Jordana, the love interest of our main character, Oliver Tate, played by Craig Roberts, is his ideal image of a woman. He is completely willing to change himself for her benefit, and does so whether consciously or not through out the course of Submarine. In this specific frame, Jordana, played by Yasmin Paige, is shown in a close-up that emphasizes a warm orange glow across her face, the spectator or audience's eyes being immediately drawn both her saturated red coat which is used as a symbol of Oliver's love for her and her uniqueness contrasted to the bland school uniforms of every other character, and her face. Just like Oliver, we are exclusively focused on Jordana, as the background has an intensive blur of black white and orange lights.
Focusing specifically on the close-up element of this shot, the detail we see Jordana in compared to the rest of the frame is an effective technique that focuses all eyes on the point of interest, Jordana. We see her in the same way Oliver does, we see the entire film through his eyes, and he sees his entire life as a film.
The shot is also a low angle shot, the camera is literally looking up at Jordana, just like Oliver does in his weird little brain.
The colour of the shot, orange, black. white and red, despite all being warm colours (aside from black and which are neither warm or cold colours) show passion, love and hopelessness. Despite that being something of an oxymoron, it represents Oliver's feelings throughout the film. Red, his burning passion for Jordana. Orange, his dream-like perception of her. Black, his lack of understanding and hopelessness in actually talking to her or any other female, he doesn't know what to do, but he tries his best, even though he may be completely helpless. White, showing a gleam of possibility for their future. In general, Jordana is shown as very colourful and brings light in to Oliver's life.
Now let's look at the less interesting aspect of Oliver's life which, as for many people, is school. The blue, grey, dull setting emphasizes the depression and feeling of being underwater Oliver Tate faces on a daily basis. In this specific wide-shot, you have a foreground, background and middle-ground. Unsurprisingly, our awkward lead character is in the middle-ground. He stands out while fitting in, he's not so exuberant and loud in his differences to others to stand out, but not quite normal enough to fit in.
To really hammer in the dullness of everything in his life at that moment, the eye level short makes for a stiff, non-dynamic scene. This sounds like an insult or critique, but given context, it makes complete sense. Oliver feels unimportant and small, so he's shown as just that. It almost looks like we're looking through the eyes of someone else in the class, looking back at Oliver. Despite the camera being very obvious with it's visual representation of Oliver's feelings of averageness, we still see him stand out from everyone due to the camera being blurred on some other faces, possibly showing Oliver's self obsession with himself and his peculiar movie world.
Looking at the shapes in the room, they're all squares and rectangles with all negative space filled to the brim with detail. If you were to think of a boring shape, you would think square, everything, the tables, the doors, the windows, the posters, the boxes, the walls, everything is square and uninspired. Oliver finds school and academic activities to be menial and boring, so what better way to demonstrate that than the setting being all boring and menial.
The school uniforms are identical, but the way characters wear them gives us insight in to their personalities. Look at Oliver for example, with his neatly presented tie, blazer and jumper presented with pride. Then look at his friend, Chips, who has his blazer off with a poorly tied tie. He is shown as a slack, rebellious character which cares little for school rules. The teacher is just grey, dull, mid-toned, grey.
In conclusion, Oliver Tate is shown as depressed and lost in his drowning world, a common theme in the film, made to be bland and hidden.
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| (low quality, not much I could do about it - sorry) |
