Blog # 4 Choose A Clip "Silver Linings Playbook"

One of my favorite films, the camera follows Jennifer Lawrence as she goes to throw out a few books, then cuts to her hand throwing it out the door in a low perspective shot from outside and we see the items flying at the camera. The brightness outside and inside levels do not seem so different, exposure-wise.  It cuts back to her walking back in the room from where she was just walking out and the camera tracks her in a medium-close-up shot as she walks toward the male actor(Bradley Cooper) because the frame size of the actress does not change.  The camera does not exactly shake, but it is never exactly still because it moves up and down or right and left about 1mm/second.  I believe that this technique is used so that when the camera follows the actor to keep them in the center f the frame it is not so much of a contrast, however this creates tension as well. I feel that I have a personal relationship with each of the actors because most of the shots capture the actors from the waist up.  When Bradley Cooper's friend leads him away from his partner, the camera follows Bradley Cooper as he is initially isolated from his partner to create the mood of loneliness from Bradley's perspective as opposed to capturing the fulfillment in his friend who finds a dance partner.  The camera has a lot of shots which close up on individuals and in a sense it we are given permission to see what the actor is seeing.  The difference between actors socializing is the camera angles which capture feet, hips and head shots whereas the shots in which the actors simply speak only contain an image from the chest up essentially.  Although there are many quick cuts, I would say the majority of this scene uses various individual shots that span up to 3 seconds each which I believe is relatively long enough to experience the film as a person would rather than an audience member. The shots are really enjoyable to watch because they convey a close interaction with the actors that normally one may not have on a day-to-day basis.