Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (c) IV

0 comments | By Tom O'Brien on 03:13
PART 4:
    -Sound / Music

Sound is what we hear throughout the titles, and music is a medium of sound.

This is the music for the opening titles



The title sequence of this film is guided by it's music. Throughout the titles the dynamics of the music (pitch, tempo, style) change dramatically. Two noticable examples of this are:
  •  The bouncing red ball at the first segment, the music is orchestral trumpets, the notes being played staccato (distinguished and abrupt). This compliments the events on screen, as the ball is bouncing, and the music seems to have the same bouncing feel.
  • The contrast of the violins to the trumpets, the violins playing far more smoothly and giving the feeling of gliding, grazioso (gracefully) often when the paper plane is on screen.
The music of this title sequence is completely orchestral, predominantly brass and strings, each of which are used to contrast each other, and to contrast what is being shown. Each event on the screen is complimented by the background music, when upon reaching the segment containing the title, the music reaches its climax (18 seconds in), emphasising the importance of what the audience is seeing.

The two examples distinguish how the director has thought of every minor detail, so much as to syncronise the bouncing of the red ball with the strikes of the trumpet, and the plane with the violins. This causes the viewers to somewhat forget that what they are seeing and hearing are two different thing, but instead to feel as though they are actually in a world where flying planes are powered by violins. The repetition of the two main styles of the music, staccato and grazioso, causes the different segments, however random they may be, to feel connected somehow. The director has done this to allow the audience to follow each segment and understand what is happening in each, along with individual sound effects being overlaid to point out the important aspects of each segment, e.g. the bouncing red ball landing on the trumpet valves, with each impact having its own emphasised non-diegetic sound.


This is effective, as in many titles that do not include dialogue, it is easy to lose focus or get lost in the chaos on screen, though this is not the case here. We are shown each cast / crew member's name, but we do not lose the momentum that is sustained in the music and sound. The audience is captivated, the music placing them into a trance, so to speak, where they are completely focussed on the action on the screen, whilst still being able to acknowledge the cast / crew names.

Music is a key element throughout the film, with Molly Mahoney being a composer. The soundtrack consists mainly of orchestral music, similar to this title sequence, with the same contrast of staccato and grazioso dynamics, used to connect each of the music pieces together. This links the film together without detracting from the plot.
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Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (c) III

0 comments | By Tom O'Brien on 02:29
PART 3:

    -Colour

Colour is the visual perception of something when our eye looks at it, and in Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium, there is an extremely large amount of it. The screen is often full of colours of all kinds, usually bright, pastel colours, with many recurring patterns and styles, like zebra print. Examples of this are:
  • A simple plain red ball surrounded by black starts the titles, which then unfolds into the rest of the titles, which shows that things are not always as they appear, how a little ball can be so much more. This idea is referenced to later in the film, where Molly Mahoney is given a block of wood, but beneath its plain exterior, it is magical and recovers Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium back to it's original state after it throws a "temper tantrum"
  •  Black and white zebra print, surrounded by colour, contrasting that as things may in fact be black and white, with imagination it can be anything, which is shown when Henry Weston, an accountant, first encounters the toy shop, he calls it "just a toy store", whereas later in he realises that it actually is magical.
 

The ideas above are effective in the way that they take such a simple component of a title sequence, colour, but put meaning behind it. The way that the director has included such a broad use of colour allows the audience to relate to one of the main themes within the film, adults overcoming the expectations of them and being able to relate to their "inner child", by showing such a spectrum of colour and allowing older viewers to remenisce on childhood where they were "allowed" to have such an imagination, and not be expected to be the mature authoritave figure for once. 

I believe that the director has used this not only to appeal to the younger audience, by making it appear magical, but to allow the parents or older viewers to have the same feeling of involvement, like they are a part of the whole magical atmosphere, and allow them to get an understanding of the following film. Many other films will design their content on one target audience, e.g. adult, or youth, but in providing such a variety of colour and style, these titles have the opportunity to appeal to a much broader range of viewers.

Many other Family Fantasy genre films will involve bright rich colours, e.g. Nanny McPhee, but these movies seem to stick to a more defined pallette, in Nanny McPhee's case, darker toned earthly colours, dark blues, greens, browns, etc. But in MMWE, there seems to be no limit to the colours used. This may contribute to the movie's success and appeal toward audiences of all ages.


 In Helm's film, Stranger than Fiction, we are shown a colour pallette very different to MMWE, using realistic colours to create the sense of reality, natural colours, which contrasts to MMWE, where the aim was to make it as unrealistic as possible, to add to the magical feel of the film.
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Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (c) II

0 comments | By Tom O'Brien on 00:53
PART 2:
    -Camera Movement / Transitions

Camera Movement is the path that the camera takes or the way it transforms itself to change the shot, and Transitions are the way that two scenes are connected.

As briefly mentioned in the previous post, the titles of this amazing film are separated into segments, each lasting around 6 seconds. Each of these contain no camera movement, until the transition, where the following segment is brought to the screen via something related to the previous.
E.g. 
  • The first segment is of a red bouncing ball, which, once it has stopped moving, turns into the transition to the next segment, with the camera zooming in, with the ball now suddenly containing the contents of the next segment
  • The end of the fourth segment is a purple block travelling down a conveyor belt, and once more blocks start to appear, the screen is covered, and is the basis of the fifth segment. The fifth segment ends by the coloured blocks returning from where they came, and revealing a new part of the title.
The idea that each segment is made from the last, shows that everything is linked, and everything has a purpose, which is a theme within the film. The constant changing of the screen creates momentum and excitement, and each segment and transition being uniquely different creates the feeling that the titles are special, magical so to speak, which engulfs the audience in the magical atmosphere which is prominent throughout the film, before the film has even begun.


The second example shows the idea of the scene being formed in front of our eyes, and I believe that this is extremely effective, and that director did this deliberately. The reason that I believe this is so effective is that, as an audience, it can sometimes feel as if "we are doing all of the work", constantly attempting to keep up with everything being shown to us, but in this title sequence, each segment is deconstructed and reconstructed for us, as if we aren't watching it, we are being presented it. The following picture is an animated example of one of these transitions. To view it, please click on it.


This style of transition is different to Helm’s other work, with Stranger than Fiction having very sharp cuts, as opposed to the very smooth, fluid transitions that we are shown in MMWE. I believe this is due to the genre of the two films. Stranger than Fiction is a fantasy like MMWE, but not aimed for children, whereas one of the main audiences for MMWE is families and youth.

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Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (c) I

0 comments | By Tom O'Brien on 00:16
Part 1:
     -Mis-en-scene

Mis-en-scene is defined as all that the director places on screen, e.g. the actors, props, setting, costume, etc. Two examples of this from the titles of Mr Magorium’s Wonder Emporium (MMWE) are the shots hosting the names of Dustin Hoffman, and Natalie Portman.




The shot of Natalie Portman’s name shows a piano, metronome, and music notes, all relating to Portman’s character, Molly Mahoney, a composer, and manager of MMWE. This is giving us audience insight to Portman’s character, without revealing any surprises or important events in the film. The piano keys are crooked and uneven, which represents how Molly Mahoney is stuck musically, unable to finish writing a piece of music, and that nothing in her life is fitting into place, along with the arm on the right hand side constantly trying to grasp hold of the notes flying around, showing that she just cannot grasp the idea for her composition.


Dustin Hoffman plays Mr Magorium, the peculiar yet brilliant owner of MMWE. We are shown an array of objects, seemingly unrelated, but which actually describe Hoffman's character perfectly, an eccentric genius, while also referencing to recurring motif's in the titles, e.g. the red ball and paper plane, which will be explored later. Mr Magorium is extremely random, often saying things out of the blue, such as:
“Mr Magorium: Why are you lying?
Molly Mahoney: I have to.
Mr Magorium: But your pants will catch on fire...”
But his part of the title sequence indicates this to us, and also lets us know that this random nature he has is also a stroke of genius.
Each of these examples give us insight to the main characters of MMWE, and allow the audience to have a brief understanding of their backgrounds and personalities. This is repeated throughout the title sequence, as it is separated into segments, each of which represents a character, or key event in the film, giving us a general understanding of plot before the film has begun. By giving us minor visual clues toward characters, the director would now have to spend less time on establishing the characters personalities for the audience within the actual film.

The director, Zach Helm, placed into the title sequence two recurring images; a red ball and a flying paper plane. Each of these symbols have a meaning to the film, themes, characters, plot, etc.

  • The red ball, often seen bouncing around screen, symbolises the ups-and-downs of life, and that once you hit the bottom, it can be so easy to bounce back up. This is relevant to the film, as Mahoney often feels down about her writer’s block, but toward the end of the film, her emotions lift and is happy again. It also relates to events in the film, such as a giant red dodge ball appearing and almost squashing a child.
  • The paper plane flies through the scenes, symbolising the journey that we must take in life to find our inner child, a key theme in this movie, and also represents Mr Magorium’s “departure” at the end of the movie. The plane flying through the titles represents his life, and at the end when it lands, shows that all journeys must eventually come to an end.
Helm wrote another film, Stranger than Fiction, which uses very similar mis-en-scene to give an understanding of the main character and his background. He uses visual representations of Harold Crick’s, the protagonist, obsessive nature, shown below, him counting his brush strokes. This is quite similar to the style used in MMWE, although Stranger than Fiction just focuses on references to the character, rather than character, plot and themes, like MMWE.

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