This close-up shot in the movie moonlight added extra emotion for the audience, for example, it added a sense of inclusion since the character stares directly at the audience, making it appear like she is talking to them. As an audience member, the close shot made me feel like I was close to the character on screen, and it added a sense of tension since her gaze was unavoidable which further enhanced the scene. The close up shot also made it clear that the only thing that mattered on screen was the character of the mum since everything else was blurred and out of focus. 

This close-up shot makes the scene more colorful and less bland. It also makes the audience have more of a picture of the scene since the focus remains on Chiron since he is the only one in the scene, but it also shows the importance of the area he is in since you can see the bright colored tiles on the floor. It also creates some distance between the character and the audience, which shows how detached Chiron feels from everyone else. 

This Long shot moved the focus on the main character, Chiron. This showed how he is the focus of the scene and how he is the main character. This also Made him look weak since the long shot displayed his whole body and how he looked small and helpless in comparison. This could make the audience feel pity for Chiron since he is all alone and does not have anyone to help him. The long shot made me feel like there was no one there for Chiron since there was no one else in the scene other than the long empty road which made him look small and helpless in comparison. 

This high shot added a lot to this scene and made it feel more intimate. This is because we can see both characters look directly into the camera at the same time which would make the audience members still feel like spectators but more included in the scene. The high shot also lets us see how vulnerable and careless they are since, as the audience, we see them as smaller and feel more impower. As a viewer I felt like this camera angle made the scene feel more peaceful since we can see that they are looking up at the night sky. 

The eye level camera angle makes the audience feel more drawn into the conversation between Chiro and Kevin. It also makes both characters seem equal in the conversation and more intimate. Both characters are centered which allows their eyes to be in the center of the screen, making it easy for the audience to follow the character’s gaze. As an audience member I felt like this scene flowed very well and the camera angle helped keep the pace of the scene smooth and coordinated. 

This low angle shot makes the audience see Juan from Chiros perspective, since in this scene chiro is much younger and much smaller than Juan. It also shows the audience the dynamic between the two since Chiro is looking up to him as a father figure or a guide since Chiro doesn’t have anyone else to look up to. This made me feel compassion for Chiro since it’s evident he’s a small child looking for role models in his life. 

In this scene, the camera pans over to the right of Kevin, this creates a very intimate scene since it’s just a close of Kevin’s face while the camera moves to show the audience Kevin’s side profile. This allows the audience to have a moment with Kevin since he is a large part of the movie, it also gives the eyes something to visually look at and makes the scene more interesting even though nothing is happening in the scene. 

In this scene, the camera pans down across Chiron’s bathroom shelf. This shows the audience a physical depiction of Chiron’s state of mind after the fight. It also shows Chiron’s home life since his bathroom is dirty and filled to the brim with pill bottles and various other bathroom supplies. This helps the audience feel more sorrow for the main character since we get a chance to see parts of him that were hidden and horrific to see. 

Camera Movement – Moonlight

The long uncut tracking shot, in the open scene of Juan arriving to assumingly sell drugs in his neighbourhood, effectively uses panning to build the world in which these characters live in, as the use of panning shows the audience a lot more of the scene in which the characters than just a single shot would.

The director, mainly throughout the first act of the scene, zooms in on the character of Chiron, I think, to convey to the audience how small and insignificant he feels in the society he lives in. The director also does the same type of zooming in on the character of Juan, which could be the director trying to convey that Chiron feels like Juan was the first ever person in his life to care and understand him and how he feels.

Shot Angles – Moonlight

The shot shown below, which is a High Shot, shows Chiron and Kevin sitting on the beach, smoking weed together. The director has chosen this shot to show to the audience the closeness of the two character’s relationship, but perhaps also to foreshadow the following scene that will take, and that they will become sexual partners.

A lot of the shots in the film, such as the one shown below, which is taken from the scene in which Chiron and Kevin fight, are shot at Eye-level. In terms of the whole film, this is done to make the audience feel like they’re part of the events and witnessing them in real life, making more the film more immersive. In this scene, I think this shot has been used to portray to the viewer how betrayed Chiron feels, as he is now getting beat up by this person who he had a deep experience with.

Shot Distance – Moonlight

The shot shown here is from the first act of the film, and it is where Chiron is being taught how to swim by the father figure in his life, Juan. The director, Barry Jenkins, has used a MCU (Medium Close Up) to immerse the viewer in the scene, and make the audience feel like they’re really there, and to perhaps make the audience feel like they’re part of this close relationship, which would help them understand it better. If this was the director’s vision, I think this has been executed very well.

ost shots of Chiron, in the first act, such as one the shown below, which is a LS (Long Shot), picture Chiron being small and vulnerable, whether that be like the example below or just showing his face through a CS (Close Up), portraying to the viewer that he feels powerless in this society.

This shot shown below, which is once again a CS (Close Up), shows once again a sense of weakness and powerlessness within the society, but this time this feeling is coming from the mother, who is addicted to drugs, and begging her son for money, which I personally think is quite a weak thing for a person to do.

Moonlight – Shot distance.

In this close shot of Juan and Chiron, you are Made to feel like you are there using a low shot angle. By seeing them and seeing the water it captures the surrounding of what it will feel like to be in the water with them in that moment.

In this medium close shot, it gives the perspective from Chiron’s mother. The close shot helps emphasise what emotions Chiron is feeling in this moment. As there isn’t much background is showing the intense and fierce conversation/ confrontation from the mother’s part.

In this long shot of Chiron’s mother. The perspective is from Chiron, this long shot helps emphasises the distance and how isolated the relationship between Chiron and his mother, and how they are not close at all as they grow up.

Shot angles –

In this scene of Chiron and Kevin, the shot angle being used is of a low shot angle. This almost makes them seen as superior and in power. It also shows the growth and how growing up as made them more inferior from any others.

In this high shot angle of Chiron laying on the ground after pretending to fight with is friend Kevin. The high shot help show the defeat that was made and to help show the tiredness and worn-out state that Chiron is in making him seem smaller and less strong to his friend.

In this almost eye level/ low shot of Chiron swimming on his own it helps capture what it would be like to be in the water with him, the use of slapping in the water it creates a sense of panic and like you have no control of the water.

Camera and lens movement-

In this scene the camera zooms in and then zoom out. Chiron’s mother backs away as the camera zooms out to show how she doesn’t care about Chiron’s feelings and to show how selfish and show how she doesn’t not act very maternal for her son.

In this scene the camera tilts down then tilt up. It starts off with the camera tilting down to show the gun in Juan’s hand and it is also a slight enigma code as we are not sure just yet who the guy is. However, when the Camera moves up, we see that it is Juan, in this scene Chiron enters his house without warning this make Juan seem paternal as he is trying to look after him and his family.

In this scene the camera pans left to right to show the anger and pace of Chiron who is about to throw the chair over a boy. The camera pans left to right to show the speed of Chiron walking and the intense moment of this scene.

Shots

BCU

This BCU of Chiron puts us in the position of Kev as Chiron gets up from his beating. It shows us Chiron’s indomitable spirit and emotional strength, able to stand up to someone who was a friend after being beaten down. We are shown his stoic expression in extreme detail, which makes the audience respect him as a character.

LS

This long shot puts us in the shoes of Chiron hiding from the group of bullies. It shows us the futility of Chiron’s situation, showing us all of the open space on school grounds, blocked off from him by one small group of people.

CU

This close up of Chiron after the bullies attacked him after forcing Kev to punch him gives the audience a sense of Chiron’s pain. It shows us the blood over his face, the cold water that makes his skin glisten in the school bathroom light. It shows us Chiron’s frustration and anguish in detail, as well as representing his loneliness by giving a close up on his face against an empty white wall. This shot also precedes the scene where Chiron breaks a chair over Tyrell’s head, and this shot gives us Chiron’s emotional motivation for his action by showing his mental state

Camera Angles

Bird’s Eye

This bird’s eye shot of Kev and Chiron on the beach shows them close together on an uneven backdrop that is the sandy floor. This gives the viewer a strong sense of friendship between the two, and the plain sand backdrop against the two looking up at the camera, breaking the 4th wall in a sense, creates a strange atmosphere, almost like a dream.

Eye Level

This eye level shot of the “Little” segments Chiron and Kev portrays a sense of comradery between the two. We get the sense that they are equals and friends.

Low Angle

This low angle shot puts us in the perspective of Chiron’s mother talking to Juan, the man who was taking care of Chiron. This shows us the height difference between the two characters, creating a power dynamic between the person who was meant to look after Chiron versus the person who actually did take care of him.

Movements

Zoom In

This zoom in to the “Little” segments Kev and Chiron gives the audience the feeling that we are getting closer to the characters emotionally. This zoom in happens during a scene where Kev is telling Chiron that he can’t let people push him around and he needs to stand up for himself. The zoom in shows us that these characters are getting closer together, and gives the audience a sense that they are prying on a private conversation between to very close friends.

Pan

This scene where “Little” Chiron is running down towards the waves and then running away when the waves come up utilises a pan to follow Chiron as he runs. It puts us in the shoes of Juan, who is teaching Chiron to swim, and invokes a parental feeling of keeping eyes on the young child, looking after him, making sure he is safe and okay. It shows us Chiron’s relationship with Juan.

Ped

The cooking scene from the “Black” segment utilises peds to follow the movement of Kev’s hands while he is cooking, showing the effort and care that goes into the making of the meal for Chiron.

SCORE OUT OF 10	MEMORABLE SCENE	FILM RESPONSE
9/10	A memorable scene for me was a young Chiron looking out onto the ocean. This seems like a tranquil place for him. The motif of water is commonly used as a reference to “rebirth” or “baptism” and in every act of the film we can see Chiron at a body of water, cleansing him of one era of his life, leading him onto another.	I absolutely loved this film. It tackled the topics of sexuality and addiction so gracefully. Usually in films that explore these topics we see a lot of unnecessary violence that hold no significance to the plot, but moonlight strategically places heart wrenching scenes to reach out to the audience. The first 2 acts take place in Miami in the 80s, when the war on drugs and AIDS epidemic was taking place. I only have one critique for this film, and it is the Beach scene with Kevin in act 2, I would have preferred it if they had only shared a kiss instead of that and a sexual act.

Here is a birds eye view showing him wash his face off with blood. It gives the audience a bigger picture of what he is doing as if it was a MCU shot we wouldn’t be able to see what he was doing at detail.

Here is a low angled shot to show that the character is looking up and admiring the speaker. As an audience we are shown to think that Juan is someone to look up to as a father figure as Little didn’t have one or any influence.

In this shot it is an MCU shot to put emphasis on the characters facial expression. It singles out the character with only his face being exposed.

Moonlight (2016)
Dir. Barry Jenkins

7/10 – I enjoyed this film and rated it relatively high because I thought it gave a great insight into the life of a boy who doesn’t really fit into his school and peers, while dealing with his mother who is a substance abuser and is not giving him a good quality of life. I like how this film does not shy away from dealing with harsh topics such as this and bullying, as well as things like struggling with sexuality and racism.

The most memorable scene for me would be when Chiron is little in the first part and is standing in the hallway with his mother. This is the most memorable for me because I really like how the scene looks – shot in first person with his mother shouting at him, though it is completely over music.

This is an MCU shot. I feel like the director chose this shot because he wanted to the show the individuality and loneliness the boy is feeling in this scene. It highlights the boys facial expression. It also shows the character as an equal to the audience as we are at eye level with him.

This is a high shot angle from the part where he is play fighting with his childhood friend. The shot makes the audience look down on the character.

This is a Mid shot where the aim of it is to make the viewer thing they are listening from afar. The effect from this shot is to make the viewer thing they are spying on the couple by being so far away indoors.

Moonlight (Jenkins,2016)

CRITICAL SCORE: 8/10 My first thought of the movie was that the story line was very interactive with the audience. I think this because they cleverly broke the 4th wall within some scenes.

Memorable Scene: the most memorable scene in my opinion was when Chiron’s mum was shouting at him for money. This scene happened when he was a teenager years after he went to see Teresa. In the seen his mum (Paula) breaks the 4th wall making it more memorable. The way she acted made this seen so emotional as you can see the hurt in Chiron’s eyes. The way her voice becomes significantly louder shows her drug problem causes immense stress and has changed her for the worse.

Scoring- 8/10 

I feel that moonlight is a beautiful and emotionally strong movie. I found myself connecting with these characters a lot and really getting attached to them throughout its runtime. the writing and interactions felt very real which helped with getting me engaged with them and their struggles. The way that the audience grows with Chiron and goes through his struggles really makes this a stan doubt coming of age type movie, where most stick with characters through one point in their lives, we follow Chiron through multiple. 

Stand out scene: 

While I feel there are multiple standout scenes in this movie, I think the one that stood out to me the most is when Chiron is getting arrested. While it isn’t really the scene, I find the most moving, it is the shot where Chiron is looking at Kevin, I find to be the most devastating. The way they were able to capture the pure sense of betrayal he must have felt in that moment really moved me.