Talking about shot duration in class today reminded my of the film clip/shot analysis I had to do for 245. I chose to look at a (4 ½ minute) clip from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. In this clip Joel (Jim Carey) has a conversation with his neighbor, goes into his apartment, puts on pajamas and takes a pill from Lacuna Inc., the company that is going to be erasing his memory. The two men who are going to erase his memory (Elijah Wood and Mark Ruffalo) enter after Joel has fallen asleep in his kitchen, and they move him to his bed. Joel then begins to relive memories of his ex-girlfriend, Clementine (Kate Winslet) from the most recent to the oldest.

I took a leaf out of Dr. C’s book and made a spreadsheet:

 Film Shot Chart

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The events leading up to the string of one second shots are Joel’s conversation with his neighbor, Frank, about his ex-girlfriend (although this is unknown to Frank). Joel then leaves Frank to go to his apartment where we have the string on one second shots: Joel opening bag containing pajamas, Joel putting on pajama pants, Joel putting on pajama top, buttons pajama shirt, rummages through paper bag, removes pill bottle from bag, fills glass of water, opens bottle and puts pill in hand, Joel takes pill. The next shot that follows is the longest one that we’ve had yet: 17 seconds. Following the rapid-fire single-second shots, this is a break for us to catch our breath.

The rest of the shots vary in length, but seem to have similar patterns: one long shot followed by shorter shorts. The longest short (21 seconds) takes place almost in the middle of this sequence of shots, and that is the shot that contains Joel’s first re-encountered memory (relevant, for my paper, not for this blog)