Fall 2024 | Watch with Purpose #4 : Amelie

[bmlugo]

Bianca Lugo

Amelie Film Shot Analysis.pdf

[CKing]

Cara King
________

[uggievin]

Vinnie Melendez

[Sen07]

Yessenia Montalvo



1.) This is a medium close up shot that allows us to see her facial expression and it also allow the audience to see that she has the intention of pulling this plug.This is shot at a low angle which helps viewers feel like we are her friend participating giving a sense of intimacy. Amelie is framed on the right side this directs our attention to her facial expression and then to her hand movement. While in the background we can see what machinery she is messing with and why it's important. The shot takes place on a rooftop which adds a sense of adventure, and slight nostalgia since the audience can relate to seeing or being on a roof. Amelie’s clothes help to ground her in the world and also help portray her as youthful and innocent. Their clothes are kinda formal for a child. Give the audience a hint of her personality. The warm lighting in the scene almost makes the audience feel as if they are watching Amelie’s memories. The lighting gives off a sort of nostalgic feel.


2.) This is a low angle medium shot that captures Amelie and her father talking in the garden. What is interesting is that Amelie is standing on the right side of the frame while her dad is on the left leaving the center of the frame the gnome. This is important because the gnome represents her father’s repressed desire for adventure and connection to the world. It also serves as a visual link to the father. The outdoor setting creates a warm, earthy atmosphere that feels personal and peaceful, a reflection of Amélie’s father’s secluded and withdrawn life. Amélie’s father wears simple, comfortable clothes suitable for gardening, which highlights his quiet, withdrawn personality. Amélie, in a simple sweater, blends naturally into the setting, showing her familiarity and comfort in her father’s world. The warm and saturated lighting enhances the warmth of the characters' interaction and the inviting feel of the garden.


3.) This medium close up shot captures Amelie and the background. This helps to inform the audience on her location in the world. This shot is taken from a low angle this helps emphasize on the object she is holding a rock. Amélie is framed to the right, with the carnival ride occupying the background on the left side of the frame. The use of profile framing keeps the focus on her personal moment while allowing the viewer to absorb the lively, colorful atmosphere of the background. The vivid and intricate details of the carnival set up a playful contrast to Amélie’s calm expression, adding layers to the visual storytelling. Amélie wears a muted brown outfit that contrasts with the bright, animated background, highlighting her introspective and calm nature amidst the liveliness around her. Her dark clothing also makes her stand out against the backdrop, ensuring she remains the focal point. The warm lighting helps create and sell a dreamlike ambiance, enhancing the magical quality of the moment.


4.) This medium shot captures Amelie looking at her reflection. The angle emphasizes her self-examination without directly confronting her gaze, giving the scene a contemplative feel. Amélie is positioned to the right, while her reflection occupies the left side of the frame. The mirror helps the audience to understand that Amelie is observing a different side of herself. The choice to keep her actual self in shadow while her reflection is more illuminated enhances this effect. The shot emphasizes the contrast between Amélie and her reflection. Her reflection is framed by the mirror, with the dark red and patterned wallpaper providing a visually rich, textured background. Amélie’s red outfit harmonizes with the warm red tones of the room, symbolizing her connection to her surroundings and her emotional warmth. When Amelie wears red it’s to signify her passion, and individuality.


5.) This is a close up shot that is at eye level with the main character. The close up emphasizes her facial expression and costume. This makes the views feel directly engaged and it's one of the very few times Amelie makes direct eye contact with the audience. Amélie is perfectly centered, framed symmetrically, which gives the shot a balanced and controlled appearance. Her face, framed within the mask, is the central focus, and the dark green background creates a plain, uncluttered space that prevents distraction. Amélie’s mask and hat resemble the attire of a classic hero or trickster character, which aligns with her role as an unseen force of good in the lives of those around her. The mise en scène creates a mysterious and playful atmosphere.


6.) This is a close up top down shot. This angle gives a sense of otherworldliness or a moment of realization has hit him. It also makes the man appear very small. The framing centers the man in the background. The composition draws the viewer’s eye directly to the old man’s face, surrounded by a soft halo that creates an ethereal, almost magical quality. This glow emphasizes his sense of wonder and surprise.


7.) This close up eye level shot allows us to focus on his expression and the subtle details of his face while showing part of the background. This off-center framing emphasizes his line of sight, which then directs our attention toward whatever he might be looking at off screen. This gaze into the distance can imply a sense of curiosity. The warm, golden hue hitting Nino enhances the romanticized feel of the scene and makes him appear thoughtful and almost heroic. The carousel in the background comes up multiple times throughout the movie. It symbolizes cycles and the innocence of childhood.

[ChefBriller]

Austin Briller

1. This shot is a clean, single take filmed from the perspective of the hole Amelie discovers in the apartment. There's a subtle blur, suggesting the camera was set to a wide aperture, around f/2. The effect is designed to focus the viewer’s attention on Amelie’s face, though it will soon shift toward the box she finds. The hole itself creates a "frame within the frame," further guiding the viewer's gaze. The scene has a monochromatic yellow tint, with both the interior and exterior of the hole bathed in this color, which implies that the box once belonged to someone outside. The music is sparse and echoing, mirroring the emptiness of the hole, signaling that whatever Amelie has found has been left undisturbed for a very long time.

2. In this shot, the director uses a medium close-up with a static, "dirty single" framing to focus on both Amelie’s emotional expression—her anger and hurt—and her act of revenge as she tamper with the neighbor’s cable. The eye-level angle helps the audience connect with her emotions, while the composition balances her face on the right side of the frame and her action on the left, guiding the viewer’s attention. The 120mm lens ensures both her face and hand are in focus, emphasizing the connection between her emotional motivation and the act of sabotage. The f/6 aperture creates a shallow depth of field, keeping the background blurred so the focus remains on her. The natural lighting from behind her adds realism, and her green knitted sweater, symbolizing both warmth and mischief, complements the scene’s tone. Diegetic sound from the radio game heightens the tension as Amelie interrupts it, with a non-diegetic sound effect signaling the cable's disconnection. The choice to keep the camera static heightens the focus on Amelie’s quiet, deliberate action, reinforcing the sense of calculated vengeance.

3. This overhead shot, with a 45-50 mm focal length and a shallow f-stop, this shot also uses diagonal lines in the composition to guide the viewer’s eye. The frame might include a "frame within a frame" or even a crowd, further enhancing the visual complexity. The green tint once again adds a surreal, otherworldly feel, suggesting a glimpse into someone else’s reality. The diagonal lines of the steps seem to mimic the movement of turning book pages, reinforcing the idea that the viewer should keep exploring the scene as if flipping through a story.

4. In this medium shot, Amelie is shown looking at her reflection, with the angle highlighting her introspection without directly confronting her gaze, giving the scene a thoughtful, reflective mood. She’s positioned to the right of the frame, while her reflection takes up the left, using the mirror to symbolize a deeper self-examination. The lighting contrasts her shadowed real self with a brighter reflection, enhancing the sense of duality. The red-patterned wallpaper in the background adds texture and depth, while Amelie’s red outfit ties her emotionally to the space, symbolizing her passion and individuality. The color red is often used to reflect her inner warmth and personal strength.

5. This wide shot uses a dirty single framing and a high-angle shot to make the audience feel like they’re looking through the telescope, mirroring the perspective of Nino, the character in the scene. The director likely wanted to place the viewer in Nino’s shoes, guiding them as he embarks on the scavenger hunt that Amelie has set up for him. The shot's focus is horizontal, with a wide-angle lens and a secondary telescope prop lens, combined with a low f-stop to create a shallow depth of field and a blurry background, mimicking the experience of looking through a telescope. Amelie’s costume is modest and nondescript, reinforcing the secretive, anonymous persona she’s trying to project at this point in the story.

6. This close-up shot of a character’s face, paired with a skull-like object, creates an eerie, dreamlike atmosphere. The framing is tight, drawing attention to the character's expression and the skull's proximity, while the direct, straight-on angle establishes a confrontational relationship with the viewer, heightening the intensity of the character's gaze. The composition is symmetrical, with the skull positioned just behind the character’s face, contributing to a surreal and unsettling arrangement. The stillness of the shot, with no noticeable movement, enhances the contemplative and uneasy mood. The use of a macro or close-up lens, likely around 85-100mm, allows for sharp, detailed focus on the character’s features and the skull, with dramatic lighting emphasizing the contrast between warm amber tones and the greenish hue of the skull, further amplifying the surreal, nightmarish feel. The dark, minimalist background isolates both the character and the skull, focusing the viewer’s attention on their symbolic interaction. The character’s subtle, enigmatic expression, combined with the juxtaposition of the human and skeletal elements, suggests themes of mortality, duality, and the distortion of reality. Overall, the visual choices—the tight framing, symbolic imagery, and dramatic lighting—create a haunting, powerful image that invites the viewer to explore the psychological and emotional layers of the scene.

7. This wide shot focuses on the relationship between the characters and their surroundings, emphasizing their place within the environment. It’s framed as a two-shot, allowing the viewer to see both characters’ faces and emotions. The low-angle shot, with the camera positioned below their eye level, creates a sense of prominence for the characters in the frame. The composition directs the viewer’s attention to the motion blur of the happy couple biking through the city, which contrasts with the stillness of the scene. The shot is captured with a 55mm wide-angle lens and an f-stop of 16, ensuring that everything in the background remains in sharp focus, enhancing the sense of the couple’s movement within the larger urban environment.

[AllenSalvador17]

Allen Salvador

[benvaz722]

Benjamin Vasquez

1. This is a close up shot, dirty single at a low angle of Amalie’s mother. The focal length is 35 mm with a low F number (like a 6) to blur out the background and get a good view of the mother facial emotions since she is in distress from witnessing the fish suicide attempt. The shot is indoors so the camera has a 800 iso with a 1/15 shutter speed. The orange color over the shot gives the antique memory feeling and the lighting being on the screen left of the mother's face darkening the left side adds to the distress.

1. This is a wide shot, single shot, at a low view of Amalie. This shot is following an overhead pan then up and down boom shot starting from the water falls and ending at this shot displaying how Amalie enjoys the solitude and the simple things in life. The focal length is probably long at 60 so you can capture Amalie and the totality of her environment while also giving enough room for her to skip rocks and not damage equipment. The f number had a deeper depth of field so it should be high around 18. Iso on a sunny day is 100 and shutter speed 1/2. Her red dress really stands out from the greenery, and later on the film her dress turns to green as she gets out of her shell.

1. This is a dirty two shot since you could only see the faces of the boy and the teacher but not the rest of the students. It is also a full shot at a low angle to get a feel of what all the students are seeing. The focal length is 30 mm with, iso of 800, a 1/250 shutter speed, and a 18 f number all to capture well in a indoor scene. This shot is the end of a trucking camera movement getting the feel of the vast number of students compared with the boy who is isolated from the rest of his peers and placed as a display. The brown coloring helps the viewer with the idea that this is a flash back to when the Nino was a boy.

1. This is a single shot (or crowd if you count the faces of the painting) at a high angle and is also a wide shot of the glass man. This uses a long lens of 50 depending on how far Amelie apartment is and to get the feeling of the man's home being cluttered. This shot has an iso of 400 for the outside or possible using a light to simulate day light. The shutter speed is 1/125 and f number of 18 in order to get the clearness of the entire shot. This shot is using the window as frames placing the man on the screen left window isolated while his painting of a busy life with a lot of people sits separated on the other window. The orange tint drowns out any vibrance of color and further selling the isolation idea.

1. This shot is a single, medium shot, at a low angle of Amalie. The focal length is 50 mm to collapse the back ground with Amalie. The iso is 1600, a low shutter speed of ½, and a low f number of 6 to get the background blur. This is a hand held shot with a stencil to give the view of binoculars in which we later find out is because the glass man is watching her do this vigilantly justice. The dark silhouette of Amalie get the viewer to question her actions because she looks like a thief in the night.

1. This is an insert shot at a high angle of, and picture Amalie fathers got of his garden gnome in Moscow. The focal length is 30 with a f number of 5 to blur out the irrelevant table. The ISO is 800 for the indoor shot with a shutter speed of 1/60. The symbolism that the gnome, who was found in a shed, represents the dad who shut himself in after his wife death. The gnome is now traveling around the world living out the dream of the father as subtle push of what the father must do to get out of his comfort zone to reach happiness.

1. This is a dirty single at a low angle, and a medium shot of Nino. The focal length is 50 mm with a F number of 5 to blur out the back-ground crowd. The iso is 800 with a shutter speed of 1/125 for an indoor shot. The over saturation of lights with orange along with a tilt brings in the viewer that Nino world is literally turning upside down with the realization that the man he’s been looking for was just a mechanic testing the photos instead of a man scared of being forgotten.

[allyomelet]

Allison Maldonado

[JocelynHop:3]

Jocelyn Hopkins

SHOT 1

• Shot size, angle, framing: Master Shot, Over The Shoulder, Low Angle
• Shot composition, direction, motion: Dark scene, lighting is important here
• Lenses and other camera settings: Focal Length is around 100 mm to 150 mm, Fnumber is around 25
• Mise en Scène (set, lighting, costume, makeup, sound, etc.): The lighting illuminates what the cat is looking at as he listens in on the stories and nothing else matters.
• Other relevant information, (e.g., shapes within frame, frame within frame, relevant movement): The light shapes the humans into a frame as they are the center of attention.
• Meaning: All these aspects give this shot a very dramatic look and feel and it emphasizes what the importance is in this shot (the cat listening in on the humans telling stories).

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SHOT 2

• Shot size, angle, framing: Close Up, Low/Dutch Angle, Single Shot
• Shot composition, direction, motion: The shot is imbalanced as it looks like she's about to fall over
• Lenses and other camera settings: Focal Length 25 mm to 50 mm, Fnumber 1 - 2
• Mise en Scène (set, lighting, costume, makeup, sound, etc.): Her green shirt both makes her stand out but also makes her blend in at the same time compared to the lighting
• Other relevant information (e.g., shapes within frame, frame within frame, relevant movement): She is in the center of the frame
• Meaning: All these aspects show that she is the main importance of this shot and has some kind of conflict (likely with the person she's speaking to) to try to get them to "open their eyes" with the imbalance and Dutch angle greatly impacting this conflict. The sickly coloration of this shot could also hint at the conflict in this shot.

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SHOT 3

• Shot size, angle, framing: Full Shot, Low Angle, Single Shot
• Shot composition, direction, motion: Dim Shot
• Lenses and other camera settings: Focal Length 15 - 35 mm Fnumber 3 - 5 with the background and her as the focus and not the foreground
• Mise en Scène (set, lighting, costume, makeup, sound, etc.): The lighting in the "box" made from the bed frame bars is darker than the surrounding area.
• Other relevant information, (e.g., shapes within frame, frame within frame, relevant movement): She looks trapped and small in the bedroom
• Meaning: All these aspects indicate that she is the focus but is also trapped in the space.

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SHOT 4

• Shot size, angle, framing: Medium Full, Low, Single
• Shot composition, direction, motion: Dim lighting
• Lenses and other camera settings: Focal Length 25 - 35 mm
• Mise en Scène (set, lighting, costume, makeup, sound, etc.): The Lighting directs to where she will go
• Other relevant information, (e.g., shapes within frame, frame within frame, relevant movement): the mirror and the door frame her and trap her in between them. The color is sickly
• Meaning: All these aspects give this shot a very suspenseful feeling, with the audience thinking she may do something malicious at the sink. The color and lighting of the shot also feel very sickly, emphasizing the feeling that she will do something gross or messed up to whoever is living there.

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SHOT 5

• Shot size, angle, framing: Medium Shot, Dutch Angle, Single Shot
• Shot composition, direction, motion: Dim, Center of the frame
• Lenses and other camera settings: Focal Length 100 - 150 mm, Fnumber 4-6
• Mise en Scène (set, lighting, costume, makeup, sound, etc.): Bright Light behind the door, likely unmotivated Light as it is quite bright compared to the lights in the hallway
• Other relevant information, (e.g., shapes within frame, frame within frame, relevant movement): The green color of this shot makes it look sickly or confused
• Meaning: All these aspects indicate that this character is confused and about to enter the bathroom where Amelie swapped his toothpaste and foot cream. The light being brighter with the comparison of the dark room he's in, creates an indication of the importance of this room, where the next focus point is, and where he is going to go. The Dutch angle also adds onto the confusion of the shot.

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SHOT 6

• Shot size, angle, framing: Close Up, Low/slight Dutch angle, Dirty single
• Shot composition, direction, motion:
• Lenses and other camera settings: Focal Length 100 - 150 mm, Fnumber 2 - 4
• Mise en Scène (set, lighting, costume, makeup, sound, etc.): The lighting makes him blend in with the environment
• Other relevant information, (e.g., shapes within frame, frame within frame, relevant movement): Yellow and green coloration and lighting
• Meaning: All of these aspects give this shot a feeling of conflict, especially emphasized by the coloration and the dutch angle, however despite the low fnumber putting him into focus we can still clearly see the lady in the background and the colors are the same as the background which continues to ground him in that space and show that he is not alone and is in a public space with others while they are having this conflict.

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SHOT 7

• Shot size, angle, framing: Establishing Shot, Crowd, Bird's Eye (Overhead)
• Shot composition, direction, motion: The camera is moving in an arc from screen right to screen left
• Lenses and other camera settings: Focal length 50 - 100 mm
• Mise en Scène (set, lighting, costume, makeup, sound, etc.): Natural Lighting
• Other relevant information (e.g., shapes within frame, frame within frame, relevant movement): The wall separates the two locations
• Meaning: These aspects indicate a very neutral and natural shot. It also indicates that Amelie could've been in this very situation; however, it is not, and that is separated by the wall. The camera moves in an arc and from right to left, which indicates how she did not want to have the nun life and it also indicates the change in her life and how she's not going down that path.

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