Brainstorming: Narrative, Mise-en-Scene

Mary (young):

Eric:

Draft Comments

Paragraph Planning

Narrative style, symbols, themes, characters

- Father and son relations, dealing with the death of a parent, fathers trying to connect with sons, sons trying to connect with their father, a boy in need of a father, boy latching onto a father figure

- Romantic (and awkward) sub-plot

- Plans and visual explanations (e.g. a character mapping out a plan)

- Someone dying/had died

- Bittersweet ending

- Stories not told chronologically

- References to old music, theatre, literature, paintings or photography

- Ridiculous situations presented as normal, everyday happenings

- Human values of kindness, respect, truth, balance

- Magical, fantastical world

- Quite melancholy but full of hope

- Themes: death, forbidden love, fatherhood, childhood

- Main character usually male

- Flawed, extremely charismatic, confident, eccentric, obsessed with their current project/mission

- Outsider character struggling to come to terms with adulthood, longing for their past or are stuck in a which where they don't fit

- Attract group of people to support them

- Women are generally there to save men from themselves or act as motivation/prize - exception is Margot in The Royal Tenenbaums

- Some are expressionless

- Adults generally behave like children and children are hyper-intelligent and dress like adults

- Owen Wilson, Luke Wilson, Bill Murray

Cinematography

- Flat and symmetrical, perfectly centred

- Symmetrical and centred shots of characters emphasised through medium and wide shots

- Shot types make serious situation seem funny (also movement and music)

- Extreme wide shots

- Close ups of letter/other writings

- Shots of conversation from POV rather than from over the shoulder

- Birds eye view/directly above

- Tracking shots

- Extreme and quick zooms

- Whip pans and tilts

- Storybook 2D illustrated look achieved by symmetrical shots, etc.

- Robert Yeoman (cinematographer)

Mise-en-scène, sound and editing

- 5 main colours used throughout the entire film

- World building colour palettes

- Picturesque locations

- Houses usually rectilinear

- Background of shots usually loaded with objects

- Suitcases: represent the ties binding families together that is always carried with us

- Binoculars: power magnified, symbolically looking into the future

- Trains: used to literally move the plot forward and showcase the dollhouse set

- Uniforms/similar costumes

- Letters and other writings

- Title is physically in the film

- Quirky dialogue

- Emphasised/loud sound effects, e.g. water dripping, sugar being dropped into coffee, footsteps

- 60s pop music

- Most shots long duration

- Lots of onscreen writing

- Slow motion to emphasise important shots

- Split into episodic chapters which are displayed as title cards onscreen

- Mark Motherbaugh and Alexandre Desplat (music)