A Level Film Studies: Focus Film Factsheet - Boyhood | Lecture notes Music

A Level Film Studies - Focus Film Factsheet

Boyhood

(2014, Linklater, USA)

Component 1: Varieties of

Film & Film-Making (AL)

Component 1: American film (AS)

Core Study Areas:

Key Elements of Film Form

Meaning & Response

The Contexts of Film

Specialist Study Area:

Spectatorship

Ideology (AL)

Rationale for study

• This film provides a truly unique approach to

viewing childhood through the film-making

process. Richard Linklater shot the film in short

bursts over 12 consecutive years, following

Mason who’s 6 when the film opens right up

to 18 when he leaves for college. We follow

him and his family, through their trials and

tribulations. What marks this film out are the

obvious physical changes of all the characters

and the elliptical jumps in time which are

signified by this. It is a moving and at times

profound meditation on growing up and

what that entails for all including parents.

STARTING POINTS - Useful

Sequences and timings/links

• (00.00 -03.00) The opening three minutes of

the film provide a great deal of expositional

information about Mason Junior’s character

and his relationships with this mother Olivia

and sister Samantha. There is clear alignment

with his point of view and this offers a clear

sense of where this film is going to take us.

• (42.05 – 46.27) This sequence is very important

in establishing Mason Senior’s relationship

with his children in direct contrast to how Bill

treats them. A set of binary oppositions are set

up here which juxtapose the laid back attitude

of Mason Senior with the harsh, irrational

disciplinarian approach of Bill as evidenced by

the enforced cutting of Mason Junior’s hair.

CORE STUDY AREAS 1 - STARTING

POINTS - Key Elements of Film

Form (Micro Features)

Cinematography

• The film was started in 2002 just as the

digitalised camera was starting to hold sway

in Hollywood (and eventually most types of

film-making). However Linklater knowing

that this would be an on-going project over

a very long period of time decided to shoot

in standard 35 mm film. This ensured a

consistency that went right through to the film’s

eventual completion in 2014 and the film offers

a great testament to the celluloid image in

terms of its feel and aesthetic quality.

• The lighting style is predominately naturalistic

throughout the film establishing an ‘indie’

sensibility in the mise-en-scène. Equally

this adds to the feeling of realism that

permeates in a number of key sequences.

• Linklater is very aware of capturing particular

moments in the film that add to character

relationships and development. His camera is

often unobtrusive, focusing on conversations

in standard two shots, but also giving a sense

of what is going on beyond the main image by

subtly drawing our attention to what is being

shown in the background to good effect.

Mise-en-Scène

• The film captures the Texan suburban experience

beautifully quite clearly marking out the different

homes that the family live in during the time-

frame of the film. This is accentuated by how

individual rooms are shown and what they

might represent about character change. The

compositions are largely unfussy but all do hint

at a change in the status and condition of Olivia’s

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Boyhood

(2014, Linklater, USA)

Component 1: Varieties of

Film & Film-Making (AL)

Component 1: American film (AS)

Core Study Areas:

Key Elements of Film Form

Meaning & Response

The Contexts of Film

Specialist Study Area:

Spectatorship

Ideology (AL)

Rationale for study

This film provides a truly unique approach to viewing childhood through the film-making process. Richard Linklater shot the film in short bursts over 12 consecutive years, following Mason who’s 6 when the film opens right up to 18 when he leaves for college. We follow him and his family, through their trials and tribulations. What marks this film out are the obvious physical changes of all the characters and the elliptical jumps in time which are signified by this. It is a moving and at times profound meditation on growing up and what that entails for all including parents. STARTING POINTS - Useful Sequences and timings/links
(00.00 -03.00) The opening three minutes of the film provide a great deal of expositional information about Mason Junior’s character and his relationships with this mother Olivia and sister Samantha. There is clear alignment with his point of view and this offers a clear sense of where this film is going to take us.
(42.05 – 46.27) This sequence is very important in establishing Mason Senior’s relationship with his children in direct contrast to how Bill treats them. A set of binary oppositions are set up here which juxtapose the laid back attitude of Mason Senior with the harsh, irrational disciplinarian approach of Bill as evidenced by the enforced cutting of Mason Junior’s hair. CORE STUDY AREAS 1 - STARTING POINTS - Key Elements of Film Form (Micro Features) Cinematography
The film was started in 2002 just as the digitalised camera was starting to hold sway in Hollywood (and eventually most types of film-making). However Linklater knowing that this would be an on-going project over a very long period of time decided to shoot in standard 35 mm film. This ensured a consistency that went right through to the film’s eventual completion in 2014 and the film offers a great testament to the celluloid image in terms of its feel and aesthetic quality.
The lighting style is predominately naturalistic throughout the film establishing an ‘indie’ sensibility in the mise-en-scène. Equally this adds to the feeling of realism that permeates in a number of key sequences.
Linklater is very aware of capturing particular moments in the film that add to character relationships and development. His camera is often unobtrusive, focusing on conversations in standard two shots, but also giving a sense of what is going on beyond the main image by subtly drawing our attention to what is being shown in the background to good effect. Mise-en-Scène
The film captures the Texan suburban experience beautifully quite clearly marking out the different homes that the family live in during the time- frame of the film. This is accentuated by how individual rooms are shown and what they might represent about character change. The compositions are largely unfussy but all do hint at a change in the status and condition of Olivia’s

various relationships with unsuitable men.

There is limited symbolism in the film but one of the most interesting aspects is Mason senior’s 1968 GTO car. This isn’t a typical Dad car, but typifies Mason senior’s rather feckless attitude to parenting (although he is still a loving and interested father). However by the end of the film he has remarried and has another child on the way and has swapped his GTO for a far more conventional (and appropriate) people carrier.
The most obvious and distinctive point to make about the mise-en-scène is the gradual change in the main protagonist’s appearance. This is most evident in Mason and Susanna’s physical transformation over time. In the lead protagonist’s case the change from chubby faced, angelic six year old to an angular, lean teenager with facial hair is outlined in unannounced stages throughout the narrative. The lines on the parents faces also show this ongoing, unrelenting shift in time adding to the uniquely realist look of the film. Editing
The editing predominately places Mason Jnr’s point of view as central to practically all the events in the film and this is largely rooted in traditional continuity editing, which is by and large unobtrusive.
The eschewing of the use of captions to organise the narrative is extremely effective. The temporal shifts are indicated by remarkable understated approach linked directly to the mise-en-scène. This captures the changes in the appearance of the main protagonists. In young Mason’s case it can be seen in how his hairstyle changes (quite literally in one sequence) and how he shifts from childhood to adolescence and onto young adulthood.
Another fundamental part of the editing style here is the use of ellipsis. As the timeframe moves on, the spectator has to fill in the gaps between these shifts. The transitions in some cases are imperceptible. At one moment Mason Jnr is watching his mother speaking with her tutor and very soon afterwards this man is his stepfather. As in life, events unfurl one after the other as opposed to in drama where things happen because of something else happening before. This elliptical style captures the real life feel of the film brilliantly. Sound
What is also distinctive about the sound in Boyhood is the way that (like the more overt physical changes) voices change moving into the next stage of adulthood. The nature of the dialogue is transformed as a result of this. It is also worth saying that although the dialogue does have an improvisational feel, Linklater rehearsed and rewrote the screenplay sections as he went along.
The musical soundtrack beautifully captures the way that we actually engage and listen to pop music in real life and it moves between a diegetic and non-diegetic soundscape. It avoids a mix-tape approach and also doesn’t succumb to tying the songs directly into the times of their production. So it doesn’t always use the tracks as an aural clue to what we are watching in terms of time.
The opening of the film’s non-diegetic use of Coldplay’s Yellow captures Mason Junior’s childlike wonder magnificently. The film uses music in a very inventive way from performance (Samantha’s taunting of her brother with Oops! I Did It Again ) to live bands and also characters playing each other CDs. CORE STUDY AREAS 2 - STARTING POINTS - Meaning & Response Representations
The most obvious example of representation in this film is how Boyhood captures the experience of growing up in America suburbia. That said this is hardly a new subject for most spectators, but despite the unique approach to shooting the fill over this long period of time the film avoids the apparent issues associated with the bildungsroman. There are some major staging posts covered for example graduation and leaving for college but other issues are avoided such as loss of virginity and peer group pressure. So the film takes a more unconventional approach and not at all generic like a teen film. It is more expansive and as realist as an American film can be dealing with this subject matter.
The film’s treatment of women is interesting. While Olivia primarily fulfils the maternal role she is also seen as a person who is determined to better herself. With her divorce from Mason Senior, she enrols in college and later qualifies as a teacher. However she also picks men who are totally unsuitable for her and her children, Bill and Jim. Her lack of judgement here isn’t explicitly commented on, but is viewed from the perspective of the children. It is also

but the most telling political moment in the film is Olivia’s support for Obama as President. In many respects the small (and large) incidents in the character’s lives offer far more implicit points regarding the personal as political – certainly in terms of Olivia’s development. Certainly Jim offers a reminder of the causalities of America’s recent wars. Technological

The resolutely old fashioned method of shooting on 35mm for aesthetic and practical reasons is a vital point here although the film was digitally edited. Institutional
The support of IFC Films, who are largely involved in independent film production in the US, meant that the film did have a yearly budget which took care of logistical issues. This budget was for $200,000 per year, or $2.4 million over the 12-year shooting period and was never adjusted from year one to year twelve. Throughout the period the film was shot over 39 days and had roughly 140 different scenes. This was on average three days a year, so time and pressure to get things right was tight. The film was later picked up by Universal at Sundance for worldwide distribution. SPECLIAIST STUDY AREA - Spectatorship & Ideology - STARTING POINTS - From the start the spectator is directly aligned with Mason Junior and it is his point of view that we follow throughout the narrative. His character journey is given the most prominence, despite the clear changes in other protagonist’s development – namely Olivia. - While Mason Junior’s young life passes before the spectator’s eyes, there is active engagement with where we are as spectators in terms of the subtle temporal shifts. There is then a clear sense of engaging with the way that editing and mise-en-scène show these changes. - There might also be an interesting way of assessing how different spectators might respond to this film which may have a direct connection to their age or gender or even their position as a parent. Certainly the scene when Mason Junior is about to leave home to go to college might be read very differently by a young person in that position than by a parent. The spectator’s response here is likely to show a great deal of diversity.

A Level Film Studies: Focus Film Factsheet - Boyhood, Lecture notes of Music

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Download A Level Film Studies: Focus Film Factsheet - Boyhood and more Lecture notes Music in PDF only on Docsity!

Boyhood

(2014, Linklater, USA)

Component 1: Varieties of

Film & Film-Making (AL)

Component 1: American film (AS)

Core Study Areas:

Key Elements of Film Form

Meaning & Response

The Contexts of Film

Specialist Study Area:

Spectatorship

Ideology (AL)

Rationale for study