Critique of a scene - 27 Dresses

The first of the scenes that I am going to critique is from 27 Dresses. It's a romantic comedy which was released in January 2008. It is directed by Anne Fletcher and produced by Gary Barber, Roger Birnbaum and Jonathon Glickman. In this scene Jane played by Katherine Heigl has just got out of the taxi and is running to meet Kevin played by James Marsden who is currently at a boat wedding. She realises that she is in love with him and the only way she will get her chance with him is if she gets on the boat, the only problem being that the walkway from the boat to the land is being removed. Jane then has to sprint and jump off the walkway and onto the boat, she makes it but then manages to fall over while walking down the step.

http://www.putlocker.com/file/GAQ46WM3E74KGC#

The scene is from 1.36.29-1.37.10.

In this scene there is about 15 shots in total with a variety of different angles used. The first shot that is used is a long shot, which also shows the surrounding area and Jane asking where the wedding is, this isn't a two shot because the characters talking aren't the most important element of this shot. The next shot is an extreme wide angle where it shows the scene of the wedding. In this scene you can tell where the wedding is and that it's on a boat but you are unable to make out anyone, this is because the location of this shot is the most important thing. Next is a camera movement which is a dolly shot the camera is moving along side the movement of the character this is because she is running. The shot after is point of view, where we see that they are moving the walkway, this shot is used so that the audience feels what the character feels. The camera then zooms back into her to create a medium close up where it shows the determination in her face, then another dolly shot is used as she sprints to jumps across. When she lands it leads to another medium close up and another point of view shot to show how far she jumped. Finally a medium shot is used as she walks down and then the last shot is a three shot with the main character and two minor characters in the shot. The sequence in total lasts for 41 seconds but each of the shots range in time with the close ups lasting for 1.5 seconds while the dolly shots last for 5-6 seconds.

Extreme Wide Angle to show where the wedding is. 

In this scene the sequencing of the shots is very important this is because at the start we are unsure to where she is actually going so we then get told and then we see a view of where she is heading and who she is going to see. This is because he is the main focus of the next shot. The next few shots focus on how she is going to overcome her dilemma and get to him, which she does. In the next part it's the relief of making it there. This small sequence tells a story about the characters personality and how she perseveres, this is important because it shows who she is.

This is some of the shots. 

In all of the shots there is some type of music in the background, to start off with the characters are talking and the music is soft, the music is very happy upbeat reflecting on the scenario. As she run the music speeds up, then a different type of music comes in when the scene goes over to the wedding, it's band music which is soft again as this time James is talking. Next is the sound effects on a horn while soft music is still playing in the background, this sound is used to make the character aware of what is going to happen. After that the music slowly dies down and only voices are used in the last couple of shots.

The sequencing of this scene is really important because it shows us a way of storytelling. The order in which the shots are built up for the ending. In this scene the directors have used a few different cut shots, straight cut is used when the scene changes from Jane running and goes to the scene where Kevin is talking this is a basic cut that shows the the shot has ended. Another shot that is used once after another and is the L cut, this is first used when the sound of the horn appears before we actually see what is happening in the shot, it then appears again when the men are moving the walk way and we hear them speak before we actually see what they are doing. This is done so that the shot feel more point of view. A wipe cut is also used this is used when Jane has jumped over the walkway and has landed this is to show the transition from her jump, as it gives us the impression that the jump is bigger than it actually is. In this scene there is a mix of fast and slow editing, this is because in the first couple of scene it's editing quickly to keep the attention focused but then for the one shot in the middle which lasts for about 6 seconds the editing slows down to get the full effect of the scene. Although each of this shots do fade into the next without looking out of place.

I think that some of the shots were easy to set up as it just positioning the actor, but I think the jumping shot would have been the hardest to film because they would have had to have got the correct timing for the shot to have worked as well as it did.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/27_Dresses - 6th October