Captain fantastic:Opening Ritual
Captain Fantastic uses invisible editing throughout most of the film , focusing on it's narrative and ideology. It encourages active spectatorship in the way that it challenges your own belief system as well as inferring which characters you feel are sympathetic. Although the active spectatorship directly relates to the individual and their own systems of belief and ideologies, the film adheres to passive spectatorship for a large chunk of the film, using elements like music and lighting to manipulate the audiences feelings.
The film opens in quite unusual way in contrast to the rest of the movie. It functions in preparing you for your allegiance to be challenged as the film progresses and essentially presents the main characters at their worst : primitive and violent outsiders. This is quite risky as the characters have to subsequently earn your allegiance, however as a counterargument our opinions can only ameliorate from this point onwards.
The scene opens with diegetic noise from the wilderness: birds chirping and water running before we see anything. Then followed by an establishing long shot of the idyllic landscape which is essentially the very core of what the film is built on. These beautiful shots continue using bright warm toned lighting. Additionally it allows light into the lens, alluding to the film presenting things unrefined and how they are which ties in with Ben and his parenting style preferences.
A deer enters the scene who, although very briefly, we become aligned with through use of hand held camera, extreme close-ups and dolly-panning it's search for some food. Our first glimpse of humanity is seen as a menace. We catch a glimpse of someone camouflaged in a bush and as the deer notices, the threat closes his eyes and conceals seamlessly. After a few more shots of following the innocent dear and the diegetic noises of the relaxing forest sounds, our predator strikes. The editing is very fast-paced at this particular bit and is shot with an extremely shaky hand-held camera to give off a very disorientated effect. The deer lets out a diegetic painful wail which is followed by a series of close-ups such as the boy slicing the deers throat open, his bicep whilst the power-struggle unfolds. Additionally a hasty yet still rather sinister close-up of the boys face smothered in black paint. We see the deers neck slump back and the pair fall to the ground. We see a blood-covered hand gripping a blood-covered knife relax as the encounter comes to a close. As he stands up and composes himself it cuts to an extreme close-up of the dying deers eyes. I personally felt this shot was included to really pull on the heart-strings of the audience and present these characters in the depths of the downside to their way of life.
At this point we have transitioned from being aligned with the innocent deer to be aligned with its predator. In this close-up, everything but Bo is in focus as he takes a reflective sigh. It is important to take into account he doesn't look triumphant or exhilarated, ensuring although the sequence presented him as violent and daunting it isn't as straightforward as initially presumed. The blurry figures in the background begin to move as the shot switches to more camouflaged figures emerging. Children of all ages come to join the boy, with one of the youngest displayed in a hat made from some kind of wild cat. At this point, the audience can assume anything about these characters and how the film could develop- they're a pack of satan-worshipping i living in the woods or perhaps there's a deadly virus spreading around the world and they're the last of the survivors. They pass and a shot of their presumed leader stops and watches a moment.
As this sequence progresses, it gets darker. There is a father-son bonding moment that isn't quite a friendly game of football out the back garden...
Shot through over-the-shoulder shots with the diegetic jungle noises and the background blurred, Ben delivers dialogue : "today the boy is dead, and in his place is a man" whilst smearing blood down his face. Bo and Ben are framed very close together presenting their close relationship. The camera lingers on Bo for a second as he smiles a little, before cutting to the youngest girl with her home-made skinned cat hat. It soon transitions from slightly unsettling and weird to stomach - churning and unpalatable as the boy takes the deers fresh warm heart from his fathers hand, and takes a bite out of the raw organ. The father, holding a bloody knife slowly raises his hands and lowers them again, parading his boy. As his hands lower the title "Captain Fantastic" appears on the screen whilst two non-diegetic drone eerie notes play. The mood is immediately lifted in the next cut with the family washing the black camouflage pain off; and with that the dark and sinister impression that was just created. In the next cut, the non-diegetic music continues yet it has changed from a minor key to a major key, inferring to the audience that this is a happy scene. To match the music and the mood, Ben splashes around in the river playing with his kids.
This scene is important as it is our first introduction to our main characters. We experience this through Ben's "becoming a man" ritual which goes on to become quite important and even represents a large element of the film's narrative and ideology of how the children are raised and it begs the question of to what extent has Bo actually become a man?...
A deer enters the scene who, although very briefly, we become aligned with through use of hand held camera, extreme close-ups and dolly-panning it's search for some food. Our first glimpse of humanity is seen as a menace. We catch a glimpse of someone camouflaged in a bush and as the deer notices, the threat closes his eyes and conceals seamlessly. After a few more shots of following the innocent dear and the diegetic noises of the relaxing forest sounds, our predator strikes. The editing is very fast-paced at this particular bit and is shot with an extremely shaky hand-held camera to give off a very disorientated effect. The deer lets out a diegetic painful wail which is followed by a series of close-ups such as the boy slicing the deers throat open, his bicep whilst the power-struggle unfolds. Additionally a hasty yet still rather sinister close-up of the boys face smothered in black paint. We see the deers neck slump back and the pair fall to the ground. We see a blood-covered hand gripping a blood-covered knife relax as the encounter comes to a close. As he stands up and composes himself it cuts to an extreme close-up of the dying deers eyes. I personally felt this shot was included to really pull on the heart-strings of the audience and present these characters in the depths of the downside to their way of life.
At this point we have transitioned from being aligned with the innocent deer to be aligned with its predator. In this close-up, everything but Bo is in focus as he takes a reflective sigh. It is important to take into account he doesn't look triumphant or exhilarated, ensuring although the sequence presented him as violent and daunting it isn't as straightforward as initially presumed. The blurry figures in the background begin to move as the shot switches to more camouflaged figures emerging. Children of all ages come to join the boy, with one of the youngest displayed in a hat made from some kind of wild cat. At this point, the audience can assume anything about these characters and how the film could develop- they're a pack of satan-worshipping i living in the woods or perhaps there's a deadly virus spreading around the world and they're the last of the survivors. They pass and a shot of their presumed leader stops and watches a moment.
As this sequence progresses, it gets darker. There is a father-son bonding moment that isn't quite a friendly game of football out the back garden...
Shot through over-the-shoulder shots with the diegetic jungle noises and the background blurred, Ben delivers dialogue : "today the boy is dead, and in his place is a man" whilst smearing blood down his face. Bo and Ben are framed very close together presenting their close relationship. The camera lingers on Bo for a second as he smiles a little, before cutting to the youngest girl with her home-made skinned cat hat. It soon transitions from slightly unsettling and weird to stomach - churning and unpalatable as the boy takes the deers fresh warm heart from his fathers hand, and takes a bite out of the raw organ. The father, holding a bloody knife slowly raises his hands and lowers them again, parading his boy. As his hands lower the title "Captain Fantastic" appears on the screen whilst two non-diegetic drone eerie notes play. The mood is immediately lifted in the next cut with the family washing the black camouflage pain off; and with that the dark and sinister impression that was just created. In the next cut, the non-diegetic music continues yet it has changed from a minor key to a major key, inferring to the audience that this is a happy scene. To match the music and the mood, Ben splashes around in the river playing with his kids.
This scene is important as it is our first introduction to our main characters. We experience this through Ben's "becoming a man" ritual which goes on to become quite important and even represents a large element of the film's narrative and ideology of how the children are raised and it begs the question of to what extent has Bo actually become a man?...
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