ENGLISH

The ‘BirthdayParty’ scene from the movie, The Graduate, is a scene that combines long shots and a point-of-view shot. The scene begins with Ben’s father praising Ben to the invited guests while her mother stands beside him cooking. The focus then shifts briefly to the guests sitting and standing near the pool before going back to focus on Ben’s parents. Ben’s father then jogs towards the door behind him and opens, leading the camera and the audience to follow him. The scene continues with a long shot of the character Ben, displaying his whole figure in the scuba suit. Ben is standing still without making any movements and behind him is a bright white wall that shadows his image. A happy and enthusiastic crowd cheers and claps from the background. In the midst of this cheering crowd, Ben’s father’s voice encourages the character by informing people of his expertise. The camera follows Ben as he awkwardly walks towards the pool, where the camera bounces with each step that he takes. At the same time, the lighting of the setting is bright, which shadows Ben’s figure in the scuba suit on the bright white walls surrounding Ben as he walks.

As Ben walks, the camera gradually gets closer, the lighting dims towards Ben’s face and the angle of the camera shifts to a point-of-view shot of Ben. Nicholls applies this technique to invite the audience to follow clearly the unfolding of events as per Ben’s perspective. The composition of this part of the ‘Scuba’ scene is clearer since although there is no verbal communication, the positioning of the camera unfolds the events of the scene systematically. The sound of Ben’s heavy breathing under the scuba mask is all one can hear. The camera captures Ben’s parent where they seem to encourage or nag him to get in the pool by hand gestures and the movement of their mouths. From Ben’s point of view, the camera follows Ben’s parents but stop at the pool displaying the deep-blue color of the swimming pool before focusing again on Ben’s parents.

There is still no verbal communication during the scene, although the parent’s expression and gestures, as well as other guests in the crowd, set the mood of the scene. The facial expressions of Ben’s parents display joy and enthusiasm as they encourage Ben to get in the pool. Still, on the lengthy point-of-view shot of Ben, the camera pans right for a few seconds to focus on the guests. The guests also display their enthusiasm by clapping and raising hands as a way of cheering the character. The scene also presents Ben awkwardness since he is dressed in a scuba suit, while other guests in the party are nicely dressed. Moreover, his parents seem to introduce him as a circus performer in a scuba suit.

The camera pans right again and tilt downward to focus on the swimming pool where Ben is reluctant to enter as he poses before entering the pool. As he enters the pool, the sound of water complements the deep-blue color of the swimming pool. Still on Ben’s point of view, the camera applies rack focusing to change the focus to the inside of the swimming pool. The focus shifts to a ladder and a dark-rounded object, which looks like a floater in the swimming pool, a sign that Ben needs rescuing. The attention shifts once again to focus on Ben’s joyous parents on the edge of the swimming pool with smiles on their faces.

At the beginning of the scene, as Ben was walking towards the swimming pool, the sound of his breathing was the only thing one could hear. There is a repetition in the sound of his breathing inside the pool since it is constant. Nevertheless, in this case, the sound is not all one can hear since the bubbling sound of Ben’s breathing through the Scuba mask in the water is also hearable. Moreover, there is also repetition when the character is going under the water since he does it several times as seen by the constant movement of water.

When Ben is under the water, the camera reverses its pattern and changes to another lengthy long shot. The camera gradually moves away from Ben’s face with a straight-on angle, eventually displaying his whole figure in the scuba suit under the water holding a dive stick. Ben stands still under water holding the dive stick and the only sound one can hear, is his breathing and the sound of water. During this part of the scene, the character does not move and neither is the camera, which stays in a tight close-up of Ben under the water. Only the mechanics of the camera’s lens are moving, which appears to make him farther away and smaller.

Ben’s surrounding under the water presents a hazy view shadowed by the deep-blue color reflected by the swimming pool water. As the camera moves farther away from Ben, the lighting also changes. The movement of the camera away from Ben reduces the brightness of the lighting to dim. Towards the end of the scene, with Ben still under the water and as the camera moves farther away from him, it takes on a canted angle. The horizon line of the image of Ben under water is not parallel with the camera’s bottom frame, which is a canted angle. The lighting dim again as the scene ends