Forrest+Gump

Forrest Gump (1994) - Robert Zemeckis.

1. **Over the shoulder** (//Camera Placement//): I think that the director chose to include both Gump and his audience to show Gump's facial expression along with the size of the audience and their reaction. This placement of the camera also shows the viewer what Gump sees, though not exactly "through his eyes", but close enough to give the viewers a sense.

2. **The Rules of Third** (//Composition//): This shot is mainly composed and guided by the rules of third. With Gump on one side and his audiences that surrounds the fountain forms the bottom third. Shots that follow this rule generally are neater looking and less overwhelming. Even though big crowds tend to look messy, in this shot, by following the rules of third, the audiences are organized and does not "steal" attention away from Gump or create a messy scene. //Nice!//

3. **Long shot** (//Camera Distance//): Even though this shot is not exactly a long shot because it only shows less than a third of Gump, I think it can be classified as a long shot becuase the majority of this frame is composed of the audiences, who are relatively far away from the camera. This complicated, half long, half medium shot shows clearly the distance and the size of his audience.

4. **Depth of Field** (//Camera Focus//) : Usually when there is a character that is close to the camera and a background, the character is in focus. But in this shot I think that the director decided to put the audiences in focus as well to "remind" the viewers to observe Gump's audience, and especially because this is a well composed shot, even when the audiences are in focus it does not "steal the spotlight" from Gump.

5. **Uniform & Protest signs** (//Costume & Props//): The irony in this shot is caused by the director's choice of putting Gump in an army uniform while talking to anti-war hippies. The signs in the crowd (held by hippies) clearly shows the contrast between them and the veteran (Gump).

6. **Weather** (//Lighting//): Although it is not clear in this pictures, I remembered that during the movie this scene was filmed on a rather cloudy day. It was quite shady, but still had a little sun. I think this was not a coincidence, the director chose a somewhat cloudy day to set a mood. This entire scene is supposed to be funny and ironic, because Gump gives a speech about serving in the army to peace-loving-hippies, and the microphone was not working. The director chose this "awkward" weather, somewhat sunny and somewhat cloudy, to create the "awkward mood." To throw things off even more!

7. **Eye Level** (//Camera// //Angle//): This shot is actually filmed from an eye-level view, even though it looks "down" at the audiences. This shot pulls the viewers into to movie and makes the viewers feel like they personally are giving the speech, and standing right behind Gump. It adds tension and nervousness because the viewers almost becomes so close to Gump as if they were actually there.

8. **Location** (//Setting//): The location of this event in this frame is happening in DC, and the director chose to make this obvious to emphasize on the "patriotic" vs. hippie theme. The director purposely put the symbolic building of the Washington Monument, somewhat in the center of this frame.

Everything about this technically works for the assignment... but did you actually watch this film? Or just look at this picture?




 * 1) Close up: This shot is right after she “wakes up” from her dream (but technically she isn’t “awake”). I think that the director chose to use white lights to simulate “moonlight.” And the only light in this frame is shining onto her face, this creates a mysterious atmosphere and allows the audience to see Helena’s expression clearly though the close up.[[image:http://ibfilmsas.wikispaces.com/site/embedthumbnail/placeholder?w=433&h=243 width="433" height="243" caption="Description: Macintosh HD:Users:jocelyn01px2014:Desktop:mirror mask:DSC00324.JPG"]]
 * 2) Medium shot + Rules of Third: After Helena gets out of her room, she walks down the dark hallway and the lights from the two rooms create a silhouette of her. This narrow beam of light is lined up around the right third of the screen, and the outlines of the rooms are a bit slanted, which makes things look a little weird.




 * 1) Extreme Close up: this shot shows Helena picker up a flashlight from the table, which later she will use it to “shoo away” the dark queen. Hence this scene shows an object (the flashlight) that will be important for later in the movie.




 * 1) Worms eye view: This is after Helena walks out of her apartment. When I saw this scene I had this “creepy” feeling, because it felt like someone was watching Helena, and stalking her almost, from the bottom. From this angle we can also tell that the place she is rundown. Instead of a close on Helena’s expression, the director chose to establish the setting, which in this case, more effective for setting the mood.




 * 1) Wide shot: this builds up the tension as she walks down the hall. None of the lines in this shot is straight or parallel, thus creating some sort of “out of place” feeling. The camera is also shooting at a “mini” birds eye view (which adds to the mood).




 * 1) Wide shot: the lighting in this shot is very catchy. Through the placement of the camera and the lighting, the audiences are able to identify the outlines of the character but cannot see the faces. The characters look normal from this view!




 * 1) Medium shot, warms eye view: this increases tension, because through the lighting the audiences can tell that Helena is looking the opposite of the “shadows.” This is also a quite uncomfortable angle (which hints the audiences that something is not right), not exactly “worms eye” but not eye level as well.




 * 1) Long shot: A long shot is used to show both the explosion and Helena and Valentine trying to run away, capturing two moments in one single frame.