Camera Pans Around Hal example essay topic

In Shallow Hal we follow the main character in his attempt to find a beautiful women, up to when he meets a famous self-help guru, Hal has very low views and opinions of women, we soon find out that Hal has been told to focus on the inner beauty of people and from then on, that's all he sees, until he finds the women that he loves and has the ability to visually see her as she originally is, which brings Hal's old personality back into play. This experience that Hal has been through, has made him realize the faults within his own life, and so therefore appreciates people for who they are and takes the opportunity to be with the women that he loves. About A Boy shadows the lives of two people who seem very different at the beginning, but we later realize that this is not the case. Will is a wealthy, young, attractive inheritor of his father's money.

Who, like Hal, has low expectations of women. Marcus is a teenage 'geeky's chool student, who has to cope with being bullied, his mother trying to commit suicide and having no one to talk to or rely upon. The two main characters meet accidentally when Will is on a date with Marcus' mum's friend and has to look after Marcus whilst his mother is in hospital recovering from her suicide attempt. The two characters don't seem to get along at first, but soon establish a strong, but unusual friendship.

In Shallow Hal there are a number of outsiders, but the main focus is on the main character, Hal. We also get the image that his girlfriend Rosemary is also alienated from every one else because of the way that Hal sees her. Throughout the film we see a number of other characters that are also isolated in some way from the world. Such as the children on the burns unit, Leroy, Rosemary's ex.

Boyfriend, and Hal's best friend, Mauricio. In About A Boy we have a much clearer view of who is an outsider. We automatically pick up that Marcus is an outcast from everyone else, later on within the film we identify that Will is also an outsider, even though this is not thought at first. The significant media techniques that I will be focusing on throughout both films will be; panning, flash cutting and long / wide angle shot. I will also compare the different / similar techniques presented for lighting and music in both films.

The first media technique that I will be concentrating on is the panning of the camera around a character. This is used extremely effectively in About A Boy, when Marcus is standing in the school playground on his own where he is thinking about the problems that he is encountering in his life and has the camera panning around him showing how he is isolated from everyone else. There are also a few other panning shots, which include Will. One is where he is at a S.P.A. T (Single Parents Alone Together) session, and the camera pans around the group as the women tell of their failed marriages, and problems within their lives. The camera then pans around the group to Will, who is immediately the odd one out as he is the only man there. Also, when Will is on his own in his apartment, the camera pans around and we see that Will is planning his day in units of time.

Who does that? We see that Will is getting pampered and calculating his day ahead in detail. Will seems very unusual at this point within the film, even if the audience don't at first pick up on it because what sort of man gets pampered? He could now be portrayed as being quite sad, lonely and has nothing better else to do with his life. In Shallow Hal, the camera pans around Hal when he is in the club looking for a 'beautiful' woman to dance with. The audience gets the impression that Hal is on his own and that no one wishes to dance with him because he is making himself be an outsider through his body language towards other people.

He is very forward and upfront about how he sees women, which is very off putting. When the camera pans around Hal we see this as a similar shot to what is taken in About A Boy where Marcus was on his own in the school playground with the camera panning around him. The second type of media use I will be focusing on is how effectively 'flash cutting' is used within both films. At the beginning of About A Boy, we find that the women that Will is going to 'dump', dumps him first.

We get a flash cutting shot of all of the women that Will has dumped with each finishing off the other's sentence. It is also used when Will takes a woman out for dinner and explains to her that he is not actually Marcus' real father. The camera cuts between each character to capture their reaction to what the other has just said. Within Shallow Hal, I couldn't really notice any signs of flash cutting, but I did notice that a lot of over the shoulder camera shots were used to expose the outsider's reactions when humiliated or left out. There is one shot when Hal receives his proper vision back after his friend repeats the words, 'Shallow Hal wants a gal' down the phone to him, and Hal goes back into the restaurant and over his shoulder we see Rosemary sitting at the table, as she actually looks. This disturbs Hal a lot, and his old personality now takes over him and he becomes small-minded and superficial about the situation he is now in.

The third media skill that I will be looking at is how the camera uses wide and long shots to portray outsiders more effectively. Throughout both films this type of camera shot is used a lot. In About A Boy, this camera shot mainly shows someone being isolated from everyone else. We see this when Will is sitting on the couch in his apartment. We understand that Will is thinking about his behaviour and actions and what point he has to his life which is depressing him, and due to this he now feels like an outsider himself and the audience can immediately see this. The viewers now see Will as being vulnerable and selfish.

There is another successful wide / long angled shot which includes Marcus after he has killed a duck on the lake, where he 'sees' his mother waving at him across the water and then the camera zooms, but like a flash cutting effect and the audience then find out that it is just a vision. That scene which contains Marcus 'seeing' his mother can clearly link to Shallow Hal, as throughout the film, Hal is continuously hallucinating with people that he sees. A good wide angled shot is used when Rosemary and Hal are in a canoe together on the lake, and we can see that because of Rosemary's sheer weight, the back of the canoe where Hal is sitting has been lifted off the water because of Rosemary being at the front of the canoe. This gives the effect that the wide-angle shot is used to portray Rosemary's weight and size, and to make her appear even larger, even though we see her in the shot as being 'thin'. In About A Boy lighting and music are used very successfully. Right at the beginning where we see Will, it is light and the music is positive and energetic which makes the audience believe that Will is happy with life.

However, when the camera turns to Marcus there is dark lighting, which gives a sense of loneliness along with the music change to now being quite solemn and depressing. We also get a good shot of Marcus sitting on the stairs in the shadows with light in front of him. This may suggest that the future looks bright for him. In Shallow Hal, music is used a lot to express how the characters are feeling.

At the beginning and middle of the film, more lively and encouraging music is used to represent Hal. Then towards the end, more moving and depressing sounds are used to symbolize how Hal is feeling about his actions. To conclude this coursework I believe that About A Boy is more effective in exposing an outsider because it is more realistic and dramatic, with events such as suicide and bullying which occur in every day circumstances. Even though it is not as visually effective as Shallow Hal, which contains extreme amounts of alienation throughout the film, I believe that About A Boy plays on emotions a lot more, and makes the audience think more about the story line, whereas Shallow Hal, you immediately realize what is going on and why this is. I think that because the spectators don't see Will as being an outsider until the end of the film makes it easier to relate to, as people don't always see their own faults within themselves until it is pointed out to them.