Case study

 Hello! Today, we were asked to examine the first two minutes of a movie's camera angles and create a paragraph discussing the deeper meaning behind these angles. I chose Wonder. This is one of my favorite movies. I hope you enjoy!

Wonder  https://youtu.be/YH1C6yH_nFM?si=HxCToqYMr-jQv-ef

The movie opens on a static shot of a blue background with stars, resembling outer space. At :06, we are greeted with a singular astronaut jumping up and down in slow motion.  This symbolizes the loneliness felt by the main character and the joy that he feels playing this astronaut character. As we zoom out, we are brought back into reality to see a boy jumping up and down on his bed alone. This reverse zoom only further supports the feeling of loneliness as it continues to zoom out, showing the emptiness of his room. Next, we are met with an array of over-the-shoulder shots of the boy and his father playing with lightsabers. This connotes the idea of happiness being found within the family and how you are never alone when you have them.  This shot also introduces us to other characters in the movie. Now we have a tracking shot following our main character riding his bike. Again, he is all alone, following him down the path to a pan of a park. In the pan, we see a bunch of kids playing together, then we reach our main character playing alone with his sister, furthering the idea that happiness can be found with the family. Soon after, we are met with another pain within the chaotic moment of our main character's mother giving birth to him. The pan gives off a bit of humor as we pan to a doctor who looks very young. The panic of the mother when she sees him adds a bit of humor to an otherwise tense scene. After we get a tracking shot of the doctors and the father running off with the baby, we get a zoom out of a pinboard filled with medical bracelets all belonging to our main character. This is valuable information and lets us start to understand many of the hardships faced by the main character and why he may always be lonely.

Reviewed by Kate

I hope you enjoyed my take on Wonder. Please tune in next time for the next project!