For the first stage (1500 to 1800 words), you will analyze an entire movie. In the second stage (300 to 600 words), you will reflect on how you analyzed the movie as well as how your ability to anal

Back to the Future

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Back to the Future

Back to the Future is a film about a young man who travels thirty years in the past and must ensure that his high school-age parents unite to save his life. Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale wrote the film. Notably, the motivation for writing the film story was that Bob Gale visited his parents in the summer of 1980 and he found his father’s high school yearbook. He thumbed through it and found that his father was the president of the graduating class. He was very unaware of that fact. Moreover, the picture of his dad, 18-years old, stirs some questions in his mind. For instance, he asks himself, “what if I had gone to school with my father, would I have been friends with him?” The first part, ‘what if I had gone to school with my father’, becomes the plot of the story; the narrative that places father and son at the same age. On the other hand, the second part of the question creates the meaning of the story and probably creates the core theme of the film. This sets us the main theme of the film as discussed below.

Theme of Family

At the beginning of the film, Marty, who is the main character, has considerable antipathy in answering questions such as Would I have been friends with him, would I have liked him, would I have understood him. In fact, he appears to be very different from his family, especially his father George. He, therefore, starts the story with a set of beliefs and perceptions about his father, seeing him as an adolescent.

Imagine the entire things one can do and the places one can visit if he or she had the ability and capacity of time travel. People could easily revisit Italy during the Renaissance. Babylon during Nebuchadnezzar’s reign or even take a walk amongst the dinosaurs. Nonetheless, it is very unusual for a film rotating around such premises to portray home set up. This tells us that the film, Back to the Future, is a family that centralizes its story about family. It centers on questions such as why we love them, why we cannot stand family members and what we could do without them or do to change them. In addition, Marty always loved his family. At the end of the film, he seems to love them the more.

Techniques used in Film

Lighting Techniques

Back to the Future has used a variety of lighting techniques throughout the movie. In my opinion, lighting techniques in films are likened to someone’s tone when they speak to you. A high and delightful tone indicates happiness while a low and deep tone indicates anger or upset. Similarly, lighting in the movie or rather films create the intended mood of the film. The Back to the Future film has used different lighting techniques in different scenes. It has been filmed with the three-point lighting techniques and the low key-design that stirs mysterious feeling, which is common in the science fiction genre. For instance, one of the scenes occurs at night in a shopping mall parking area. At this point, the cinematographer uses low-key lighting style to create dramatic and cryptic feeling in the scene. In fact, according to Goodykoontz and Jacobs (2011), dramatic scenes in movies will vary the intensity and positions of the fill and backlights to suit the mood and stir the sources of light visible in the scene. Notably, the key lighting provides light in the dark parking area and the fill light softens the shadows. On the other hand, streetlights and backlighting make the three-point style complete.

Cinematography and Sound

The ticking of the clock relates to the main theme of the film. Moreover, the setting of the radio and the television makes the audience understand the setting of a family. It brings the audience into a family mood. Notably, as the camera introduces the audience to Marty, it begins with feet before showing us the whole body. As he plays the guitar the camera slowly follows him even as he flies in the air and crashes into a shelf. One way the film in which the film catches the attention of the audience is through the soundtrack, which seems irrelevant with what happens on the screen. This makes them wonder what happens next, and it is common in science fiction films.

Acting Style

The film has utilized Stella Adler’s acting style whereby the actor utilizes their interpretations of imaginations of character. This is evident from the comments of Bob Gale above. That he was motivated by his father’s high school yearbook. Through that, he imagined himself as his father’s classmate in high school. These imaginations led them to produce a film that travels back to the teenage days of Marty’s parents in high school. These elements are relevant to setting the theme of the film which is major family. The lighting, cinematography and acting styles techniques rotate about family and family life.

References

Back to the Future. (2011, Apr 2). Back To The Future [1985] – The DeLorean  [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Psxktpxkc6o

Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. (2011). Film: From watching to seeing. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. This text is a Constellation™ course digital materials (CDM) title.