Moving Image: Video Analysis #8

http://vimeo.com/channels/staffpicks/100717553

Title: this is a film about tom and maddy

Director: Dylan Stephen Levers

Purpose: I pulled this video from the Vimeo Staff Picks. It is based on a couple who have recently moved in together and the story of their relationship. The weird style of editing is an abstract way of telling a story about Tom and Maddy.

Shots:

The video starts out with what seems to be random slides with images of an ape, Yellow Stone and even Brittney Spears. It all seemed a little weird and held my attention for a long time because I wanted to see how all these things related to the film. In the end, they were just random slides probably used to capture the audiences attention, and it definitely worked on me. The title is a plain and contains no captial letters. The bad grammar implies that the video will be a typical story of an average couple who are in love. However, it is not your standard story.

The editor uses sound effects to add another aspect to his film. In this shot, he uses the sound effects of the slides as Maddy blinks, to accentuate the fact that she is taking 'mental photographs' of her partner so she remembers what he looks like when he is not around. Maddy looks very troubled and the shadow cast upon her face, from what I imagine would be a lampshade, helps set this mood. The dark shadow reflects how Maddy feels just as the light shining upon Toms face reflects how he feels too; probably light, peaceful and worry-free.

The editor also used images of famous TV couples that the audience will recognise as having previously being broken up. We see a moment of the couple as they are happy, but we know that it isn't going to work out because we have seen it play out in another movie or TV series. I think the editor was trying to communicate to the viewer through these images, relating them to Tom and Maddy. They make the viewer think that their relationship is doomed to be the same.

The narrator explains images of abstract artworks which reflect the couples feelings. The narrator mentions how Maddy feels when the world is so big, how cubic Tom feels when sitting in his cubicle, the density of the air in their apartment, hope, awe, lightness and sorrow. Again, random slides at the beginning but ends with slides relatable to Tom and Maddy's relationship. Hope, awe, lightness and sorrow are all feelings that show how they are desperately trying to keep their relationship together.

 

One of the paintings are shown as Tom and Maddy are arguing. Normal dialogue would be a shot of the couple as they argue. This shot just focuses on the painting that triggered the argument and we can only hear the couple as they fight. A shot of an abstract painting that shows how they feel used as an abstract shot while Tom and Maddy argue or express their feelings.

The director has taken an experimental and abstract approach to universal relationship problems. This video helped me realise that editing, camera shots and dialogue is very important when telling a story. It made me think about the way I edit my own videos and that I should experiment more out of my comfort zone and instead of trying to stick to rules and specific ways of shooting. I want to try things out of the ordinary and add abit of a twist to my work, like Dylan Levers did with this film.