I selected a scene from Ocean’s Eleven, Rusty & Danny & Oprah, which happens to be one of my favorite movies. The first portion of this assignment was to watch the scene without audio. Ebert’s techniques resonated with me and I was able to identify movements, focuses on foreground, framing and POV shots. Without the audio I noticed an emphasis on visual hierarchy which is something Ebert’s didn’t touch on but eluded too. As the camera pans to a new frame the focus shifts from a foreground perspective to a background POV. Without the audio I was still able to identify what the point of each frame.
Listening was the next portion, which I found a bit harder to do. There were moments in the scene where there was very little audio, and volume control varied deeply per frame. For instance, when Danny and Rusty were talking their dialogue was short and hard to hear. But when Terry was on TV, his voice was loud and magnified. The main character was determined by the volume of the dialogue and drew the viewer to zone in on Terry. There was also no music which made the scene less dramatic and realistic because it placed the viewer in the scene.
For the final view, I was able to analyze the scene with my eyes and ears which changed my perspective on the scene. For the emotion Danny showed wasn’t revealed until both pieces came together. There was also a frame where Danny was shot in the foreground and Rusty was in the background. Danny was the only person talking during this shot. Then this focus changed to Rusty as he talked and the Rusty was in the foreground. I was not able to piece this together when isolating my senses in the first 2 takes. Piecing both senses completed the story, since both complimented each other.