In My Father's Den Film Analysis

Brad McGann was a very difficult and complex director to understand. His film (In my father’s Den) used unique cinematography, sounds, music and narrative structure that sparked the atmosphere through most of his movie. McGann’s style was to use complex narrative structure and convincing cinematography which would capture the emotion the actors portray into their characters. Everything he did in this movie was done to perfection. He is most noticed for using using vasts amounts of handheld camera action and extensive and heavy editing.

Element one - Cinematography

McGann’s use of handheld camera was a convincing cinematography technique used throughout the film. McGann decided to incorporate this into the film so he can show the emotion illuminating from the individual characters. The Birthday scene set in the middle of the film was one of the many scenes that …show more content…
A perfect example of this are the multiple flashbacks in the birthday scene. Throughout this scene, we cut from Paul, who thinks about Celia’s disappearance, to Celia and Paul celebrating Paul’s birthday and finally, to Paul and Jackie’s teenage years. Paul can be seen in a close up in the bathtub, until it cuts to a long shot of Paul and Celia celebrating Paul’s birthday in the orchard. This is one of the many important transitions/flashbacks in this scene. It forces the audience to think about Celia and why she is missing. The next transition takes place during a close up of Paul playing a song to Celia and discussing what Jackie’s dreams were as a teenager and then transitions to young Jackie lip syncing to the same song Paul and Celia were listening to. This forces the audience to witness Paul’s past as he relives it. These sudden cuts leaves the audience with a sense of mystery and questions the audience what do they really know about these