Movie Thirteen - How does the director use film elements in order to shape our moral judgments PDF

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How does the director use film elements in order to shape our moral judgments of characters? Pick one character and one film element and explore it in the film...

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1. How does the director use film elements in order to shape our moral judgments of characters? Pick one character and one film element and explore it in the film (See Yale, Spadoni, Corrigan etc. readings – for example: props in the scene, costumes, actors, sounds, lighting, music, camera angle etc.) The costume is one of the film elements that can be used by the director to influence our moral judgments of characters. According to Corrigan (2010), costumes provide an audience with the key to a character’s identity. In the film Thirteen, the director using changing appearance to portray the different stages of Tracy. Tracy and Evie's friendship is defined through clothing. Tracy begins the film in childish pastels and appliqued jeans. At this time, she is a poet, makes good grades at school. After being teased for her "Cabbage Patch" clothes, she changes the way she dresses and gets her mother to purchase trendier clothes. Tracy quickly transitions from simple hoodies and backpacks to wear a waistcoat and layered vest as tops, low rise jeans with thong underwear, after being friends with Evie. The way her and Evie's outfits coordinate signifies the power of their friendship. They begin by complementing one another's accessories and dress alike with sexualized clothes. The graduating costume changes through those scenes portrays Tracy from a good girl to a bad girl. 2. Why did the director end the movie with that scene? (Describe the scene and what you think is the meaning). The director ends the scene with Tracy weeps in Melanie’s arms and attempt to fight against her on the floor while her mother is kissing her scars. Tracy’s mother holds her on the bed and refuses to let her go and they two fall asleep together on the bed. Finally, when Tracy notices her mother’s hands are worn out by the hair dye and she holds her hands instead. It displays her forgiveness and love for her mother. The last scene shows the complex feelings of two generations, love, and hate. 3. What do you think the mother should do next? (use readings to help you with intervention} In the movie, the lack of an environment that builds Tracy’s stress coping mechanisms leads to her adopting self-cutting behaviors to relieve stress whenever she faces a conflict. Also, the failure in interpersonal communication between her family and her deprives her of the avenue to express her fears and desire for her fathers’ love to a confidant. As a mother, Mel should learn how to effectively communicate with Tracy, to become an active listener with non-judgmental thoughts. She also needs to collaborate with Tracy’s father to take more accountability to help them to deal with the financial crisis such as paying bills and spending more time with the kids....