Film Research

1/19/2024

    Hello everyone, I hope you all are having lovely days today! I once again have another research project to share with you. If you remember my last post, I conducted research on the coming-of-age film genre and this week my class dug even deeper. Mr. Z assigned us another research project but the twist was to focus on one film from the genre of our previous project. Coincidentally, I watched the film "Lady Bird" a couple days before and I really enjoyed it so I was very excited to have a reason to analyze a part of it. Without a further ado, my project is right below for your viewing pleasure. 

Film Genre Research

Film: "Lady Bird

Camera Shots

    The shots used in the opening of “Lady Bird” are almost exclusively still shots that showcase the main character and/or her surroundings. In the first half of the opening where the main focus is on Lady Bird and her mother, most of the shots are two shots. This allows the audience to focus on their relationship and how they act/ behave towards one another. Furthermore, having Lady Bird and her mother’s relation be the opening of the film and only having them two in the beginning helps highlight how important their relationship will be to the main plot. The shots also have it so that Lady Bird and her mom are on opposite sides of the screen, they are next to each other but never on the same side. This hints towards the main conflict of while both characters love one another, they always seem to be butting heads and opinions. At the start of the opening the shots are longer and linger, which not only matches with the slow and quite opening, but it allows the audience to properly process the information about the characters and their relationship they are viewing. Once the music starts up the shots also change. The shots become shorter with lots of cuts, and the shots go from two shots from the beginning to a mixture of master shots, wide shots, close-up shots, and mid-shots towards the end of the opening. The cuts to wide shots and to close-ups of Lady Bird help establish the setting of the film and how the main character fits in to all of it. It helps further highlight the relationship Lady Bird has towards school, her classmates, and the staff.

Editing Techniques 

    The whole film has a muted color palette that slowly gets brighter as the movie progresses to show Lady Bird’s character growth. The colors help bring out the nostalgic feel of the movie especially because it is set in 2002. Greta Gerwig also explained one of the techniques used was the enhancement of the digital noise in the film. It adds a grain like texture to the movie to create the effect of looking at a copy of a photograph. This again highlights the nostalgic feel of the movie and resembles looking back on a photobook full of old memories which fits in with the Lady Bird’s character arc where she realizes she did truly love the town she is from. Moreover, the longer shots used in the beginning of the opening adheres to the conventions of a drama film and allows for more thoughtful moments that help convey the overall message of the movie. Later on, the film switches to quick cuts which not only helps play up the shock factor of Lady Bird jumping out of the car, but it also plays into the comedy aspect of the film. It keeps the plot moving and enhances the punchline to many of the jokes in the film. The blend of both drama and comedy help tell the story of a realistic mother-daughter relationship and girlhood that has both highs and lows.

Sound Techniques

    The opening of “Lady Bird” is a little surprising in the sense that it’s a very quiet opening. There is no music, no loud sounds, just a quiet morning with Lady Bird and her mom with the only sound being the dialogue between the two characters. Even when the scene cuts to the two in the car the only sound is the audio book they are listening to and then once it is done it goes back to just pure dialogue. This allows the audience to really focus on the mother-daughter relationship between the two and how it’s strained. The little distraction allows the audience to fully process what is being said and allow them to form opinions of the characters and their relationship. It sets the tone for the audience and hints to them that at least when it comes to Lady Bird and her mom’s relationship there is a tone of seriousness and a thought-provoking aspect to their complex relationship showcased throughout the whole film. However, once Lady Bird falls out of the car and cuts to her cast an upbeat and almost comedic song starts to play in the background. The setting has changed to Lady Bird’s high school and the song is overlapped with the dialogue of teachers, nuns, priest, and students from the proceedings of the school day. This also ques to the audience that this movie will also have some comedic aspects to it while tackling the serious message. The overlap of the voices helps the voices to kind of blend into one another, which helps emphasize the mundane nature of the school and how Lady Bird finds little interest in it. 

Mise-en-Scene

    In the first half of the opening Lady Bird and her mom are traveling and are seen in a motel room. The room itself is very neat and Lady Bird’s mom makes a comment about how it’s nice to “tidy up” and the mise-en-scene of the motel room further supports this personality trait. Lady on in the car there are props such as the audio book, clothes and bags in the back seat, and pamphlets/ maps on the dashboard. This all helps the continuity of the scene since it makes sense that the car is filled with their bags and maps since they are on a road trip. Without these items the scene would not make as much sense. The latter half of the opening takes place in Lady Bird’s Catholic high school and most of the props include crosses, desks, posters, chairs, stained glass windows, religious wear, school supplies, white boards/ chalk boards, etc. This further helps build the type of environment Lady Bird finds herself in, a wealthy, religious high school. It also helps us gage what year the film takes place. The audio book is on cassettes and a 9/11 poster was shown and it allows the audience to assume the film takes place after 2001.

Production

    “Lady Bird” was Greta Gerwig first as a solo film maker, director, and writer and for a first-time solo project it performed incredibly. For cinematography the film’s main cinematographer was Sam Levy who worked closely with Greta Gerwig before on her pervious projects. The movie had a budget of $10 million and it made $49 million domestically and grossed $79 million worldwide. For the film's opening weekend, it had a limited showing in only four theaters and made about $364,437 from the opening weekend. The main company behind the film was A24 who was not only a distributor but was also one of the production companies behind the film. The other distributors involved were Universal Pictures and Focus Features, which focused on the international distribution of the film. The movie also had three other production companies behind it which included IAC Inc, Entertainment 360, and Scott Rudin Productions.  

Opening Credits

    The font used for the title of “Lady Bird” is Amador which is a font very reminiscent of old English writings. This choice could be used to highlight the setting of Christine’s Catholic high school. Furthermore, having Christine’s nonconvention chosen name of Lady Bird be the title and in Amador font further emphasizes how even though she tries to come off as the rebellious type deep down she desperately wants to fit in. The rest of the opening credits are in very generic font which allows the focus to be on the film title and the main character herself. The movie also opens with a comedic quote about the location of the film which not only hints to the comedic aspects of the movie but also connects to part of the main plot of moving away from home.  

Awards

    For the 2018 award season “Lady Bird” received 41 nominations and won a total of 13 awards. Out of the awards the film received 2 were Golden Globes, 4 were National Society of Film Critics, 1 Independent Films award, 1 American Film Institute award, 2 New York Film Critic Circle awards, 2 Boston Society of Film Critics awards, and 1 Los Angeles Film Critics award. Most of the awards were awarded to the film as a whole or specifically to Greta Gerwig.