Groundhog Day deals with the same day repeating itself over and over again and the protagonists struggle in trying to resolve the issue. The idea of a time-loop was one that was proposed by one of the members of my group initially, influenced by this film. It comfortably fits into the theme of magical realism because it is set in a realistic setting and the magic is incorporated into the film as something that character experiences themselves. Between my group we decided to individually cover at least a couple of films and share ideas with each other about what we had managed to discover from our case studies, allowing us to compare and contrast. Through studying the film I aim to gather an understanding of how a time-loop is convincingly portrayed in film and if Groundhog Day could give me any ideas regarding how to condense an infinite amount of time into five minutes of footage. I anticipate also that studying this will help me to contribute to group discussions about more intricate details of the plot structure and events that could take place in our own film, and more importantly it demonstrates to me how somebody may react to this particular situation to help with our own characterisation.
The above are stills from the film:
1st, 2nd and 3rd frames: The first frame makes the scene look ordinary through the verisimilitude created by the typical mise-en-scene. At this point in the clip there is no reason to detect that anything is wrong, relating the film back to the magical realism genre. The clock is framed in the middle of the shot and all is in view to suggest that there is nothing to be worried about yet, though the audience begins to get hints of the mystery from the song that is being played again at the same time. To maintain the steady atmosphere the camera sweeps fluidly to the second frame, this contrasts to the quick editing that is used later when the character is aware of the situation. It is only when the third frame is shown that the character begins to question "why the hell" is the same radio broadcast being played again. As his suspicions are juxtaposed with the frame of him washing his face, it infers that something disruptive and out of the ordinary will be happening.
4th frame: This close up is shown when a new repetition of the day is acknowledged. As it fills the whole of the frame it is more threatening to the character who is becoming weary. The music accompanying the shot is done with string instruments and is piercing which helps the audience to sympathise.
5th frame: It is due to this weariness that the character believes he can do any action and will not have to suffer the consequence: he punches an old school college who the audience has seen to be irritable, an action that also personifies the futility of his situation. The facial expressions, louder speech and quickening of the editing portray the tensions between the two, and the setting on the road with cars behind emphasises the potential danger the old friend could face.
6th frame: The character goes through several suicidal attempts in order to try and stop the repetitions. The high angle shot helps to promote fear, though at the same time empowers the character as he is shown to be in control to a certain extent and looking down on everything below him. His fall is captured in a tracking shot and both the slow motion and the music promote gracefulness; the director would have done this to then contrast it with the character abruptly throwing himself in front of a bus which mirrors the futility he feels.
The research has been helpful in order to show how the time repetition can be shown as the shot of the time is repeated and creates a message alongside it. Also throughout, the character goes through different emotions regarding the situation, however I feel that my group's short film we may not have time to explore this: a juxtaposition is shown between the monotony of the time and how this increases the frustration of the character. Examples of the quick editing have helped me to understand how my group could try and use montages and short sequences to show the passing of time efficiently. The character in Groundhog Day feels isolated and misunderstood and this shows how we may want to portray our own protagonist as well.
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