Deconstruction of Media Product

Scenes from 'Jerry Maguire'

The film falls under two different genres which are drama and romance respectively. Codes and conventions of the genre have been followed in the film as characters' development is very close to real life and such that a person can relate to them. In context of romance, very soft lighting, colour palette and, very typical of the genre, happy ending after the major distances between the couple has been followed.

The scene of which analysis has been done is from the first thirty minutes of the film and starts with the close up shot of the protagonist. Low key lighting in this part of the scene is used mainly because of two reasons, night time is being shown and secondly because the character is distressed and worried, hence, use of high key or bright lighting would not have been appropriate.

Extreme close up of the protagonist's eyes is then immediately shown after the close up to highlight the moment of realisation and the reality check. From the above picture, work of light can be analysed as well. Low key side-lighting is used, highlighting  just the left half of the character's face, and a tint of blue has been added to the light to give it s moonlight effect- this would make the viewers perceive that light is coming through the window, creating a very natural effect. 

During this scene the protagonist is remembering meetings with other people from the past, therefore, the voices of those people has been used as a background score, along with the  voice over of protagonist's own narration of how he is feeling at this particular moment.

Further during the scene, lighting is changed- very soft light has been used here to focus on the character's distress. 

The scene slowly zooms, once again focusing on character's guilt  and regret. The Top camera Angle has also been used in this part. 

Since the entire scene is focused on the reality check and different realizations the protagonist has, variations of close up shots have been effectively used throughout to engross the viewers more and for them to understand the character's feelings and emotions more deeply.

 

The above shots are highlighting perfectly the use of close up shots in the scene and how these shots are capable of creating an impact on the viewers. The use of lighting here is once again the same as used in the first scene, i.e. low key lighting. In this part of the scene, eyes, I believe, are truly depicting how the protagonist is feeling; guilt, realisation, tension and enthusiasm to put everything back alright can be very well seen through the eyes. 

This scene of the film is falling under the drama genre, as character being shown here is very close to real life. Apart from that, the entire misc-en-scene is reflecting the wealthy, well settled character. In a previous part of the scene, where use of bright lighting has been made, it seems as if the character is in some hotel room; meaning; a very posh look has been created. Even later in the scene when long shots, following the composition rule of thirds,  have been shown, the entire background and setting of the room is giving a very high-class look, reflecting well on the character's requirements.

During the scene, from the part of realization hit till the end, a song has been used as the background score along with the character's own narration, as mentioned previously as well.