https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a90BAwsvlA
The scene is set in a gym where Jane and her friend Angela are performing a dance routine during the half time of a game, where Lester and Carolyn, Jane's parents, are in attendence. As the routine begins the viewer sees it from a medium angle shot, so we are looking down at the girls preforming their dance routine. This shows Lester’s, who is sitting in the blechers, point of veiw, as well as creating a sense of innocence to the young girls as they preform. The camera begins to slowly lend its focus to Angela by closing up on her from a medium angle shot to an eye level shot where she is the only subject on screen. It then immediately cuts to Lester where the camera for the first time is at an eye level shot and closing up on his face. The camera then cuts to Angela preforming, slowly closing in on her and then cuting back to Lester. Through out the movie Lester is looked down upon by his family and himself. The cinemetographer and director used high angle shots to express this. Now the camera is at eye level with Lester and eye level with Angela creating an equality between both of them. As the camera jump cuts to close ups on each character it creates tension and shows a relationship between the two building. The director wanted the viewer to be aware of each cut. The scene then takes a turn and the viewers focus is soley and directly on Angela, as is Lesters as his fantasy day dream begins. The lighting and music changes and now we’ve entered into Lester’s head as he creates his sensual fanatsy with Angela (his daughters friend). Everyone disappars except for Angela and Lester. The camera is at an eye level shot as she sexually dances for Lester. The camera cuts to Lester at an eye level angle where his face takes up the entire frame. This close up allows us to see the emotional transition that is happening. Then it cuts to Angela dancing while the camera moves up and down to show the sensuality of her movement, and showing Lesters perception of her as this sexual vixin. The camera cuts back to Lester shooting him from a low angle. This shot is quite important, it shows Lester up in the blechers alone giving him a sense of power. As the dance sequence progresses, Angela slowly unzips her cheerleader uniform. In this moment an aray of rose petals fly out of her bosom filling the entire frame. Immediately the day dream ends and the camera cuts back to a medium shot of the girls finishing there dance routine. Once they finish the camera cuts to a close up eye level shot of Lester as he expresses a liberated face that changes the course of the entire movie
Lighting, color, and sound are key in this scene. The scene starts off with high key lighting, which lights up the whole set leaving little contrast between light and dark. This gives the viewer a sense of cheerieness which was the intial mood of the scene. As the cinematography focuses the veiwers attention on Angela the lighting changes to a spotlight on her revealing Lesters focus. As the day dream begins the lighting changes to low key with two spot lights on both Lester and Angela. This lighting creates a surreal court room effect. During this day dream the music immediately changes as well. It turns into a jungle call, reflecting the animalistic experience Lester is having. The music is of great contrast to the what was playing before, a more metropolitian like sound, stiff, orchestrated, and predictable, similar to the course of Lester’s life. As Angela begins unzipping her cheerlader uniform and the petals fly out the color of those rose petals are bright and vibrant. It is the first time we see any real color in the movie. The film generally has drab colors, the actors all wear neutral tones or shades, all reflecting Lester’s point of view on his life. The rose petals being the first vibrant color is symbolic of Lester coming back to life.
