Blog 4

I watched Portrait of Jason by Shirley Clarke. Jason, a gay African works us throughout the journey of his renaissance, sharing his joy, frustration and excitement with the viewers as the film progresses. He is asked by the film maker, what does he do for a living? The close analysis on that scene is used to portrait his answer which is a change of mood. The filmmaker uses different shoots, revealing the severity on Jason’s expression. The extreme and medium close ups attest of the intensity of Jason’s annoyance, marked by the zoom in and out. The filmmaker plays with the lens; therefore details of the shots give deeper information to the audience While answering the question, Jason is playing with his fingers nervously, the extreme close up shows the audience the stress of his forehead. The camera’s light moves next to his phony smile and then suddenly to the level of speed in his speech. Clearly, there is a change of tone, revealing an increase of nervousness. The camera zooms in on his face, and he starts answering the question, the audience notices that the prior zoom in is becoming a zoom out. The lens of the camera points at his facial manner, body language, and tone of his voice. Both the meaning and diversity of the shots of the filmmaker help convey messages. The material and techniques used by the filmmaker allowed the audience to sympathize with Jason’s narration. Also most of the scene ends up by either a blur or a blank black image.