Blancanieves 20:50-24:13

The scene begins right after Carmencita comes out of the church after her confirmation, and her grandmother comes to greet her. As Carmencita is engulfed in her grandmother's arms the music and the scenery change, lively Andaluza music begins which is characterized by clapping and lively guitar arcs, and we are transported to Carmencita's party. The people play with Carmencita running around blindfolded chasing after them, the camera changes from running feet, to a medium/close shot of a rooster, to a close up of her exited grandmother. The scene is as lively as the music accompanying it, with constant clapping matching the pitter-patter of running eager feet. Suddenly Carmencita catches/crashes onto someone, it is her father's manager, he comes bearing a gift from her father, a small victrola. She looks around the party for her father, she finally looks toward the distance past the manager through the long hallway to car parked on the street, which most likely holds her father. This makes it seem like he is unattainable to her, that long hallway separating them, and him being inside a car while she stands and watches him, simulating exactly the situation in real life, the fact that he has a life and she is not allowed to be a part of it. When she starts to chase after the car, the guitar picks up along with the clapping that continues, the music seems to follow her emotion, she runs after the car with a smile in her face, we get a close up of her face as the smile fades because the car is starting to drive away. She chases the car down the street with the guitar intensifying, the camera shifts from the back of the car showing us Carmencita running after the car, to her face, and back an forth, until her grandmother comes out, then we see the scene through her perspective, as the last bit of the car disappears on a curve and Carmencita stands disappointed looking after the car, the music completely stops, as to show the last bit of excitement leaving Carmencita's excitement , the music mirroring her emotions.

We continue in silence to the next scene which takes up to a medium/close up shot of Carmencita petting the rooster under the table, she pets the rooster sadly as we can feel her sadness and disappointment. Suddenly lively music begins again and she curiously looks over her shoulder, where the apparition of her mother appears dancing spanish folk music and becoming her to be happy and to come to dance, Carmencita smiles, because this music reminds her of her mother who she knows through her grandmother and still feels her love through the music, a woman begins to sing, as he mother's image disappears, the table cloth is drawn up to show her grandmother there who continues to beacon her to dance and be happy once again. We see a shot of the shadows of dancing hands, this is beautiful and seductive in a way, then we see her hands in a close up of the beautiful dance of zapateo espanol(Andaluzo), the shot pans down to show her smiling grandmother dancing for her, then to a medium/close-up of Carmencita looking at her grandmother dancing, the camera pans around and back Carmencita, to include her in the foreground and her grandmother in the mid ground, and eager party goers clapping trying to her the child to be happy again. I particularly love how the lyrics of the song to me are a representation of her grandmothers feeling toward Carmencita at that moment, it says "I look for you but i can't find you" which to me is he grandmother trying to bring her smile back. She finally gets Carmencita to dance with her just as the song asks for a "signal" and as we see a shot of Carmencita starting to snap her fingers to the music just as her grandmother is, then the camera moves to show her grandmother's smiling face and she rejoices. They begin to dance and the camera moves from a close up of Carmencita to one of her grandmother, and then to a bellow shot so we can wee them twirling around each other clapping. We see the clapping hands and smiling faces of the other party goers, and a close up of Carmencita's face as she looks happily up to her grandmother, as the song says that "wherever she is she'll go looking, even to the end of the world".  The dancing continues and the camera continues to show close-ups of Carmencita and her Grandma dancing, and the people smiling at the dancing pair. Then we see a shot of the victrola playing the vinyl, and suddenly the scene becomes erratic to show the viewer something is about to go wrong, the camera begins to shift rapidly from her grandmother twirling to the faces and hands of other people, just as the song beings to talk about death. The scene begins to flash rapidly between her grandmother face and her twirling and suddenly she collapses, the song continues to state that "I would die one and a million times for you", we get a close-up of Carmencitas face as she looks down on her grandmother, who is clearly having a heart attack, we get a close-up of her grandmother dying, and then it shifts to a close up of the victrola as the song ends signifying her grandmothers death, the scene fades to black in silence.    

Moonrise Kingdom and all its Wonders

Moonrise Kingdom, like all of Wes Anderson movies, is filled with quirky camera angles and artistic beyond belief shots. He is the master of symmetry, he adores to make his shots seem like paintings which you can just hang on the wall. He hardly ever uses diagonal shots, they are always straight forward 90 degree shots, not only that but he pairs these shots with symmetrical framing. Plenty of times he keeps the camera in a still while an entire scene occurs within it. for example when Sam and Suzy meet at their designated spot, the camera shows the grass as they slowly begin to appear into the screen, he does not use tracking shots, which in a way make his scenes be more artistic and powerful. Or when Sam first introduces himself to Suzy, after he walks out of the clothing wrack, which he parts perfectly in the middle, he stands there in the center and asks Suzy which kind of bird is she, it switches from a perfectly centered straight shot of Sam to a perfectly centered straight shot of the actresses in bird costumes. This creates a special kind of atmosphere that engulfs you into the scene, because we get the perspective that the characters see, so we are in way part of this conversation. You feel immersed in his movies, as if you are being part of the story, you are living it alongside the characters, at least for me, I felt that I was running away with Sam and Suzy and I wanted them to never be found.
The way he arranges the camera angles evoke a silent-film comedy, but it also creates a fairy-tale type of world, as if you are living in a painting. Also when groups face each other, we get a reverse-angle depth, moving from one symmetrical composition to another, the cutting being either 180 degree reverses or zero degree changes of angle. He sparingly uses zooms, to emphasize important scenes, this is wonderful because get to be pulled in or pushed out to get a perspective of what surrounds the scene or what goes on for the characters.

Overall Wes Anderson is a master, and i can actually say that besides Tim Burton he is my next favorite director, he creates utter magic, fairy tale worlds-like-paintings in which you hope to live in, very much like Burton. The peculiar thing is that Anderson creates light painting with some dark matter in it, while Burton creates dark worlds with a lot of light matter. I guess that is why I love them so much.

Spike Lee's 25th Hour

The first shot in the sequence happens right after Naturelle, calls Monty to the living room because the cops are there to search the house. This is a close/medium closeup, we get a blurry closeup of Naturelle, while we get a medium shot of Monty, and they are framed by the painting on Naturelle’s side and by the wall on Monty’s side. This almost feels like it is from one of the cops point of view, or at least close to where he is standing.

We move around the set to stand behind Monty, we get to experience this sort of face-off between Monty and Agent Flood; both characters are centered in the scene framed by the other characters. The room is soft lit, which counteracts with the tension of the scene. Monty is closer to the camera, but he is slightly out of focus, like Naturelle was on the last scene, we focus on the characters that are farther away. The three agents and Naturelle are in focus, this being a close/medium/long closeup, Monty being closest, then Flood, followed by Naturelle and the other agent, with the agent facing the other way farthest away. So our focus shifted from Monty in the last frame to agent Flood, and we look toward the room from slightly above Monty’s shoulder.

Then we shift again to focus on Monty in a medium closeup, who is not centered on the frame, but is centered on the frame of the door. We are looking at him from bellow now, right behind Flood’s leg, or almost like the are set on top of the coffee table.

Then we shift to a medium close up of Flood holding the warrant, Flood holding the warrant become centered in the frame, behind him is the corner of the room, so he is being framed by the two pictures on the wall of the Guinness poster and Naturelle’s picture.

We switch our focus again and we appear to be standing either on the next room, or right on the threshold next to Naturelle, so this could be the point of view of the officer in the other room. This is a medium/long close-up. Flood is again centered in the frame, so our eyes naturally focus on him first. The other characters are layered in the scene, with agent Cunninham slightly behind and to the right of Flood, Monty is next to the left, still within the boundaries of the frame leading to the hall, and the last agent being furthers away, by the window. Their positions are a triangle of sorts, which lead your eye around the frame.