A Tree of Life film Analysis

A Tree of Life film Analysis American drama The Tree of Life is a 2011 film directed and produced by Terrence Malick. The film takes the audience through a middle-aged mans childhood memories of 1950s. The film combines the childhood thoughts of origins and meaning of life with imagery of the origins of the earth and the beginning of life.Advertising We will write a custom term paper sample on A Tree of Life film Analysis specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Terrence combined technical and artistic imagery and fragmented narration to produce a masterpiece family drama with a clear inclination to science fiction. This paper seeks to analyze Terrence Malick’s film The Tree of Life. A lot of visual effects work has been applied on The Tree of Life. The director has applied special effects not only to bring out his plot but also to engage the audiences as events unfold throughout the film. Special effects have been applied to create the universe sequence. The colo r effect filters have been used to enhance mood and dramatic effects. At the beginning of the movie, the producers block out some color wavelengths of light from reaching the film. The result is a dark yellow light that marks the beginning of the universe. After the family receives the news about death of a nineteen years old son, the entire family falls into grief. Color filters have been used to characterize the mood with Mr. and Mrs. O’Brien lost in their thoughts. In the film, Terrence has used lighting to show the emotional response of characters. He has used lens flare to invoke a sense of drama in the movie. This is evident just after Mr. OBrien is notified by telephone about the death of his son. It has also been applied to give an expression of a real life scene. For instance, Mrs. O’Brien moves through the trees lost in her thoughts looks more of a real life photograph. The director has used sound as background music, sounds of objects in the story and voices of characters, all which are heard both by the audience and the characters in the film. Another important aspect of sound employed by Terrence is the narrator’s commentary and mood music to create the solitude mood and the melancholy atmosphere of the film. Terrence has selected different lenses for different purposes throughout the movie. Variation of focal length has been used to make the audiences share their feelings with characters in the film. When Mr. O’Brien receives a call about the death of his son, the focal length of the lens is varied to show his entire face. This gives the audience a chance to see his facial expression and to share his grief.Advertising Looking for term paper on art and design? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The same shot is evident when his wife reads a telegram notifying her about the same death. The focal length of the lens has been used to determine the angle of view and the field of view. Terrence has used this to combine real life and unreal world. For instance, a shot where a dinosaur moves in a natural environment with real vegetation and water is a combination of real and unreal world. The dinosaurs look like truly living animals and they are then super-imposed into a world that is completely real. In the film, short focal lengths of the lens have been used to make spatial distances to look more obvious. A character in the distance is made to look smaller while characters in the front emerge as big. This is clearly depicted by an instance where Mrs. O’Brien plays with his son as a small boy. The boy looks bigger when brought closer but much smaller when he runs out to play and the camera remains in the same position. The continuity style has been applied by the director in The Tree of Life as a conventional and dominant mode of visual storytelling. In this film, the most significant aspect of this particular style is that it encoura ges the viewer to become engrossed and fascinated by a story. However, this style discourages the audiences from consciously noticing the editing and camera techniques that have been used in the movie. The style has been deliberately used to make the camera, camerawork and editing invisible. The events on screen especially the multiple shots of the beginning of the universe seem to take place within a world of their own. Terrence makes the events to look as though they have been captured by some kind of unseen observer, who happened to have watched and recorded the action from convenient and suitable positions or angles. The film takes a surprising leap. It takes the audiences back millions of years in time, to the beginning of the world. The Tree of Life exhibits choral music that has been used as a staggeringly crafted hymn to creation. The audiences see swirling gases as planets emerge and the beginning of life itself. This leads to creation of plants, creatures like fish and din osaurs. The director suggests the O’Brien family as an archetype, a characteristic family in Biblical terms.Advertising We will write a custom term paper sample on A Tree of Life film Analysis specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The audience is drawn into the narrative. The viewers feel like they are viewing the story unfolding onscreen. Terrence has used the technique to precisely put the right emotional response in the audience and at the right moment. The outcome is seamless and engaging masterpiece and great filmmaking that make the audiences feel like they are actually participating in all events. An illustration of continuity style is the opening scene of The Tree of Life. This opening scene is an exceptional instance of how Terrence has relayed information to his audience without using a lot of dialogue. By moving the camera around and using strategically objects we find out that the lead character is a middle aged man who is married and with some children. The Tree of Life illustrates the technique of cross or inter-cutting in several instances. These are instances where the viewers are shown different events happening at the same time. The views are then made to seamlessly connect these events in their mind. In the opening scenes, the viewers see the first view of the two main characters, Mr. and Mrs. O’Brien. This is an instance of the technique of cross-cutting being applied to set up the plot and establish the two protagonists in the film in an absorbing way. Multiple scenes of nature are brought into focus simultaneously to illustrate the creation of earth. Terrence also uses the technique of cross-cutting to create suspense and narrative tension. Terrence has applied the point of view as a device through which the audiences identify with characters in the movie. This technique has been used to place the audience in the position of the protagonists. The point of view shots are evident wi th characters looking off screen and this allows the audience to cut to the object the character is looking at. Point of view is depicted in a church congregation as the clergyman delivers summon. The camera shifts from one character to another and it is easy to notice that all the characters are focused on the clergyman. The camera then shifts to O’Brien’s son seated next to his mother. The boy changes his gaze to a picture of Jesus on the wall. Like the boy, the audiences are lost in their thoughts as they identify themselves with the characters. Point of view is also depicted when the boy watches his parents engage in a fight in their house. The boy can see unclear shots of his father through the window as he moves with rage shouting to his mother. These shots make the audiences to concentrate on what the boy is watching, identify themselves with the boy and share his thoughts. The shots also increase the viewer’s concentration.Advertising Looking for term paper on art and design? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The viewers are able to experience the emotions of the boy, his anxiety and apprehension as he watches his parents quarrel with each other. In a very direct way, the viewers gain an insight into the emotional vulnerability and suffering of O’Brien’s children. Terrence has extensively applied framing and frame cuts The Tree of Life. The film exits one shot, then enters the next, allowing the eyes of the audience to follow the movement of the protagonists. In particular, Terrence wants the audience to focus on the emotions of the characters. For instance, Mr. O’Brien is shot touching his wife’s pregnancy, perhaps to show his admiration. This shot eliminates the space around Mr. and Mrs. O’Brien, emphasizing their facial expressions and gestures. Instances of frame cuts are also evident in the film. Some shots ends with the characters leaving the frame and the next shot begins with the characters entering the frame. For example, the audience witness O ’Brien’s son learning to crawl as a baby. The baby leaves the frame when crawling and the next shot begin with the baby entering the frame aided to walk by his father. Terrence has used instances of three-point lighting, key, fill and back lights to light the subjects in the film. This enables the viewers to form their perception of characters or setting in the film. The key light is the main source of lighting but the director has combined it with fill lighting to avoid leaving the shadow and to soften the shadows. To create a sense of depth, Terrence has also used the back light paced behind and above the characters. A high contrast ratio of key and fill light has been used in an instance where Mr. and Mrs. O’Brien embrace each other and the shot disappears and reappears repetitively. This produces a dark shadow and a night time effect with the faces of the protagonists being bleached white against a black background. Terrence has used the light and shade to d irect the audience’s attention to particular part of the scenes. For instance, Mr. O’Brien enters the house and turn off all the lighting. The audience can only focus on his moving image in the house as he walks towards the window. He then looks at his son sleeping outside the house. The audiences’ attention is directed to his thoughts and memories as he remembers the happy moments he had spent with his family. Terrence has applied instances of mise-en-scene in The Tree of Life. In the context of this film, mise-en-scene has been used to describe both the content of what is filmed and the way in which it has been filmed. It also signifies the Terrence’s control over what appears in the frame of The Tree of Life. In this film, settings applied are not only backgrounds but also integral to creating atmosphere and to building narrative within the movie. For instance, shots of sky and moving clouds, mountains, vegetation, sea and sea creatures depict the begi nning of universe. Shots of imaginary creatures like dinosaurs are depicted in natural environment characterized by a river with flowing water. Like settings, Terrence has used the props to characterize and show the atmosphere of the film. Props play a significant role of the action of The Tree of Life. Props like a dinosaur play a very significant function in the cause-effect logic of a film’s narrative. They also have a symbolic meaning of showing the beginning of the world where imaginary creatures existed. In The Tree of Life, the positioning and movement of protagonists within a frame is very important for both characterization and narrative. Terrence has successfully drawn the attention of the audience to his important characters by placing them in the foreground of the frame. For instance, as Mr. O’Brien touches and listens to his unborn son, he is drawn very close to the foreground of the frame. This gives the audience a feeling that he was welcoming the idea o f getting a son. It also highlights the closeness that was shared by Mr. and Mrs. O’Brien before their son was born. The same effects are depicted when Terrence places moving objects in a stationary background. Some instances of these effects are evident when O’Brien’s sons are shown playing in the field. Stationary objects have also been placed in moving backgrounds. For example, Mr. O’Brien stands stationary in a building looking and admiring its architecture as the camera moves swiftly through the stairs and along the length of the huge building. The Tree of Life and The artist a 2011 French romance directed by Michel Hazanavicius share a lot of similarity. Both Terrence and Michel have used positioning to indicate relationships between characters in their films. The physical distance between all the members of O’Brien family in a frame indicates emotional distance. In many instances, Mr. O’Brien is seen hugging and squatting to hold his sons closely showing that he loved them. Michel has also used the physical distance to highlight the romance between George and Peppy. Both Terrence and Michel have applied performance in the film including the protagonist’s facial expressions and body language. By bringing the faces of the characters closer and highlighting their features, the audiences can read a wide range of emotions and feelings. The audience can view the faces of Mr. and Mrs. O’Brien as they engage in a heated argument. The camera is drawn close to their son’s face and the viewer can see and judge his remorse regarding the quarrel between his parents. In conclusion, The Tree of Life exhibits a lot of brilliance with its breath taking imagery. The film is filled with inquiring ideas and questions about our place in the changed world. Earlier in the film a woman’s voice sets the debate of what a man should follow, â€Å"the more selfish way of nature or the less selfish way of grace. † The movie has applied a lot of imagery and cinematographic features amid the touching story of a loving mother and a strict father.