proj2_sequence analysis

_the movie
American Beauty, 1999
Director: Sam Mendes
Screenwriter: Alan Ball



_compositional analysis
A two-dimensional analysis ignores perspectival views and studies treats the compositional structure of the screen. In this scene, the screen is divided into six retangles. The center two are split again in several cuts. In each cut, the director has called attention to one either these specific rectangles or a particular intersection.



The animation uses the grid of American Beauty to create an alternate composition. Significant spatial zones from the original scene are weighted according to their visual signficance on the screen. Three lights, one of which corresponds to specific camera views reveal the spaces as they emerge from the composition.



_spatial analysis
This scene also plays a clever game with the lines between the four actors - girl, boy, camera and television. The camera and television reveal the direct and frontal relationship of the two actors, yet the space projected by their respective "lenses" is always perpendicular (with one important exception). When the camera is passed from one person to the other, the camera is pivoted, letting the television pass through its frame (which is revealed by the television itself). The viewer's frame, or the film camera, also engages the lines created by the actors in varying ways. So, in short, the scene utilizes frames within the larger frame to reveal the spatial relationships between the actors in the scene.



This sequence analyzes each camera "cut," only showing those relationships which that particular view reveals.