I LOVE About A Boy. It's so sweet and has such a lovely story but is also laugh-out-loud funny at times. The humour isn't as obvious as in something like Hot Fuzz where the humour is straight-out jokes a lot of the time. This film, like Juno is more about the comedy of the characters themselves and their reactions to things that perhaps aren't necessarily funny to begin with. Hugh Grant's character Will often makes light of rather serious situations and tries to make a joke out of them eg. after Marcus's mother's attempted suicide. However it is never so grossly inappropriate that it is not funny. A lot of the characters do not react to his jokes - rather like Jennifer Garner's character in Juno who doesn't seem to understand Juno's sense of humour. The two films are very similar in this way and this seems to make the audience feel closer to Will and Juno as they are the only ones who understand their jokes.
In the opening scene of About A Boy, Chris Tarrant's voice on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire can be heard before any image is shown (you can see this by watching one of the videos below). This creates quite a tense atmosphere as the audience (of the film) will be wondering why this is relevant (whether someone relevant is actually on the game show etc.) also the actual music of the programme is designed to create tension, as is the situation (will they get the right answer and win the money? etc.). I like this effect of creating tension. It would be particularly effective in a thriller. I remember the technique being used at the beginning of The Machinist and The Bourne Identity (which I wrote about in a previous post) as well.
I really like the use of voice overs in this film, especially the ones in the opening scenes (below) of Will and Marcus. It is just as effective as the voice over in Hot Fuzz even though not as much is explained, just suggested. It's more like the two characters' philosophies on life than any actual explanation. Speaking of which I really like the way the two peoples' lives are contrasted in this way. The lighting is very important here as Will's bit is lit very brightly to show that he's happy with his life and Marcus's bit is very dark and gloomy to show his sadness at his mother's depression and being bullied at school. I will need to think about lighting in my film as it creates a certain mood (like in The Bourne Identity where Bourne is talking to himself in the mirror - good effect, looks mysterious) which is quite an important thing to portray to the audience - to let them know how light-hearted/ scary/ comedic etc. the film is going to be.
In the same way the lighting defines the two characters, the music (by Badly Drawn Boy) also helps tell the stories of Will and Marcus. When Will is on screen, the music is light-hearted and happy but when Marcus is on screen it is the same music, the same tune but it slows down and is more quiet and sad. This music theme goes on throughout most of the film: Will = happy, Marcus = sad.
The clip below is in Swedish or something but you can still get the general idea of how the voice over thing works and the lighting, music etc.
This video (below) has the Will voice over bit in English but doesn't have the Marcus bit which is annoying because as I said before I like the contrast of the two lives.
There is a shot near the end when Will runs across the school playground to stop Marcus from singing in front of the school. The shot is of Will running diagonally across the screen and I think it is really effective. It reminds me a bit of in The Machinist where Trevor Reznik walks across a car park (just before he meets Ivan for the first time). It is a wide shot (if that's what you call it) and he walks all the way across the screen. It takes quite a long time but for some reason it is just really effective. In About A Boy Will is running and doesn't take very long to cross the screen but you can see the resemblance.
A scene I also like in About A Boy is when Marcus follows Will going to the shops etc. I particularly like the way it was shot. It just look good. To see what I'm talking about click on the link below (for some reason my lame computer won't let me copy the embed code so you gotsta watch it via the link)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_sVsmZfQKE
As I may have mentioned before, I LOVE this film. I definately want to recreate the kind of feel of the whole movie: like the cuteness and stuff.
Ok this is starting (hah yeah only starting now, what a joke) to sound really unprofessional now so I'm going to stop writing and go away to think about some ideas for my film.
In the opening scene of About A Boy, Chris Tarrant's voice on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire can be heard before any image is shown (you can see this by watching one of the videos below). This creates quite a tense atmosphere as the audience (of the film) will be wondering why this is relevant (whether someone relevant is actually on the game show etc.) also the actual music of the programme is designed to create tension, as is the situation (will they get the right answer and win the money? etc.). I like this effect of creating tension. It would be particularly effective in a thriller. I remember the technique being used at the beginning of The Machinist and The Bourne Identity (which I wrote about in a previous post) as well.
I really like the use of voice overs in this film, especially the ones in the opening scenes (below) of Will and Marcus. It is just as effective as the voice over in Hot Fuzz even though not as much is explained, just suggested. It's more like the two characters' philosophies on life than any actual explanation. Speaking of which I really like the way the two peoples' lives are contrasted in this way. The lighting is very important here as Will's bit is lit very brightly to show that he's happy with his life and Marcus's bit is very dark and gloomy to show his sadness at his mother's depression and being bullied at school. I will need to think about lighting in my film as it creates a certain mood (like in The Bourne Identity where Bourne is talking to himself in the mirror - good effect, looks mysterious) which is quite an important thing to portray to the audience - to let them know how light-hearted/ scary/ comedic etc. the film is going to be.
In the same way the lighting defines the two characters, the music (by Badly Drawn Boy) also helps tell the stories of Will and Marcus. When Will is on screen, the music is light-hearted and happy but when Marcus is on screen it is the same music, the same tune but it slows down and is more quiet and sad. This music theme goes on throughout most of the film: Will = happy, Marcus = sad.
The clip below is in Swedish or something but you can still get the general idea of how the voice over thing works and the lighting, music etc.
This video (below) has the Will voice over bit in English but doesn't have the Marcus bit which is annoying because as I said before I like the contrast of the two lives.
There is a shot near the end when Will runs across the school playground to stop Marcus from singing in front of the school. The shot is of Will running diagonally across the screen and I think it is really effective. It reminds me a bit of in The Machinist where Trevor Reznik walks across a car park (just before he meets Ivan for the first time). It is a wide shot (if that's what you call it) and he walks all the way across the screen. It takes quite a long time but for some reason it is just really effective. In About A Boy Will is running and doesn't take very long to cross the screen but you can see the resemblance.
A scene I also like in About A Boy is when Marcus follows Will going to the shops etc. I particularly like the way it was shot. It just look good. To see what I'm talking about click on the link below (for some reason my lame computer won't let me copy the embed code so you gotsta watch it via the link)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_sVsmZfQKE
As I may have mentioned before, I LOVE this film. I definately want to recreate the kind of feel of the whole movie: like the cuteness and stuff.
Ok this is starting (hah yeah only starting now, what a joke) to sound really unprofessional now so I'm going to stop writing and go away to think about some ideas for my film.
No comments:
Post a Comment