Down+With+Love

The film //Down with Love// by Peyton Reed is a romantic comedy about Barbra Novak, an author who advocates the idea that women doesn't need to depend on men for love, and Catcher Block, a famous writer for the men's magazine //know//, falling in love. Through many filming techniques, such as lighting, editing and cinematography, the tone of the film is trying to echo and reproduce New York back in the 1960's. A major theme of this film, love, is also portrayed greatly through the use of lighting and editing.

First, the use of lighting in this film is a great contributor to the building of the theme throughout. A very sweet and bright lighting is used in the film. A good example would be the way Barbara Novak's room is light up. Since the colors of her furniture and walls are mainly pink and white, and during daytime the use of the sunlight like white light will make the room feels like full of love and sweetness, which goes with this film perfectly since this is a romantic comedy. The lighting also helps create a comedic tone in the film. A great example would be in the beginning scene where each time Barbara and Vicky shows up at the restaurant to wait for Catcher to show up, the lighting in the restaurant is as echo of the old America back in the 1960s'. Each time Barbara and Vicky entered the restaurant, there would be a big spotlight on them, and while it corporate with the comedic trumpet music in the background, that creates the old American style comedy tone of the film. The other significant aspect and role that lighting plays in this film is to create an intentionally fake scenery and tone to the audience. For example in Barbara’s room, the lighting that shines in is very bright and washed out. This is an example of trying to show intentionally fake scenery and show the audience that this is suppose to be filmed on set. This choice is made with the lighting because this film as a whole is suppose to be a reflection and imitation of a film back in the 1960’s, and back then all films were filmed on built sets. So when the audience sees this lighting used in the scenes that are in Barbara’s room, they will feel like they are watching an old American film, and this is one of the main purposes of the use of lighting in this film. This is very different from many of the films made in the last 50 years because in most other films, the director and the team tries to make lighting and props seem as real as possible so that the audience can believe in the plot and the story more. However, oppositely, in this film, the team is trying to purposely go the other direction and create a sense of intentionally fakeness and back in time with filming techniques, such as purposely identifying that they are filming on set. This relates back to the tone of this film because the tone is created to be a comedy that makes the audience laugh. With the addition of the fake looking lighting, the audience will feel more of the comedic sense and add on to the light tone of the film.

The other significant part in this film is the editing that is used to create tone. During the scene where Catcher/Zip asks Barbara out for another date, and they are both on the phone, the editor uses a split screen to show the same event happening at the same time, at two different places and are connected by a phone call. The split screen first starts out as a split between the right and the left part of the screen as their conversation starts. As their conversation starts to get more sexual, and both of them end up lying on the floor, the split screen alters to a top and bottom split. This gives a comedic tone because to the audience, as their conversation gets sexual, the full screen looks like as if one of them if lying on top of the other. Then after the sexual part of their phone call, the split screen changes back to the original left and right split where both of them are then lying on the floor. This image will look like that they are lying next to each other as the camera now moves on top of them. So the editing in this film creates a comedic tone for the audience.

Cinematography is another huge aspect of this film //Down with Love//, because it’s main purpose, like one aspect of lighting, is to bring the audience back into an old 1960’s American comedy film. The cinematographer accomplishes this by uses many wide shots in Barbara’s room in order to show the audience that this film is being filmed on set, as the way American movies back in the 1960’s were filmed. Especially during the scene where Barbara is getting out of the shower in her robe and dancing across her room, the cinematographer uses a wide long shot that follows her movement across the room. This shows the audience that this is filmed on set because it would be impossible to have a room like this if it were filmed in an actual room. As this use of cinematography is put into perfect combination with the light pink tone of the scene, the theme of love and the comedic tone of the film comes out in an extraordinary way. Another example of where long wide shots can show the “intended fakeness” and back in time aspect of this film is during the scenes where Catcher/Zip and Barbara cuddle together on the balcony under the “night sky”. In this scene, in order to show the audience that the “night sky” that is filmed is actually not the night sky but, again, on set, the cinematographer used a long wide shot to outline the entire night sky, which is impossible to do when filming the actual night sky. The cinematography in this film also links back to the comedic tone of the film by creating the sense of being intentionally fake, so that it entertains and is very lighthearted to the audience.

The film //Down with Love// is composed by main of choices and aspects from editing, lighting and cinematography, and with these ultimately creates a comedic tone and a theme of love.