Y Tu Mama Tambien - Grade: A PDF

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An in-depth analysis of the film "Y Tu Mama Tambien"....

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Y Tu Mama Tambien Adam Martin COM3417

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This reflection will be analyzing two scenes from Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001) and explain the concepts behind editing choices and sound design. Editing as defined in Movies and Meaning by Stephen Prince is the work of ‘joining’ shots to assemble the finished film. As film technology began to evolve filmmakers would delve into Sound in the film as well, which often gives off just as much information, if not more than visuals. Information like where the characters are, where they’re from and what they are standing on.

The first scene is about 30 minutes into the film these two young men Tenoch and Julio are with an older woman, Luisa, in a car on the start of a road trip. The sound that the audience hears is the radio of the car, meaning this is also what the characters are listening to. This can serve to immerse the audience further in the film making them feel as if they are in the backseat of that car overhearing the conversation.

The camera cuts between characters as they are having a discussion as the radio continues to play in the background layered by the sounds of wind. The radio serves as a railway track, keeping the tempo of the conversation in the film even giving brief pauses that are narratively justified. This also serves as an awareness that the audience is only allowed to hear our characters speak, and the surrounding world of the camera. Meaning if the camera is far away from our characters, then we will hear their discussion but not the radio playing next to them.

Another element of the film’s sound design is the fact that when the scene calls for paying attention or highlighting the importance of what just happened, the filmmaker usually cuts all sound away from the surrounding characters and only allows narration to be heard. The

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filmmaker used this tool in abundance throughout the film when highlighting something of importance or signaling a scene change. This can potentially break away the immersion the audience was building towards in that scene but allows the attention that comes with the sudden cut to sound to be followed by an important narration by the main character.

The second scene in this film that this reflection will be analyzing is about 38 minutes in the film. Tenoch and Julio are speaking in private about what they think their girlfriends can be doing. The dialogue includes one of the characters walking from the room, into the bathroom and back out. The filmmaker uses the silence of being in a room as the backdrop for this scene and layers things like bed squeaks and toilet lid shuts. Even editing in the sound of the character urinating is as close as the filmmaker intended the audience to be.

This brings in the audience again, establishing the same sense of raw-ness that the film routinely utilizes in other scenes. The information that the filmmaker is giving you in how the camera doesn’t cut in this case, as the room is so small a simple pan captures the entire space. It paints a bigger picture as to how close these characters and how bad of a place they are in....