A Praise For the Cinematography of Twilight's Seasons Changing Scene
Get link
Facebook
X
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps
The Twilight movie series has been the subject of a ton of hate over the years. It gets a lot of criticism for it's poor writing and bad acting, and admittedly, I can agree those things may be a bit of a struggle for the movies. But what I think they succeed in, and what I truly believe made the movies so popular, is their use of cinematography.
For this post, I'll specifically focus on a scene from The Twilight Saga: New Moon. I'm not lying when I say this is one of my favorite movie scenes of all time. The scene takes place directly after the main character, Bella, gets dumped by her boyfriend. Bella takes this very hard, and soon becomes depressed and stuck in her room. The scene shows the passing of time for her through this depression.
I cannot overstate how good the cinematography in this scene is. First, let's focus on the use of the seasons changing outside Bella's window. Sure, a movie could just say "3 months later" or have a character say that time has passed, but this scene uses such a wonderfully effective way to show this passage of time. We can see outside Bella's window each of the months that pass and the seasons that come in that time. It feels like time is literally skipping ahead with each view of the window, and I feel like that's so effective to show how time can feel like it's passing when someone is in a depression like Bella is here.
Furthermore, the cinematography of this scene is very repetitive. We see the same spinning rotation of the camera many times, the same pose and facial expression of Bella, the same room. It's all meant to show that nothing is changing for Bella, and nothing feels new or exciting anymore. Further, the camera is literally spinning, which could be a metaphor for how someone in depression could feel like their head is spinning, and that they are lost for direction and stuck in the same place no matter how much they move.
There is so much in this scene that really effectively displays the emotions of Bella's depression, and so much of that really comes from the cinematography of it all. For as much hate as the Twilight movies get, I believe this scene really is a huge cinematic bright spot for the series. It really has no script, minimal acting, just cinematography. And it really nails it.
In the movie that my group made for the fascination project, I was one of the actors in the mini film. It was an interesting and fun experience, and it actually took more thought and planning than I was expecting it to. Furthermore, after reading the chapter on acting in Moving Pictures , it's fascinating to see how many solidified acting strategies that me and my group actually used. First of all, one thing that my group definitely had was limited time for rehearsals. We really had to just plan our scenes on the fly and do the best we could in the moment to act out the scene a way that best fit the ideas in our heads. In reading the textbook, it's really fascinating to see that's common practice in cinema as a whole, and that figuring out how to act out a scene very quickly is something that's necessary to succeed as an actor. It's also fascinating how my group used the method of blocking without even knowing it was a thing. We just naturally pla...
In the reading for the week on narrative, I came across the concept of an anti-hero. Basically, it is a form of a protagonist who is not necessarily morally perfect. They have questionable motives and often are complex characters, yet they're still presented as the main character of the story. I think this is such an effective element for a story to have, and personally I love any sort of cinema that has an anti-hero. I think it leads to just more complex characters and therefore more complex plot and themes. One show in particular that I think has used this very effectively recently is House of the Dragon. The show focuses heavily on a King named Viserys, who seems to mean well, but also makes questionable decisions and doesn't always do the right thing. There is also heavy focus on a character named Daemon. Daemon is criticized by many people in the show and he definitely can be described as hostile and maybe immature. Y...
Hi, my name is Kurt Funke. I'm an Accounting major at North Central and I'm currently in my junior year. I may be doing math-related stuff for my career, but a true passion of mine has always been anything to do with film. Of course I watch movies and shows all the time, but I also find it so interesting to find out movies are created, how they are marketed, and how they influence others. I think any kind of cinema is one of the most powerful things in our society. I think my movie tastes actually tell a lot about who I am as a person. For example, one day I could be in the mood to watch everything Pixar. I could watch Coco, Cars, and Inside Out all in one sitting. The next day, I could be in the mood for serious dramas. Movies such as Catch Me If You Can and Good Will Hunting are some of my favorites here. Although, the stuff I watch the most often seems to be things like Seth Rogen comedies or even reality TV shows like Survivor. Basically, the point is that I enjoy pretty m...
Comments
Post a Comment