I recently watched one of Nicholas Spark’s many love
stories: Dear John. This movie is the story of a young couple who falls in love
while John is home on military leave from Germany where he is stationed. When
he has to return to the services two weeks later, John and Savannah try to
maintain the long distance relationship, however, in the end it doesn’t work
out and she finds someone else. After John and Savannah meet, there is a
montage of the two weeks they spend together, showing how they fall in love.
There are several shots of the various dates they go on, with them laughing and
holding hands, demonstrating how happy they are together. While the two are
away from each other, they promise to keep writing letters to each other, which
is where the title Dear John comes from. Whenever John receives one of Savannah’s
letters, the camera does a close up of his face as he opens and reads it, to
show how excited he is. While John reads the letters to himself in his head,
Savannah narrates them for the audience to hear, so that we get her
perspective.
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I have also seen Dear John and noticed it's many film techniques. It contains a lot of flashbacks. There is one right in the beginning of the movie where John is lying on the battlefield, wounded and then it shoots back to a scene from 2000 where he meets Savannah. Another editing technique that I noticed was the use of a montage. It's an important part of the movie because it shows how quickly Savannah and John fall in love. Although it's only two weeks between the time they meet and the time Savannah leaves, the use of the montage allows the audience to see how much they love each other. I also observed the use of panning in the movie. For example, its used in a scene where Savannah is eating one last meal with John and his father. The camera pans as they walk into the house and then again as Savannah drives away. Panning allows the audience to see the surroundings along with the actors emotions on their faces. Like in this scene, Savannah was crying as she drove away and you could see the outline of John's house in the background.
ReplyDeleteNicholas Spark's movies are very descriptive. When I watched Dear John for the first time I noticed how both camera angles and sound have a huge effect on the film. For instance, when John is at war and he is in the middle of a battle, his best friend was shot down behind him. As the shots were fired, you hear that one particular shot that killed his friend pass right by John. It was so realistic as if you hear it go by you. Also as John figured out the shot hit his friend, he ran over to him. The use of a medium shot on his friend allowed you to see where he was wounded. As the scene progressed, the camera got closer to his face as it came to a close up. The close up on his friend was very important because you could see the pain in his face and when his last seconds of life were on the line, he mouthed out to his friend because he was in too much pain to talk. Also the director didn’t clarify his friend was dead but let you figure that out on your own. The close up showed you his face as it went from him living, to lifeless. All of the muscles in his face were released and his whole face just fell as if he were a rag doll.
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