Expressive movement unit 2

Metadata

The interplay of camera and editing extends the moment of surprise at a private celebration to a tranquil image of the family-like male society. 

After another view of the submarine, the first cut reveals the entire space of the soldiers’ sleeping quarters. The next cut follows the birthday cake being carried in with a long pan through the entire space. Still supported by dark shades of gray and absolute quiet, a new cut, using shot/reverse shot, establishes a relationship between a single soldier and civilian celebrations. In this sequence of shots the cake is placed at the frame’s vanishing point by the way the images operate visually. The simultaneous continual reduction of the depth of field anticipates a moment of visual static: a standing image of a family-like get together.  

The final prolonged shot begins with all the rest of the soldiers plunging tumultuously into the frame. Their faces have happy expressions and press together in the foreground of the image. In this twist of the staging, the confinement which was shown in the first part of the scene as spatial distress is now revalued as a quality of social bonding.  Since, in terms of visual composition, the lit cake is at the center of the scene, an excess of high intensity light is created that strengthens the relaxed image of a family-like military community even more.