Girl Interrupted Movie Analysis

Lighting

What I first noticed when watching 'Girl Interrupted' was how dark and bleak the lighting was indoors, compared to the bright outdoors. I felt this represented Susanna's mind; dark and trapped on the inside, yet trying to break out and find light in odd situations. The darker the lighting, the darker the context. 

For example:

Mise-en-scene

This is the original cover art for 'Girl Interrupted. There is one character, presumably Susanna. She is split into two, one blue and one white, connoting that she has a bright and dark side. However there is more of her is the blue, connoting that there is more negative in her life, even if we can see an equal amount of positives.

This shot could mean Susanna is being controlled and dragged into things she doesn't want to do. For example, Tobias trying to convince her to leave with him, or going to the mental institution itself.

The background is blurred, as if Tobias is aiming to pull her into the present or future. Or possibly making Toby more important the the hospital.

I love this shot because everyone in the foreground is dressed in white. Though in some cases white connoted purity, I found that this could represent those in mental hospitals being like lost forgotten ghosts who walk corridors aimlessly because they have nothing better to do, and occasionally causing trouble.

I think the director has used this colour scheme purposely, maybe for the reasons I proposed, or possibly because white is quite bland.

In one scene, after leaving the shrink, there a John F Kennedy poster outside the house. We know that this film is set in the 60's and JFK is still alive.

Characterisation

Angelina Jolie's character, Lisa, is the dominant one. By the gif above you can see how she has (almost a male) dominance by how she isn't sitting on the chair in a 'lady-like' fashion, she's wearing a tshirt and jogging bottoms, smoking and all round confident. Completely unlike the other patients. Because of her sense of humour and how out-going she is, the audience begin to like her. Also because she isn't as miserable as other characters; she makes things a bit more lively.

This entire movie is how Susanna comes to terms with being 'crazy'. Even though her life is constantly moving on eventfully, we are always reminded of her problems and her doubts. To most, she would be the the unrelatable character, yet we are still intrigued by her and her behaviour.

Susanna's disgusted by her needing to take drugs to help her head, but as you can see the supporting characters behind her, it is just routine for them.

Sound and Language

During the beginning scenes of the movie, Susanna is found in a dream-like state.

There a jump cuts to show different periods of her life leading up to when she goes the the shrink. On her birthday we can here diegetic birthday songs 'For She's a Jolly Good Fellow', which is happy which is a contrast against non diegetic confusing music, to show her stress.

When being in hospital due to an overdose, we can hear doctors and nurses talking and machines. As an audience we may not be able to understand the doctoral jargon, but we are used it on medical shows, so without the visual footage we can assume she was in a hospital.

The patients are spoken to like children, like they don't understand what's going on. Some of the patients do talk like children because of their conditions.

Lines like the above are what really grasps the audience's attention. Susanna's environment and condition power the emotion too. No one says things like this in real life, but quotes as meaningful as this dig deep.

So there is a sense of unreality, it is just a movie, right?

Camera Angles

Click on the image above for different camera angles in a scene.
Lisa sees Susanna for the first time and decides to confront her. Low angles show Susanna's fear and high angles show Lisa's dominance. When the nurse breaks through the door, there's an even higher angle on her to show she has the final say in this matter.

There are pretty simple angles for Toby, mid shots connoting that he is a simple kind of guy.

I want to use simple angles in my video as I think it will help the narrative remain clear.

Themes

The obvious theme would be mental health and hospitals. Everywhere you look there is always some form of relation back to a medical field.

I think the theme are very 'full on', I don't think, or from what I could see, any subliminal messages. Everything was how it was meant to be and displayed through editing, camera work, sound and mise en scene.

Genre

By my guess 'Girl Interrupted' in a Psychological Drama because it's main focus is on mental health and stability, yet there are parts that hit home and can be related to. It isn't frightening, or full of explosions but has the ability to be a though provoking. 

Representation 

This movie stands for the people who are mentally ill or unstable, and those who are affected by it. Social society and their conservative attitudes have been presented also for the period of time. 

The set design, costumes, and acting clearly presents and brings the drama to life. Nowadays, hospitals would be fully technologically equip, and hopefully  more knowledgeable staff. The audience can see back from the 60's to now and how we have progressed. 

Audience

The audience is anyone who understands or wants to understand. Maybe those who are interested in psychology or history.

Only after watching the move do recognize who it is aimed at. Those who don't understand, won't enjoy it.

An audience member will engage and listen to what has to be said by the writers and actors.
I know who my the audience for my video is so I want to make it special, relatable and personal for them.

Analysing this movie, I've thought more in depth in the technical aspects of making my video. I have a rough idea of the codes and conventions, camera angles, costumes and mise-en-scene. All of these things must reflect the characters.

Narrative

'Girl Interrupted' follows the story of Susanna, who has been admitted to a mental hospital and how she deals with everyday life, people and her mind.

The story isn't delivered in constant chronological order, there are cutaways and flashbacks to support the narrative. This makes it seem as we are the protagonists mind, we see her thoughts and by this we believe and like her more.

Monster Movie

I chose to deconstruct this episode to take a look if a short Thriller would be possible. But however much I enjoy thrillers, I won't be making one. I will be making a music video.
It's not that this process has gone to waste as I have still learned of the making of short films.

Media Theories

An Introduction to Christian Metz

Christian Metz was a French theorist.
Metz had the belief that that genres go through a cycle of changed through their lifetime.

1. Experimental Stage
   This is the first phase. The genre's foundation are created here along with its codes and conventions. 
2. Classic Stage
   The codes and conventions of the genre becomes recognized. Iconography becomes 'the guidelines' to creating the genre.
3. Parody Stage
   The audience has accepted the codes and conventions. Now a parodies are able to be made and mock the codes and conventions. To make the parody the audience would have to understand the codes and conventions from the Classic Stage.
4. Deconstruction Stage
   The chosen genre can evolve and merge with another genre to make a sub-genre. It becomes less 'clear cut' and the 'rules' can be broken.

To demonstrate Metz's theory, I'll show you through Michael Jackson's 'Thriller'.

The video the 'Thriller' was considered one of the first music videos ever made, especially of this genre. This is the experimental stage for the horror genre. Stretching to almost 14 minutes, we can see where romance was tried out. Nowadays this wouldn't be a conventional horror factor, but it was an experiment to figure out what works for this genre and what doesn't.

Stage Two is the Classic Stage. So now we have recognized the codes and conventions. As you can see above, horror usually has an element of the supernatural, like werewolves and zombies. From knowing the typical codes and conventions we can follow the 'rules' like super-naturalism, or darkness to create something else of the horror genre with these inclusions.

Having watched videos like 'Thriller' we are able to identify a mock of it. For example, comedian Lenny Henry made a parody of 'Thriller'. But we would not be able to see that this is a parody without accepting the Classic Stage. This would not be seen as a parody, if the original had not been watched.

In pop-star Rihanna's 'Disturbia' music video, it still follows the codes and conventions of horror. As the name 'Disturbia' connotes mental illness, it's fair to say that the genre of this is psychological horror. The above photos show supernatural, scary/uncomfortable and psychological features. By bringing in real life horrors such as spiders and captivity, this breaks the rule of there not being anything paranormal.


Met'z theory helps to understand what can become of a music video. Seeing how film can be subverted from a music video, to a short film is incredibly fascinating. I like how different media can interlink and make a longer narrative.
Personally, I want myself and Helen's video to be unique and have it's individual meaning. I do however like the idea of using stereotypes in the video, as we will be connecting with a stereotypical audience; age ranging from around 15-25.

Fall Out Boy Feat. Foxes, Just One Yesterday (Deconstruction)

In October 2013 Fall Out Boy released the 'Young Blood Chronicles'; 11 music videos to make a YouTube series. I will be looking at part 6: Just One Yesterday. This music video reminds me of 'the Fall' in the Bible with it's religious ideologies.

Stranded in a forest, the members of Fall Out Boy find themselves severely injured and looking for safety.

Starving, Pete comes across a tree with a pristine red apple and picks it.

The story of the original sin says that God told Adam and Eve to never eat the fruit because they are forbidden. Pete eats the apple, but it was poison.

He then vomits a snake. Many say that the snake in this Biblical legend was the devil in form of a serpent. The snake is as red as the apple that Pete ate. Dark red like you can see above connotes danger and blood.

In the Chronicles, there are flashbacks to what the men remember. As Pete is vomiting a snake, he remembers his 'last supper'. Another thing related to the Christian faith.

Patrick hitchhikes in a red car with a beautiful woman. In the Bible God tells Adam and Eve not to eat the forbidden fruit, and one of the punishments would be for women to feel pain during child birth. So the woman in the car, would subsequently be effecting by the men's actions.

Joe seeks for refuge, asking a woman for her help. As you can see the woman's left side of the picture in white, clean and pure. Possibly connoting that she has not sinned. Compared the right side that Joe is on, where it's shady, he's battered and bruised and he has sinned prior to this video.

Andy comes across a homeless man and is prepared to steel his only food. Jesus said the give to the poor and not to steel from this.

The same applies the above shots. Pete chases a little girl and her mother for help. But being the way he looked at the time, they thought it was an attack and sprayed him with pepper spray.
The young girl is wearing a tiara and pink dress, showing us that she is more fortunate. Also portraying that while she is young and think life is a fairy tale there is trouble out there, from what her mother wants to protect her from.

The snake is a recurring motif in this video. Connoting that the Devil is everywhere. The snake and apple are iconic as they have religious connotations and meaning. 

The gang find each other and share water. Foxes then takes them to the hospital. This is indexical; from there wounded make up we as an audience are able to recognize that these people are in trouble.

In the end it turns out that Foxes was the Devil all along.  We understand this through the semantics or how her eyes are black. We can assume that she plays a negative character.

Without any knowledge of the Bible, it would be difficult to label a meaning to a snake or apple or devil. Therefor these items make it difficult to be polysemic. Unless you were to factor in the idea of a wild animal and a natural fruit, then an element of survival could be the connotation.



Narrative is so important when constructing a video, and this video shows it clearly. I know I will have to make my video understandable.

Music Video Moodboard

Today I have launched a moodboard that will be hosted on Tumblr. It's interesting to think how music videos have developed over the years. As music is becoming mass produced, is it possible to run out of music video ideas?
Please click on the picture below to be directed to the page.

Genre Theory: Research Task