The basement meeting scene opens with a long shot of Pee-Wee pacing back and forth in the front of the room of people. The long shot allows all of his frantic pacing to be displayed, demonstrating his concern over the loss of his bike. The lighting is notably different from the brightly-lit opening scenes of the film: the only illumination comes from a light bulb hanging from the ceiling, creating a grim chiaroscuro effect. This change in lighting indicates that Pee-Wee has sunk into a crazed depression after the loss of his bike. The long shot also displays Pee-Wee’s friends who have joined him in the basement. The camera then cuts to a close-up of one of them, a cyclist, and shows him smiling and talking with complete unconcern for Pee-Wee’s anxiety. There is deigetic sound of general muttering, indicating that others are similarly inattentive. The camera then contrasts this with a cut to a close-up shot of Pee-Wee’s dog who is silently, loyally looking up at Pee-Wee, waiting for him to speak. As Donnie and Chuck enter, Pee-Wee says “Let’s begin, shall we?” However, the conversation continues. Pee-Wee repeats himself, this time with anger, and a cut to a long shot of the silent, stunned group and an abrupt non-diegetic sound shows the effect Pee-Wee has had in suddenly changing the mood in the basement. The next shot is a medium close-up of Pee-Wee, closer than the previous shot of him. The camera moves even closer in a cut to a close-up as Pee-Wee reveals he has a box that contains “217 pieces of…evidence.” This sequence has the effect of building the suspense for what Pee-Wee is about to reveal (an effect that Pee-Wee clearly also wishes to achieve) which will presumably begin to “unravel” the mystery of the stolen bike. The camera has become more kinetic now – it no longer cuts to other static shots, but moves to reframe the shot. It has becomes freer and more chaotic just as Pee-Wee has become “unhinged.” The camera moves from medium to close up shots in this sequence, building then releasing the suspense as Pee-Wee’s “evidence” is revealed to be irrelevant and trivial. Among the comically superfluous “properties” that appear during this scene are a pen Pee-Wee bought an hour before the crime and a scale model of the area where the bike was stolen. A cut to a long shot of a somewhat frightened, attentive audience fades into a shot of the same audience now bored and half-asleep. Meanwhile, the light bulb above Pee-Wee’s head has begun swinging crazily as Pee-Wee himself gesticulates wildly with a pointer. The scene ends with Pee-Wee shouting nonsense in a close-up shot. The camera gradually tracks back until it is distanced from Pee-Wee, indicating Pee-Wee’s return to a comparatively normal state as Donna attempts to calm him down.
I picked the scene where Pee-Wee goes to the police to report his missing bike. After there is no luck with the police, he takes matters into his own hands and goes to Francis’ house and fights with him in the bathtub. The scene starts with a MCU of a police officer listening to Pee-Wee describe his missing bike. This scene represents how Pee-Wee, with his child-like features and personality, have troubles in the ‘real-world’ where things are not as exaggerated or ‘care-free’. In regards to Mise-en-scene, Pee-Wee’s contrast with the real world is very clear. He wears a suit that looks a bit tight on him and he has a baby face with make-up on his face and his hair has a slight spike in the front. The police officer, on the other hand, has an official police uniform on, with black hair. She seems literally darker than Pee-Wee, showing their separate views of the world, generally. Although Pee-Wee is unhappy now, he generally views the world as a happy place where one should follow one’s dreams, regardless of the obstacles lying in one’s path. The police officer seems a more corrupt and evil world than Pee-Wee sees. Also, the setting of Francis’ bathtub is exaggerated and the fact that a grown man still plays with toys in the tub is comical and almost sad. The people who stand in Pee-Wee’s way, the butler and Francis’ father, and the police officer try to give Pee-Wee a more realistic view of the world, in a sense, but Pee-Wee does not like it. The struggle of Pee-Wee in the ‘real’ world is supported through the diegetic and non-diegetic sounds used in the film. The background music is very light-hearted and cartoon like. There is one point, while Pee-Wee is knocking on the door, where he knocking matches with the music, giving the illusion of an exaggerated knocking sound. The music remains the same even when Pee-Wee almost drowns Francis, showing how the music does not even take Pee-Wee seriously. The exaggerated sound effects also do this. The diegetic and non-diegetic sounds view Pee-Wee’s world and problems very lightly and almost mocking their importance (evident by the mocking intense music used when Pee-Wee sees Francis), because to most ‘grown-ups’ in the world, the loss of a bicycle is not a major deal, because you can just buy another one (similar to how the police officer reacts to Pee-Wee’s story). In regards to Shot Composition, the shots are fairly simple. The shots are not complex and generally stationary and generally quite short. This represents the mindset of Pee-Wee, because this situation of his bike being stolen is quite simple. His bicycle means everything to him, but now it is stolen, so in his mind, he has to get it back. There are no other complications to it, except get it back however you can. He does not listen to anyone who tries to make him forget about it or move on or that it is just a bike. He loves his bike, he wants it back, simple as that.
I picked the scene wherein Pee-Wee meets Large Marge.
The scene starts with a minimally animated sequence, depicting Pee-Wee walking through a dark desert. The only thing visible on the black screen are Pee-Wee's eyes as he moves through the desert. The whiteness of Pee-Wee's animated eyes is used to contrast the absolute blackness of the rest of the image, showing how mysterious and frightening the area seems to be at night. As well, the sound design is filled with atmospheric noises of Pee-Wee walking and animal sounds. These sounds also add to the mysterious atmosphere. Pee-Wee then takes out brightly-lit glasses which illuminate his surroundings, and thus the screen, revealing a large crowd of animals surrounding him. In this joke, the lighting itself ends up being part of the punchline.
After this sequence, the lights from Large Marge's truck are seen faintly in the distance, as Pee-Wee waits for the truck to stop. As the truck comes closer to Pee-Wee, the screen becomes bathed with soft, yet bright light. As Pee-Wee gets into the truck, the lighting becomes darker again, and fog moves in front of the car. The lighting and mise-en-scene here give the setting an otherworldly and surreal appearance. Large Marge begins telling Pee-Wee a story of a horrific car accident, and halfway through her story, she turns directly to the camera and her face contorts into that of a nightmarish monster. This sudden shift is done to catch the viewer off-guard and attempt to frighten them.
Afterwards, Pee-Wee is left off the truck in front of a gas station. He enters a nearby restaurant and proclaims "Large Marge sent me." A dramatic note of music is heard in the soundtrack, creating an ominous atmosphere. Multiple quick shots are shown of people in the restaurant looking at Pee-Wee in horror. Each of these shots is shown at a low angle and with heavy red light, showing that these people are both very disturbed and they know more about Large Marge than Pee-Wee does. The people in the restaurant tell Pee-Wee that Large Marge has been dead for years. The scene cuts to a small memorial for Marge in the corner of the restaurant. The echoing sound of Large Marge's laughing is heard in the soundtrack, and the candles surrounding the memorial all die out, creating dim lighting. These all reinforce the (comically) ominous atmosphere and the absurdity of Pee-Wee's situation.
The scene I chose starts with Pee-Wee in the police station reporting the missing bicycle. As the scene begins, Pee-Wee is expressing his suspicion that “the Soviets” were involved in the theft. The Sergeant is attempting to placate Pee-Wee by asking him to retrace his steps. In one shot, Pee-Wee is shown in a mid-shot, while in the background two teenage girls are dressed in era-appropriate clothing. This shot is intended to portray Pee-Wee is incongruous and humorous; while the normal people are wearing jean jackets and polka dots and have punk rock hairstyles, Pee-Wee has a suit and bowtie and perfectly combed boyish hair. This idea of the incongruity between Pee-Wee and his era is accentuated later on when he runs into the macabre makeup and heavy metal riffage of Twisted Sister as he runs into their float in the Universal lot. Pee-Wee is ultimately a man out of time, and his naivety and carefree nature are used as endearing qualities in a time of excess and cocaine.
When Pee-Wee starts to suspect his neighbor Francis’s involvement in the bike theft, he decides to pay him a visit, and from there the film takes on the qualities of a comic Bond film. The non-diegetic soundtrack is a minor 7th piano-and-strings theme similar in tone to the Mission: Impossible theme. The “hits” in the non-diegetic soundtrack occur each time when Pee-Wee knocks on Francis’s front door, adding ironic heft to a situation lacking dramatic or emotional weight. This creates a comic incongruity between the direction and tone of the film and the material it is depicting. Even Francis’s guard is Bond-esque; a big Asian man with a ridiculous beard and sinister look, he resembles Goldfinger’s guard Oddjob. Pee-Wee sneaks past him through the power of deception (namely, an automatic door knocker, which makes sense for a man-boy who frequents a gag shop) and charges into Francis’s room.
If Pee-Wee is depicted with affection, antagonist Francis is the inverse of the film’s obsession with men out of time. Acting like a child and splashing in a giant bathtub surrounded by black-and-white tiles, Francis’s childlike nature is more Kubrickian than comic. He is rendered a grotesque caricature of immaturity and excess, stuck in a state of arrested development due to his rich-kid nature and lack of intelligence. Pee-Wee and Francis represent opposite states of arrested development - Pee-Wee is throwback naivety, cleanly and whimsical, while Francis is ‘80’s excess, hefty in weight and sinister in intentions. This is symbolized in their underwater fight: Pee-Wee is small and fully-dressed in the tub while Francis is large and shirtless, a conflict between the innocence and selfishness inherent in refusing to arrested development. Ultimately Pee-Wee is escorted out (with kindness) by Francis’s father, but not before giving Francis a prank piece of gum.
The basement meeting scene opens with a long shot of Pee-Wee pacing back and forth in the front of the room of people. The long shot allows all of his frantic pacing to be displayed, demonstrating his concern over the loss of his bike. The lighting is notably different from the brightly-lit opening scenes of the film: the only illumination comes from a light bulb hanging from the ceiling, creating a grim chiaroscuro effect. This change in lighting indicates that Pee-Wee has sunk into a crazed depression after the loss of his bike.
ReplyDeleteThe long shot also displays Pee-Wee’s friends who have joined him in the basement. The camera then cuts to a close-up of one of them, a cyclist, and shows him smiling and talking with complete unconcern for Pee-Wee’s anxiety. There is deigetic sound of general muttering, indicating that others are similarly inattentive. The camera then contrasts this with a cut to a close-up shot of Pee-Wee’s dog who is silently, loyally looking up at Pee-Wee, waiting for him to speak.
As Donnie and Chuck enter, Pee-Wee says “Let’s begin, shall we?” However, the conversation continues. Pee-Wee repeats himself, this time with anger, and a cut to a long shot of the silent, stunned group and an abrupt non-diegetic sound shows the effect Pee-Wee has had in suddenly changing the mood in the basement. The next shot is a medium close-up of Pee-Wee, closer than the previous shot of him. The camera moves even closer in a cut to a close-up as Pee-Wee reveals he has a box that contains “217 pieces of…evidence.” This sequence has the effect of building the suspense for what Pee-Wee is about to reveal (an effect that Pee-Wee clearly also wishes to achieve) which will presumably begin to “unravel” the mystery of the stolen bike. The camera has become more kinetic now – it no longer cuts to other static shots, but moves to reframe the shot. It has becomes freer and more chaotic just as Pee-Wee has become “unhinged.”
The camera moves from medium to close up shots in this sequence, building then releasing the suspense as Pee-Wee’s “evidence” is revealed to be irrelevant and trivial. Among the comically superfluous “properties” that appear during this scene are a pen Pee-Wee bought an hour before the crime and a scale model of the area where the bike was stolen. A cut to a long shot of a somewhat frightened, attentive audience fades into a shot of the same audience now bored and half-asleep. Meanwhile, the light bulb above Pee-Wee’s head has begun swinging crazily as Pee-Wee himself gesticulates wildly with a pointer. The scene ends with Pee-Wee shouting nonsense in a close-up shot. The camera gradually tracks back until it is distanced from Pee-Wee, indicating Pee-Wee’s return to a comparatively normal state as Donna attempts to calm him down.
I picked the scene where Pee-Wee goes to the police to report his missing bike. After there is no luck with the police, he takes matters into his own hands and goes to Francis’ house and fights with him in the bathtub. The scene starts with a MCU of a police officer listening to Pee-Wee describe his missing bike. This scene represents how Pee-Wee, with his child-like features and personality, have troubles in the ‘real-world’ where things are not as exaggerated or ‘care-free’.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to Mise-en-scene, Pee-Wee’s contrast with the real world is very clear. He wears a suit that looks a bit tight on him and he has a baby face with make-up on his face and his hair has a slight spike in the front. The police officer, on the other hand, has an official police uniform on, with black hair. She seems literally darker than Pee-Wee, showing their separate views of the world, generally. Although Pee-Wee is unhappy now, he generally views the world as a happy place where one should follow one’s dreams, regardless of the obstacles lying in one’s path. The police officer seems a more corrupt and evil world than Pee-Wee sees. Also, the setting of Francis’ bathtub is exaggerated and the fact that a grown man still plays with toys in the tub is comical and almost sad. The people who stand in Pee-Wee’s way, the butler and Francis’ father, and the police officer try to give Pee-Wee a more realistic view of the world, in a sense, but Pee-Wee does not like it.
The struggle of Pee-Wee in the ‘real’ world is supported through the diegetic and non-diegetic sounds used in the film. The background music is very light-hearted and cartoon like. There is one point, while Pee-Wee is knocking on the door, where he knocking matches with the music, giving the illusion of an exaggerated knocking sound. The music remains the same even when Pee-Wee almost drowns Francis, showing how the music does not even take Pee-Wee seriously. The exaggerated sound effects also do this. The diegetic and non-diegetic sounds view Pee-Wee’s world and problems very lightly and almost mocking their importance (evident by the mocking intense music used when Pee-Wee sees Francis), because to most ‘grown-ups’ in the world, the loss of a bicycle is not a major deal, because you can just buy another one (similar to how the police officer reacts to Pee-Wee’s story).
In regards to Shot Composition, the shots are fairly simple. The shots are not complex and generally stationary and generally quite short. This represents the mindset of Pee-Wee, because this situation of his bike being stolen is quite simple. His bicycle means everything to him, but now it is stolen, so in his mind, he has to get it back. There are no other complications to it, except get it back however you can. He does not listen to anyone who tries to make him forget about it or move on or that it is just a bike. He loves his bike, he wants it back, simple as that.
I picked the scene wherein Pee-Wee meets Large Marge.
ReplyDeleteThe scene starts with a minimally animated sequence, depicting Pee-Wee walking through a dark desert. The only thing visible on the black screen are Pee-Wee's eyes as he moves through the desert. The whiteness of Pee-Wee's animated eyes is used to contrast the absolute blackness of the rest of the image, showing how mysterious and frightening the area seems to be at night. As well, the sound design is filled with atmospheric noises of Pee-Wee walking and animal sounds. These sounds also add to the mysterious atmosphere. Pee-Wee then takes out brightly-lit glasses which illuminate his surroundings, and thus the screen, revealing a large crowd of animals surrounding him. In this joke, the lighting itself ends up being part of the punchline.
After this sequence, the lights from Large Marge's truck are seen faintly in the distance, as Pee-Wee waits for the truck to stop. As the truck comes closer to Pee-Wee, the screen becomes bathed with soft, yet bright light. As Pee-Wee gets into the truck, the lighting becomes darker again, and fog moves in front of the car. The lighting and mise-en-scene here give the setting an otherworldly and surreal appearance. Large Marge begins telling Pee-Wee a story of a horrific car accident, and halfway through her story, she turns directly to the camera and her face contorts into that of a nightmarish monster. This sudden shift is done to catch the viewer off-guard and attempt to frighten them.
Afterwards, Pee-Wee is left off the truck in front of a gas station. He enters a nearby restaurant and proclaims "Large Marge sent me." A dramatic note of music is heard in the soundtrack, creating an ominous atmosphere. Multiple quick shots are shown of people in the restaurant looking at Pee-Wee in horror. Each of these shots is shown at a low angle and with heavy red light, showing that these people are both very disturbed and they know more about Large Marge than Pee-Wee does. The people in the restaurant tell Pee-Wee that Large Marge has been dead for years. The scene cuts to a small memorial for Marge in the corner of the restaurant. The echoing sound of Large Marge's laughing is heard in the soundtrack, and the candles surrounding the memorial all die out, creating dim lighting. These all reinforce the (comically) ominous atmosphere and the absurdity of Pee-Wee's situation.
The scene I chose starts with Pee-Wee in the police station reporting the missing bicycle. As the scene begins, Pee-Wee is expressing his suspicion that “the Soviets” were involved in the theft. The Sergeant is attempting to placate Pee-Wee by asking him to retrace his steps. In one shot, Pee-Wee is shown in a mid-shot, while in the background two teenage girls are dressed in era-appropriate clothing. This shot is intended to portray Pee-Wee is incongruous and humorous; while the normal people are wearing jean jackets and polka dots and have punk rock hairstyles, Pee-Wee has a suit and bowtie and perfectly combed boyish hair. This idea of the incongruity between Pee-Wee and his era is accentuated later on when he runs into the macabre makeup and heavy metal riffage of Twisted Sister as he runs into their float in the Universal lot. Pee-Wee is ultimately a man out of time, and his naivety and carefree nature are used as endearing qualities in a time of excess and cocaine.
ReplyDeleteWhen Pee-Wee starts to suspect his neighbor Francis’s involvement in the bike theft, he decides to pay him a visit, and from there the film takes on the qualities of a comic Bond film. The non-diegetic soundtrack is a minor 7th piano-and-strings theme similar in tone to the Mission: Impossible theme. The “hits” in the non-diegetic soundtrack occur each time when Pee-Wee knocks on Francis’s front door, adding ironic heft to a situation lacking dramatic or emotional weight. This creates a comic incongruity between the direction and tone of the film and the material it is depicting. Even Francis’s guard is Bond-esque; a big Asian man with a ridiculous beard and sinister look, he resembles Goldfinger’s guard Oddjob. Pee-Wee sneaks past him through the power of deception (namely, an automatic door knocker, which makes sense for a man-boy who frequents a gag shop) and charges into Francis’s room.
If Pee-Wee is depicted with affection, antagonist Francis is the inverse of the film’s obsession with men out of time. Acting like a child and splashing in a giant bathtub surrounded by black-and-white tiles, Francis’s childlike nature is more Kubrickian than comic. He is rendered a grotesque caricature of immaturity and excess, stuck in a state of arrested development due to his rich-kid nature and lack of intelligence. Pee-Wee and Francis represent opposite states of arrested development - Pee-Wee is throwback naivety, cleanly and whimsical, while Francis is ‘80’s excess, hefty in weight and sinister in intentions. This is symbolized in their underwater fight: Pee-Wee is small and fully-dressed in the tub while Francis is large and shirtless, a conflict between the innocence and selfishness inherent in refusing to arrested development. Ultimately Pee-Wee is escorted out (with kindness) by Francis’s father, but not before giving Francis a prank piece of gum.