despite Raymond’s clear objections to flying he insists on doing it anyway. Although he has some redeeming qualities and the character development is well done as nearing the end of the film despite little difference in Raymond’s affection towards him Charlie Begins to love his brother and care for his interests instead of his own, seeing him more like a person and less like an animal.

After Charlie lists a flight for American Airlines, the camera cuts to a close up of Ray’s worried looking face as he lists the reason they should not get on that flight as an American Airlines plane had crashed before, The shot then changes to a close up of Charlie’s face as he stares at his brother. In this instance he does not seem annoyed and instead offers and alternative, looking back at the Board he quickly sees a Continental flight and rushes off towards the gate, possibly in hopes that he could move to quickly, leaving Raymond no time to reject the flight. As Raymond enters the frame the camera stills follows the moving Charlie despite, Raymond being the one who begins dialogue, the director chose to do this to show that this particular shot is focused on Charlie as he rushes off, it helps us know who the subject is at the time and also show us that Charlie is trying to ignore Raymond’s protests. Raymond Begins telling Charlie about a Crash that has happened, Charlie continues walking for a second before turning about and facing Raymond, he sighs heavily and his face looks annoyed now. Raymond does not look Charlie in the eye, this is a common theme through the film that is linked to his autism yet in this particular instance it is done because he is nervous and also perhaps is weary of his brother growing annoyance to his objections. The character that Dustin Hoffman plays is done so well that he won an Oscar for best Actor in a leading Role in 1989. This could be attributed to the well done research into autism and those with Savant skills; specifically the character of Raymond is based off a real life “Megasavant” named Kim Peek, Hoffman’s performance takes into account of Peek’s mannerisms. He learned this during meeting with Peek and developed this into the character, everything from his speech pattern to his posture. It is likely this research that gained Hoffman the Oscar as his performance so closely mirrors that of a real life counterpart.

After stopping and sighing at Raymond, Charlie attempts to reason with him. Though at this point in the narrative Charlie doesn’t fully understand Raymond’s strengths and limitations. During this monologue where Charlie try’s to appeal to Ray by explaining his precarious situation, Ray continue to not maintain eye contact and stare vacantly ahead, this shows us that Raymond does not care. Not because of any selfish desire on his own part, but more so due to his lack of ability to reason and see another person’s perspective. During the monologue Charlie becomes increasingly exasperated and takes on a more forceful tone, almost commanding Ray to get on the plane; despite the fact that the stern nature of his tone has no effect on Ray as he does not understand human emotions well enough, I think the director uses this shot to illustrate that and continue to help paint a picture for the audience by telling us his limitations and help us understand the situation from Raymond’s perspective.

Charlie continues his Monologue as he lists other planes they may take, with brief rebuttals telling Charlie information about when a certain plane has crashed and what were the casualties. As the situation becomes increasingly more heated, we can see that Ray becomes more visibly agitated. He begins to rock on back and forth on his heels and briefly touch his neck; this performance helps strengthen the overall image of Ray, and his autism. The acting is cleverly done as Dustin Hoffman uses these subtle nuances like touching his neck and rocking back and forth to help sell his overall performance as a man with autism, whilst using little dialogue. This also foreshadows the part later in the scene when all the stress of the situation causes him to have a fit; the actor uses these little gestures to show us the build-up of stress, without verbally telling us.

As the section continues we can see Charlie’s increasing annoyance through his voice which becomes more stern and loud, this is a good contrast that shows us the difference between how someone with autism may be getting agitated but would struggle showing that to us with words yet it is their body language that would indicate this. And how Charlie shows his agitation through a more normal method of raising his voice. This build-up of Stress and annoyance by both parties comes out in different ways, Charlie attempts to force Raymond onto the plane by dragging him, much like a pet owner would a disobedient dog. This causes Raymond to go into a fit causing him to begin hitting himself and screaming loudly. This is of course not a normal reaction but it is these kind of nuances in Dustin Hoffman’s performance that make Raymond such a believable character, he reacts how someone with autism might and does it convincingly.

In conclusion I believe that during this scene the director has used subtlety used editing to help with the actors stellar performance, it is a combination of these two micro -features that make the scene as stellar as it is.       

Tyrannosaur Enrichment

How can you Enrich your narrative?

This film is useful as it helps me get a better idea of how to make a character three dimensional, each character in the film has their own agenda but it is clever as it shows that despite some characters appearing hard and tough they have their own insecurities to deal with. This will help me create deeper characters for my TV series

What Elements can bring your Characters alive?

I feel to bring a character alive you have to make them three dimensional, if a certain character is strong and hard he still needs to have some insecurities for the audience to relate to him. Another thing that can help bring characters alive is better relationships. The characters within my TV series should have clear and deep relationships to gain audience sympathies and to help them relate to the character.

How will you actively seek to serve your chosen audience?

My target audience is late twenties to thirties i feel i can attract this kind of audience by cleverly telling a more mature story which is less involved in romance and is more targeted with a clever plot and writing. I feel like this target audience appreciates a clever plot over romance of gore and i want to try and make my ideas reflect that.

Todorov's Theory Of Equilibrium: Rain Man

Equilibrium: Charlie Babbitt is working selling cars, his father is alive. He has no knowledge of his brother. He takes a trip to Palm springs with his Girlfriend, on the way he gets a call that his father has died.

Disruption: His father has died and he goes to his funeral, he has been estranged from his father for some years and when he goes to collect his portion of the will he finds that his father’s money has not been left to him. He finds the Pay-out of the will has been given to a man in a mental institution. He finds this man out to be his brother.

Recognition: He ‘Kidnaps’ his brother Raymond, having recognised that he will not get the money without using Raymond as leverage.

Repair: He has bonded with Ray over their trip and once he is in Los Angeles he hands him back over to the mental health workers.

Return: Charlie continues with his car business, has a healthy relationship with Raymond.

The Selfish giant film Analysis

                                                

The Selfish Giant is a 2013 British drama film directed by Clio Barnard. It is inspired by the Oscar Wilde story of the same name. It follows the lives of two teenage boys growing up in an impoverished area of Bradford in Northern England. The film is centred on the friendship of two boys, Arbor and Swifty. Arbor has attention deficit disorder which causes him to act out and misbehave even if it is not his intention to do so; this causes issue for the pair who because of Arbor are excluded from school. From there they decide that selling scrap is a lucrative idea, and stealing from railway lines, power lines, and anything they can find can get them money from the local scrap dealer, Kitten. It is a story about living with crime and also the friendship between Swifty and Arbor, it is clear that it is a strong one as the film opens onto Arbor having an episode until Swifty appears, and holds his hand to calm him down. It would seem that he is the only one that can do so, as further on in the film Arbor has an argument with his drug addicted older brother which causes him to fly off into a rage until his mum turns to Swifty and asks him to get Arbor off to school as it appears he is the only one who can calm him down.

Kitten also owns at least two horses and takes part in amateur cart racing with them, after a failed cart race he notices Swifty’s natural ability with the animal and asks him to take part in the next race, this causes a rift to from between the boys as Swifty’s ability with the animal causes much jealousy for Arbor as he Is often the more dominant one in the relationship.

Swifty is a large, but quite boy who is always described as “Soft”. This eventually leads to his downfall as because of this softness he forgives Arbor for killing a fowl whilst testing a power line, this is foreshadowing for later in the film as this fowl seems to represent Swifty who eventually is killed by a power line himself as Arbor is forced to steal it having been caught taking copper from Kitten. The scene in that shows Swifty’s devise is a powerful one as it is the end of the relationship for the boys, the beginning of the film opens to Arbor raging and Swifty consoling him, holding his hand and their relationship ends with a black, charred Swifty still clutching Arbor’s hand.

The sequence after Swifty’s death is a powerful one, Arbor takes to sitting outside Swifty’s parent’s house in the rain. He clearly fills guilty for Swifty’s death and keeps going back to the house for forgiveness despite countless rejections until finally Swifty’s mother relents and hugs Arbor as they share in the grief of loss.

There is one finally scene with Swifty involved, after having been forgiven he still lies under his bed unmoving until his brother comes and tries to talk to him, as Swifty did when he was in one of his rages. His brother is unable to make him come out and becomes annoyed, grabbing and pulling Arbor. After this there is a scene where Swifty is lying down next to him, holding his hand, like at the beginning of the film. We are unsure if this is a dream or a cut back to another time Swifty consoled Arbor.

The film with Arbor, brushing the horse that Swifty loved. Taking care of it like he couldn’t Swifty.

My Brother the Devil Review

 

My Brother the Devil is a 2012 British film written and directed by Sally El Hosaini. It follows two brothers, Rashid and Mo, who are born to two Egyptian immigrant parents. Mo is young and impressionable and looks up to his older brother Rashid and admires him for his lifestyle. Rashid is a criminal but he does not want that life for his brother, at every opportunity he reminds Mo to stay in school and keep straight, unlike himself. The brothers live in Hackney, a diverse place culturally but also dangerous, Rashid struggles to keep his brother out of the gang that he is drawn into. An encounter with a photographer named Sayyid makes Rashid question if what he is doing is right and starts to become scarce around the gang which raises a lot of suspicions, and allows the younger Mo to find a way into the gang. The film is a clever take on Muslim culture, as the young Mo idolizes his brother to begin with until his brother’s secret comes out and the fact that he is Gay. Mo is not accepting of this and instead formulates a lie in which Sayyid and Rashid are in fact part of some jihadist plot. This is clever because it shows Mo’s acceptance and even admiration of the fact that his brother is a criminal yet once he finds out about his sexuality he feels that him being a Jihadist is better than him being Gay.

In my opinion I felt that Rashid’s character arc was poorly done, the way his reveal of being gay was handled felt unimportant and was rather used as a plot device to disrupt the equilibrium as it did not feature prominently or even show he struggled with his sexuality to begin with which made the sudden reveal seem forced and just there to cause a disruption where as if it was shown that he struggled with his sexuality from the outset it would have made the reveal more powerful and had some meaning. This is my biggest gripe with the film as it’s take on gang and Muslim culture was powerful and Mo’s character arc was done well yet it seemed the writing for Rashid was not up to the Level that Mo’s was.

The Selfish Giant Scene Analysis

In the first scene we saw a boy angrily hitting the bottom of his bed, clearly distressed. We then see a hand appear as it grips the boys hand and calms him down. The director does a close up of the hand to show us how close the bond between the two boys is. The next scene is the two boys on the back of a horse drinking, they are near some train tracks and it is late at night, this is a good indication as they witness a crime committed but take the copper wiring before the criminals can. Here we see the aspect of living with crime as the boys do not give a second thought about taking the wire. 

They then show the boys in the early hours of the morning, they are trying to sell the wire off to an axe wielding man with a dog, clearly this is not normal behaviour for young teenage boys to be doing but given their situation it does not seem to bother them. The next shot is of the two boys at staying at arbors house as they wake up, Arbors older brother gets annoyed that Swifty is staying there. He sees himself as the man of the house as he calls it "His house" the mother, whom is clearly not in control then interject saying that it is her house. It is clear the family is poor by the state of the house, such as the kitchen and the clothes they wear.