Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Thelma and Louise- Ferraro

Ridley Scott - 1991

The easiest scene to pick was from "Thelma and Louise" at the end (if you haven't seen it, I suggest you don't read on)

At the part where Thelma tells Louise to "just keep going", the camera switches back and forth to the face of whoever is talking, and is set at eye-to-eye level. Each shot is a tight close-up of the girl's face, which gives us a close impression of what they're feeling: They're seriously deciding to drive off the Grand Canyons. There's alot of emotion in that. The next frame is a wide long shot of the car driving off. Wide long shot was a good choice here because it shows the vast emptiness of the mountains and the emptiness that Thelma and Louise are about to drive into.

The scene of Hal running after them as they drive off is consisted of a medium-long shot as from behind, and a medium shot from the front.

The lighting in this scene appears natural. There are no extra lights set up anywhere as the picture looks saturated and shines on Susan Sarandon's face, while Geena Davis looks darkened out.

When the car nears the edge, there seems to be a camera is front, running ahead as the car reaches us and passes.

Tight framing is used only with the conversation between Thelma and Louise. Everything else is wide and loose, with so much open space. It represents the freedom that these women are chasing for. Wide lenses appear to be at play in this scene.

1 comment:

Naima Lowe said...

The analysis that you give is good here, and gives plenty of detail about the scene. However I was asking for a shot by shot description, in which you break down each moment within the scene so that you can better understand its component parts.