elements | esotsmblog

Elements of the film text:

In this section you will find the elements in further detail of the film text.

More explanation on the film text on how they used or how things worked out.

Lighting:

Lighting helps create the mood and the feel of what is happening inside the scene. Lighting helps give emotion and separates the foreground from the background and can give shape and shows the time of what it could be. Most of the light seen in the film text can be seen as dim and intense and mostly of a blue and grey shaded light. The colour of blue and grey represents a sadness and mystery in the film text to show there are more things happening then we know.

In the first image we have clementine sliding from the light into the dark. This is seen as thrilling and a unique way of using light. Michel Gondry uses this kind of lighting to represent Joel’s memory and show how with clementine it slipped away from him and with Howard, it had already been erased but he wanted to go back to it and try to stay there.

In the lighter frame, it shows that light shows the light of day and represents that their relationship was on okay terms but also shows that there is little bit of a problem because of the acting, Kate expresses Clementine’s feeling and this makes you wonder if she is happy or in a different mood.

I feel like it the colour of the lighting chosen also shows how Joel and Clementine’s relationship is going as well and where it is at, just like how you can tell with clementine’s hair.

Point of view

Director Michel Gondry uses multiple story lines throughout the film text and uses the interconnected storylines to create some confusion but also to expand the films context and story line that ends up connecting to each other. Having an impact on one another. The director made the text have six different story lines going and interacting with each other, some of them were smaller in ways but also ended up showing how they can effect each other and what led to the incidents that happened in the film text. These storylines used were to create confusion but also to make things seem clearer. It helps the audience feel the other side’s emotions and to understand why the situation has turned this way. There are multiple storylines that revolve around Joel Parrish (Jim Carrey). This shows how they can affect his actions and his story. Each character got few close up frames and shows how they can be affected by each other. The protagonist is Jim Carrey’s character because it focuses more on him and his actions than anyone else but still reveals a lot of information from the other characters.

Setting helps the director, give a feel for what the actors/characters would feel while being on set. The feeling that is felt is a gloomy and sense of depression, or what it might feel like to some people. The setting helps the audience know whether or not it is a family friendly film or best suited for adults. The setting was selected because it helps give a darker feel to the film text and helps with the overall aesthetic. The feelings and setting that the director has chosen for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind has helped develop and keep within the themes. The time that it was shot was closer to winter and coming into spring as you can tell by the heavy clothes they wear and how it snows at points in most of the film. Also how they visit the beach and are wearing lighter clothes in some other points of the film.

Setting

Small Heading

Acting is very important when filming. They help create the scene and how the feelings are coming across and changes the audience’s emotions in the process of the scene. An actor’s performance in a film consists of visual elements (appearance, gestures, facial expression) and sound (voice and effects). The character the actor creates is essential to the narrative of the film. Kate Winslet’s hair, as she plays the character Clementine, goes through several colour changes, blue, orange, red, green, and brown which seems to be her natural hair colour. This helps the viewer keep track of where her relationship with Joel corresponds to the plot. This helps the story line and helps show the audience the time line. There were the two types that the use of voice was used; in minimal scenes there was mostly low soft and gentle volume given by a few of the characters. But found in most of the film there was the use of loud, forceful and strong volume because of the way the scene and film were played out and written as. It seemed as if a lot of the acting styles came naturally, this can be seen because of camera techniques revealed that the way Michel Gondry had a unique system for camera operators, Gondry could have a say on all angles no matter where the actors were. This resulted in a large degree of spontaneity, since the actors could decide while in character whether to have an entire conversation sitting on a couch or get up and walk to a window.

Camera techniques

Michel Gondry had a unique system of controlling his camera operators while shooting, by use of a headset for himself and earpieces for the two operators. He would speak to them (in French) while cameras were rolling and the actors were doing their parts, so Gondry could have a say on all angles no matter where the actors were. This resulted in a large degree of spontaneity, since the actors could decide while in character whether to have an entire conversation sitting on a couch or get up and walk to a window. Kate Winslet said that she felt this freedom enhanced her performance, and that sometimes they would do different takes of the same scene completely differently, based purely on gut feelings for what the characters might have done.
All of the train shots were shot on board a real, moving, train.
The camera styles possibly used would probably be panning. The reason for this is because it is used for a point of view of a character as it can intimate the movement of the spectators eye s they survey the scene around them.
In some of the scenes a crane might have been used to give a positioned view and makes for better zoom in at odd angles to gain a better look at characters, object or places.
Tracks and or a dolly would probably have been used to follow action and further engage the audience by enabling them to move with the characters and the action. This would’ve been good to help with letting the actors and actresses get more into being the character and give them freedom to do what the character might have done.