FREE ESSAY ON CHASING AMY

CHASING AMY

Framing is a vital part of the film making process. It sets the mood, brings
attention to sutleties, and can show us the real intentions of a character.
For
example, would the scene with the famous shot from between the legs of Mrs.
Robinson in the movie The Graduate be as memorable if it instead showed a
close
up of Dustin Hoffman as he entered the room? Or the final shoot out in The
Good,
The Bad, and The Ugly. Would there be more impact with an American shot of
Clint Eastwood? The answer is obvious, of course not. The Kevin Smith
masterpiece, Chasing Amy, follows those memorable scene's by showing the
evolution of the two main characters, Holden (Ben Affleck) and Alyssa (Joey
Lauren Adams), relationship from friends to lovers with framing and other
cinematographic methods.
Cinematography- The art or technique of movie photography, including
both the shooting and the development of a film, (American Heritage, 159) but
you probably have not even noticed it. Cinematography has existed for as
long as
film has, but it has not really been considered an art for until the late
1930's, early
1940's. It can be used in many different forms, artistic expression,
political
belief's, or even used to satire pop culture. Chasing Amy follows this
pattern of
cinematography with showing the relationships of Holden and Alyssa change into
a budding romance.
Chasing Amy is a romantic comedy about people who write comic books
for a living whose most passionate conversations can involve the sex lives of
Archie and Jughead, (Ebert, 138) and is the third installment of Smith's New
Jersey Trilogy. The New Jersey Trilogy consists of two other films as
well.
The critically acclaimed Clerks and the not so critically acclaimed,
Mallrats.
Clerks had been over-praised, Mallrats has been over-bashed, third time's the
charm, (View Askew.com) Smith said on his website.
The movie stars Ben Affleck as Holden McNeel, an aspiring comic book
artist who falls in love with another comic book artist, Alyssa Jones (Joey
Lauren
Adams). As the movie goes on, you find out that Alyssa is a lesbian and all
the
encounters she had with men which led her to make that decision. But in one
key
moment when Holden admits his feelings to Alyssa, the whole pace of the movie
changes. Alyssa decides to take a chance and decides that Holden is the one
for
her as she throws her whole world upside down to be with him. But in the end,
her radical and experimental life style is too much for Holden as he finds
out a
little to much of her past for his liking and throws it all away. But
finding out the
hard way of the error of his ways he finds out that it is too late and learns
the
lesson it's not who you love, but how. (View Askew.com)
Holden's inability to deal with aspects of Alyssa's sexual history
mirrors
Smith's own problems dealing with aspects of (his girlfriend's) past (Gin,
543)
makes this a very personal film for Smith, and he shows it in the way he
films this
movie.
The first encounter that Holden and Alyssa have alone together is in a
bar.
It is the same day that they met and they are still trying to get to know
each other.
So Alyssa brings up the idea to play darts and Holden politely accepts the
offer.
While they are playing darts, they get to know each other better by
discussing their
current projects, Holden is a successful comic book creator and artist with
his
comic book Bluntman and Chronic, while Alyssa is not as successful in her
own
right with her project titled Idiosyncratic Routine. As the scene goes on
you can
see that both of them have a mutual understanding, and according to Holden,
both
of them have shared a moment.
The way that Kevin Smith went about showing this vital scene is by having
a point of view shot from the dartboard. This shot showed both Holden and
Alyssa standing next to each other. Also since the dartboard is a stationary
object,
you don't have any movement in the scenes the framing is primarily focused on
them so not to distract from the viewer to focus from the pair. Also the use
of
deep focus comes in handy. For example, when one of them ran out of darts to
throw they would walk up to retrieve them, while they were doing this the
camera
would use deep focus to show the other in the background, sutilly checking the
other one out. Also if you notice, the sides that they stand on in the scene
reflect
their stance on life. Holden, the more conservative of the two is on the
right,
while Alyssa, the more liberal, is far to the left of Holden.
The next time the two meet is at a bar, once again. This time Alyssa
invited
Holden to come see her. When Alyssa goes up to the stage and sings a song
with
her old band, she dedicates a song to a special someone. Holden
automatically
thinks that it was him. After Alyssa sang a throughty rendition of a Debie
Gibson
tune (Chasing Amy) she signaled for someone special to come closer to the
stage.
Holden thinking that it was him smiled to himself like a smitten little
school boy
only to see Alyssa run off stage and passionately kiss another woman.
When I wrote this scene, I couldn't wait to see it with an audience -
particularly my audience, Smith said (View Askew.com) when he was
interviewed about this movie. He wanted to show how people think that a
relationship can go one way, then drastically turn another way. The way he
proved that was how he dealed with the soroundings of the club. Once again
the
framing was mainly focused on Holden and Alyssa when they first bumped into
each other at the club. The camera was stationary with a middle shot of the
bar in
the back ground. The First Alyssa enters the scene from the right, soon
followed
by Holden from the left. The lighting for this scene was the lighting from
the club,
low dingy restaurant style lighting. Once again in this scene there are no
close ups
or P.O.V. shots to make the viewer see how the couple interacts with each
other.
This is a very popular shot in this movie, it is used in almost every
sequence in the
movie involving Holden and Alyssa. But as it goes on, Alyssa exits the frame
as
she is beckoned on stage, then the infamous scene when she is finished when
she
kisses another woman. As soon as Holden sees this, they show point of view
shots
of him looking around the bar realizing that in actuality, he is in a lesbian
bar. The
shots are quick and sparatic with quick shots of him turning his head turn to
see
two women.
Another scene where the cinematography is important, is the scene where
Holden finally admits his feelings to Alyssa. The scene goes on as they are
in
Holden's car while he is driving her home. The camera is in the back seat of
the
car. The camera is not held stationary and has sparatic movements and shakes
going back and forth from Holden to Alyssa. Until the car comes to a
screeching
halt. The camera angle quickly changes to showing from the front of the
cabin in
the car. This is where he admits to her that he can no longer hold his
feelings in
any longer. As he tells her everything, this is the first time that they use
a close up
between toe two. First they show a close up of him so show how sincere that
he is
in his feelings, and while he is talking the angle quickly changes to her to
show
how she has a look of shock and almost like she is appalled. Quickly to cut
back
to him, still close up, to him again with the same look like he is almost
kidding and
relieved that he had finally gotten this off of his chest. Then a close up
of her as
she leaves in a hurry from the car, while Holden is close to follow. When
they are
outside of the car, the scene goes back to the way the camera was in the back
of
the car, sparatic camera work that added a stand off atmosphere to the whole
scene
in general. It shows that this is a trivial time in each of their lives, and
a decision
from one choice to the other could change their lives forever. They showed
this
perfectly with the camera work of going back and forth between one side and
the
other. Once again Holden is on the right side, saying how every relationship
has a
period of adjustment. While on the left is Alyssa telling him that it is not
that
easy, she is gay, and telling him changing her sexual preference can turn her
whole
world into upheaval. Using unsteady and sparatic camera work shows that her
life
is as hectic as it is, it does not need any more changes. But as Holden
walks off
camera in one direction, and Alyssa walks off in the other, she quickly runs
back
into the scene and passionately kiss each other and while they do that, the
camera
work becomes stable once again.
After they decide to try to change their lives, everything is going
wonderfully as they find out that they complete each other. Until one day
when
Holden finds out about her past sexual experiences that make him feel like he
is
inferior to her and that she has been lying to him all along.
The scene is in a hockey arena, as Holden and Alyssa watch a local team
play. While the scene is going on, Holden alludes that he knows something
about
her past. Till finally he asks her about her high school nickname,
Fingercuffs. As
soon as he says that, a quick cut to the hockey game shows that the home team
has
scored, showing that he has made a first strike in the conversation. As the
conversation is going on, they keep talking. Holden is still alluding to her
past and
she is now well aware of it. When he asks her if she knows Rick Derris, her
former partner, the scene cuts to the hockey game once again. In this cut,
one of
the players is body checked into the boards. This signifies that he has made
a deep
blow into the past of Alyssa. He continues with asking her about her past,
as soon
as he does, a fight breaks out in the hockey game. The fight cuts show that
Alyssa
is getting aggravated with Holden trying to be slick and smooth with his
questions.
Till finally Alyssa jumps up Yelling that everything that she has heard about
her
past is probably true as she storms out of the arena. As she says this, the
fight
comes to an abrupt end with one of the players hitting the ice hard. As the
fight
ends, so does their storybook relationship.
The movie Chasing Amy is a masterpiece that fully complements the end
for Kevin Smith's New Jersey Trilogy. The direction is wonderful and the
cinematography shows that love can appear in many different places. This
movie
is a recommended watch, and the cinematography is the thing that makes this
movie memorable.
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