Subjective Camera
According to Bernard Dick, subjective shot is “what the character sees” and an objective shot “represents what the camera sees” (46). By combining these two shots, the audience sees what the character is actually seeing, through the camera lens. Characters appear to be looking directly at the audience. Dick says that subjective camera provides a “one-sided take on reality”(46), which is apparent in Project X.
Dax holds the camera the entire movie, thus the reality the audience sees is all from his perspective. In this scene, the girl talking to the camera at the beginning tells Dax about the midget in the oven, but it looks like she’s talking to the audience. When the midget gets out of the oven he stares right at Dax and kicks him, causing Dax to fall to the ground with the camera and the audience now sees the ground from Dax’s perspective. Subjective camera in this instance makes it appear as if the midget is seething right at the audience, when in reality he’s angry at Dax for filming him. This allows the audience to feel as if they a part of the craziest party of their lives, where they can even experience a midget knocking them to the ground. The utilization of subjective shot in Project X allows the audience to feel actively involved in the craziest party ever rather than passively watching the craziest party ever that they weren’t invited to.
Linear Temporal Montage
Dick describes a montage as a series of shots in “rapid succession, telescoping an event or several events into a couple of seconds of screen time” (68). A linear temporal montage is an efficient way to show the passing of time of an event without making the movie unnecessarily long. This method is used often used when a character is training for an event, such as Jennifer Lopez in Enough . The following scene shows Lopez’s character training to fight back against her abusive ex.
Lopez’s outfit changes three times during the montage, indicating the passage of time. Realistically, it would take months to train and acquire the physical strength needed to defeat her ex. In the interest of saving time and not boring audiences with repetitive shots of Lopez working out, the linear temporal montage allows audiences to see Lopez training hard to defeat her ex in a succinct manner, effectively bridging the time gap between Lopez starting her training and then completing her training.
Parallel Cutting
According to Dick, parallel cutting shows “two actions occurring simultaneously.” These two scenes are not randomly intertwined. Alternating between two scenes occurring at the same time can lead to increased tension and build up, and can serve as foils against one another. One example of Parallel cutting is in a scene from The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. In the following scene, Bruno, the 9-year-old son of a German Nazi officer, crawls into a concentration camp to be with his friend.
The concentration camp prisoners are marching to their death and about to be gassed, unbeknownst to Bruno. In another scene occurring at the same time, German soldiers search frantically for Bruno. At about 5:30 the pace of parallel cutting between scenes increases. The effect of seeing the victims marched to their death while also seeing Bruno’s father search for his boy is gut wrenching. By juxtaposing the search party scene with the concentration scene, the question of what will happen to Bruno is shrouded in mystery. As the cut between scenes shortens, the tension builds up. Parallel cutting an extremely effective way to build up to the climax of a movie.
COMM 2302 (Spring 2013) 