Cinematic Techniques In The Film Camerawork Of Frances Ha
Camerawork of Frances Ha Throughout the film the cinematography has interested me in a way that I have not been before. The combination of still camera and movement in the scenes really sets this film apart from others. The film Frances Ha a number of cinematic techniques are used to advance the story such as using cinematography, sound and editing to affect what we see and feel about the characters. The scenes that really moved me were in the last ten minutes of the film. I felt that it came to a conclusion that satisfied the viewer enough, but left room for speculation and ambiguity for the viewer to stay interested in the film even after the credits roll. These last important minutes of the film serve as a representation of Frances recovering from her low point where nothing seemed to go right for her. The
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film transitions from high key to low key lighting smoothly through the time of day in the scenes. Low key lighting is employed in the scene where Sophie comes over to Frances’s dorm in the middle of the night. Sometimes low key lighting can say that a character is hiding something. In this scene the camera starts with an establishing shot of her bed and moves into the space of the two laying down and having the conversation about how being pregnant seems so normal in this day and age. The camera is stationary through this sequence and does not employ any movement to let the viewer’s focus on the characters deep conversation instead of the visual impact.
In regards to the shot length, there is a good mix between long and short takes. The conversation the have on the bed is an example of the long take. This works with the film because it reveals the interior thoughts of Sophie and how she feels about her life decisions up to this point. This specific shot is repeated from the beginning of the film where Frances goes to close her laptop and Sophie tells her to stay in the bed. I feel like this symbolizes that the two best friends although separated can always be honest with each other when together in one space. This does not just occur with Sophie but with Benji as well when Frances lives with the two artist boys. In these shots, Frances is always farther away from the camera and therefore feels further away and the viewer connects more with characters such as Sophie and Benji more. This composition where Frances is always just a little farther comes back to haunt us just one more time at the end when she is talking to an “undateable” Benji. She is always seen on the right side.
This film has a lot of very centered shots with really balanced composition.
Voice and Vision writes that, “How you distribute this visual weight within the frame. . . gives your composition a sense of stability or instability” (Cherrier, 51). Establishing shots of buildings seems to be right across the street and a good number of shots of just Frances seem to put her right in the center making her feel like the center of attention. Besides the centered composition, there is attention given to the balancing of shot reverse shots using appropriate lead room for the characters. The axis of action is never broken.
In the dorm room scene the choice of a relatively normal lens instead of a wide angle or a long lens invites the viewer instead of disorienting like a wide angle lens or distancing like a long lens would do. According to Voice and Vision, “A normal lens approximates the same perspective and image size that the human eye would see” (Cherrier, 222). It makes the viewer feel like they are there in the space with the actors. The choice of lens coupled with the movement of the camera throughout the scene leads to the transitions between parts of the
film. This film is set up almost like we are reading a book. The viewer gets sucked into the action of the story then it is punctuated by a title slide of the location she is now at. In a sense it is like seeing, “Chapter 2” in a book. I feel like this is a good way to separate the narrative and it helped me understand the plot better by allowing time for me to process the many location and time changes. This elliptical editing is described in Voice and Vision as, “Removing extraneous time and territory in the edit” (Cherrier, 83). Without this the film would not have worked the way it did because of the many location changes with Frances moving apartments and her travels between Sacramento, Paris and New York. It also would have drawn out the travelling time greatly. There is also a lot of attention paid to the screen direction of the characters. Throughout the film, Frances moves to the left and everything seems to happen in that direction, such as when she runs on the street. Near the end of the film when she seems to finally find herself and figures out what to do, she is seen moving to the right which indicates a change in attitude or just a change of character in general. In this transition, there is the use of a sound bridge through Frances’ dialogue on the phone. Cherrier describes this as, “shared sound within each scene, or dialogue, [which] can also be used as edit points of comparison and contrast” (89). In the shot of her sitting at the desk asking to bring her guys in early, she is in the left side of the frame and facing the right side which is obscured by a wall. I believe the wall is there to foreshadow that the future is fuzzy and unknown. After that, she walks towards the right into the scene at the stage. When she is watching the performance she is looking towards the viewers’ left side which is kind of like her looking back at her past and where she came from. The most important aspect of this film that I would like to discuss is the decision to keep the whole film in black and white. Shooting the film in black and white allows the viewers a less distracting picture. Viewers tend to get distracted by strong colors, but overall I think that it was done in black and white so that we focus more on the facial features of the characters instead of the surroundings. Shooting for black and white also presents a new set of challenges because instead of using color to keep the viewers interested, we now look at contrast and the shades of gray that allude to certain colors such as dark black or white.
film transitions from high key to low key lighting smoothly through the time of day in the scenes. Low key lighting is employed in the scene where Sophie comes over to Frances’s dorm in the middle of the night. Sometimes low key lighting can say that a character is hiding something. In this scene the camera starts with an establishing shot of her bed and moves into the space of the two laying down and having the conversation about how being pregnant seems so normal in this day and age. The camera is stationary through this sequence and does not employ any movement to let the viewer’s focus on the characters deep conversation instead of the visual impact.
In regards to the shot length, there is a good mix between long and short takes. The conversation the have on the bed is an example of the long take. This works with the film because it reveals the interior thoughts of Sophie and how she feels about her life decisions up to this point. This specific shot is repeated from the beginning of the film where Frances goes to close her laptop and Sophie tells her to stay in the bed. I feel like this symbolizes that the two best friends although separated can always be honest with each other when together in one space. This does not just occur with Sophie but with Benji as well when Frances lives with the two artist boys. In these shots, Frances is always farther away from the camera and therefore feels further away and the viewer connects more with characters such as Sophie and Benji more. This composition where Frances is always just a little farther comes back to haunt us just one more time at the end when she is talking to an “undateable” Benji. She is always seen on the right side.
This film has a lot of very centered shots with really balanced composition.
Voice and Vision writes that, “How you distribute this visual weight within the frame. . . gives your composition a sense of stability or instability” (Cherrier, 51). Establishing shots of buildings seems to be right across the street and a good number of shots of just Frances seem to put her right in the center making her feel like the center of attention. Besides the centered composition, there is attention given to the balancing of shot reverse shots using appropriate lead room for the characters. The axis of action is never broken.
In the dorm room scene the choice of a relatively normal lens instead of a wide angle or a long lens invites the viewer instead of disorienting like a wide angle lens or distancing like a long lens would do. According to Voice and Vision, “A normal lens approximates the same perspective and image size that the human eye would see” (Cherrier, 222). It makes the viewer feel like they are there in the space with the actors. The choice of lens coupled with the movement of the camera throughout the scene leads to the transitions between parts of the
film. This film is set up almost like we are reading a book. The viewer gets sucked into the action of the story then it is punctuated by a title slide of the location she is now at. In a sense it is like seeing, “Chapter 2” in a book. I feel like this is a good way to separate the narrative and it helped me understand the plot better by allowing time for me to process the many location and time changes. This elliptical editing is described in Voice and Vision as, “Removing extraneous time and territory in the edit” (Cherrier, 83). Without this the film would not have worked the way it did because of the many location changes with Frances moving apartments and her travels between Sacramento, Paris and New York. It also would have drawn out the travelling time greatly. There is also a lot of attention paid to the screen direction of the characters. Throughout the film, Frances moves to the left and everything seems to happen in that direction, such as when she runs on the street. Near the end of the film when she seems to finally find herself and figures out what to do, she is seen moving to the right which indicates a change in attitude or just a change of character in general. In this transition, there is the use of a sound bridge through Frances’ dialogue on the phone. Cherrier describes this as, “shared sound within each scene, or dialogue, [which] can also be used as edit points of comparison and contrast” (89). In the shot of her sitting at the desk asking to bring her guys in early, she is in the left side of the frame and facing the right side which is obscured by a wall. I believe the wall is there to foreshadow that the future is fuzzy and unknown. After that, she walks towards the right into the scene at the stage. When she is watching the performance she is looking towards the viewers’ left side which is kind of like her looking back at her past and where she came from. The most important aspect of this film that I would like to discuss is the decision to keep the whole film in black and white. Shooting the film in black and white allows the viewers a less distracting picture. Viewers tend to get distracted by strong colors, but overall I think that it was done in black and white so that we focus more on the facial features of the characters instead of the surroundings. Shooting for black and white also presents a new set of challenges because instead of using color to keep the viewers interested, we now look at contrast and the shades of gray that allude to certain colors such as dark black or white.