Film Studies
The movie “The Vow” is a story about a wife who lost her memory and how her husband tried to regain the love of her wife. The movie started with the scene where Paige Collins, played by Rachel McAdams, and Leo played by Channing Tatum, who are husband and wife walk out of a movie house and rode their car on their way home. They encounter a vehicular accident when Paige removed her seatbelt to give Leo a kiss, when a truck crushed their car. The strong impact caused Paige to be thrown out of the car through the windshield which resulted to her amnesia. In the beginning of the movie, Leo narrated how that moment of impact had changed their lives forever. The movie was directed by Michael Sucsy and released in 2012.
The first memorable scene of the movie is when Paige woke up and realized that she completely lost her memory does not recall she was married. Based on my personal observations, the movie was beautifully shot from the lighting, composition, camera angles, spacing, length of scenes and cutting. The theme of the movie is a romantic and dramatic love story that aims to captivate the emotions of the audience. In order to draw the emotions from the audience, the editing was done chronologically to show continuity and no interruption in the confrontational scenes. The director moves the camera in from a medium shot to a close-up to show the profile of Paige with her soulful eyes to reflect confusion after she discovered her amnesia. The director made use of dolly shots to avoid making direct cuts and to ensure continuity in the scenes. This strategy was used by the director to increase the effect of dramatic footage where the lead characters are separated by circumstances beyond their control.
The director used long-angle shots to capture the cold and distant relationship that was developed after the tragic accident. It was captured in the hospital scene where Paige was convinced by her parents to go home with them. The director was able to capture the pain and distraught in the eyes of Paige, as she relentlessly sought proof of her marriage to Leo. In this particular scene, the director took an overhead angle shot showing Paige leaving the hospital, as Leo came running after her while he played a recorded voice message of her sounding happy and affectionate to her husband. The director was able to captivate the two as Leo chased Paige through a high-angle shot to lessen the emphasis on the profile of the subject. Sucsy later on took a low-angle shot to shift the attention of the audience to the emotional scene.
The lighting also created a melancholic mood and atmosphere for star-crossed lovers in the film. The director was able to draw the acting prowess of both lead actors, McAdams and Tatum, as they tried to bring back their broken marriage after the tragic accident. Using the proper light for the scenes, the audience was able to follow the pace of the story before it reaches the climax. The climactic scene was shot using a high key in the favorite cafe of the couple and the moment where Paige discovered the menu card where she wrote her wedding vows. The powerful scene is the turning point of drama and at the same time giving the audience hope that the two lovers will reunite because if their great love for each other.
For the lighting in the film, it is noticeable that the use of back-cross-light in the profile shot of the lead characters especially during scenes where the two of them face each other while delivering their dramatic dialogue. The director was able to maintain a three-dimensional effect for every scene using the technique where he maintained the foreground in shadow, while at the same time keeping the subjects in the middle of the screen to give a visual sense of balance.
In this movie, cross-cutting was used to condense dramatic momentum by creating a sense of parallel contrast in order to establish a mood (Fairservice 122). The scene captured the frustration of Leo when he found his wife flirting with her former boyfriend Jeremy during the welcome party for Paige. The frustration of Leo was magnified when the director used a cross-cutting technique between the small cramped room of the house where Paige and Leo had a confrontational talk about seeing Paige flirting with her ex-boyfriend. The cross-cutting technique was magnified when there was a shift in the scene from a small space to a spacious patio outside of the house where Paige and the guests appeared to have a grand time during the party.
Editing was used to create the ironic contrasts to parallels from small spaces to large open spaces to play with the imagination of the audience. The joining together of two different shots was done seamlessly to produce two parts of the same shot when the director used a long-angle shot of Paige and Leo as they walked out of the café where they first met. The second scene shows the two heading towards a new direction as they decided to look for a new place to explore which tells the audience that they decided to take a fresh start in their relationship even after their divorce.
Works Cited
Fairservice, Don. Film Editing: History, Theory and Practice: Looking at the Invisible.
New York: Manchester University Press, 2001. Print.
