Scene Analysis

Lost in translation

Montage taken from

0.01.11

To

0.08.26

3508_Abbey

SCENE OVER VIEW

The director is Sofia Coppola. The Sophia Coppola film, Lost in Translation, presents a love story between two Americans trapped in Tokyo. Their relationship is fuelled by their feelings of displacement in the strange world of Japan. Because the love story is based on their feelings of being outcasts, Coppola has chosen to use and exaggerate many Japanese stereotypes current in American culture. She has used stereotypes of size, manners, and language differences to make the Japanese people seem weird and different.

Lost In Translation, are clearly primary concerns for Coppola. At times the film communicates through what is not said. Sometimes instead of the use of words, close attention is payed to ambient noise and sound, like the noise of air conditioners and fluorescent lights becoming part of the milieu, a melodic electronic score, body language, and spliced editing of both solitary figures, and crowded streets and arcades.

SHOT ANALYSIS

0.01.10 -0.02.10 one minute scene.

Shot size: This shot is close up shot. Sofia wants to show his emotion. She wants us know Bob is lost in Tokyo.

Sound: She uses soft and a little bit sadness music for background. She wants to let us know Bob is unwilling to go to Tokyo. The only sound we can hear in this scene is non-diegetic sound. So we can hear his loneliness from this music.

Contrast Dominants: Bob is in the car, we only can see him. The background is sometimes bury and sometimes is clearly.

0.01.23

0.02.06

He fined himself on the advertisement poster. But he only can recognize himself he doesn’t know what is the word mean. So Sofia wants to show the different culture in different country.

Character Movement: In this scene, Bob only sits in the car; he looks like just get up from last night! And he also moves his head a little bit; he is trying to look around outside the car. From these few movement, it shows us how he doesn’t want to join the city.

Camera Movement: There are not many camera movements. Tracking is inside. It shows all Tokyo’s views in Bob’s eyes. And everything is strange for him but only the poster he knows. I think she just keep focus on Bob’s face.

Camera Angle: The angle of the camera is at an even eye level. There is no high or low angle. She just wants to show Bob’s emotion. And the different culture in different cities.

Lens Used: I think she didn’t use lens a lot. If she give his eyes more lens, I think that will be much better to show his lonely in this strange city.

Shallow focus: We can’t see through the background when the camera is focusing on his face. So she focuses on his emotion. The camera shows some views of the city, but it pulls back to his face and keeps focus on his face. I think this is very good way to show the details on his face.

Lighting: In the first seconds, the light is low keys. But outside the window we can see the colorful city in Tokyo. Sofia wants to tell us, Tokyo is a very colorful city and you will enjoy this city. But we can see the difference between inside the car and outside the car. So we can see the dark side in Bob’s eyes.

0.21.47

Costume: Mr. Bob wears black suit. Because he is an actor, he was invited in an advertisement for whisky. As long as the suit is not suitable for him. Because he is a very tall guy, again it shows the very different culture background.

0.02.06

Editing techniques: As we can see 0.02.06 scene. It is low speed when the camera moves to his advertisement. Because Bob only familiar with himself in this strange city. It shows he lost in Tokyo.

Cinema Tography: She uses a lot of medium shots. Bob is a very tall man in Tokyo. Again he is a very specific person in there. And over shoulder shot is used when he sits in the car. We can follow what he saw in the city.

Summarize

I am really like Sofia Coppola’s film. She has very strong filming ideas. She is amazing because she can film one film in very short time. And she uses a lot technique in this film. And at the end of the film, we all don’t know what is going on between them. We can’t hear them, because Sofia wants us to guess and think what you think.

Reference:

http://baike.baidu.com/view/512271.htm

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~writing/materials/student/humanities/film.shtml

http://overnightessay.com/blog/2009/08/04/film-analysis-essays-a-couple-of-successful-strategies-for-you/

http://www.studyguide.org/fillmterms.htm#Film%20Analysis%20Essay%20Guidelines