ENGRD101.01. Fall 2023. Emory University
I recreated a scene from one of my favorite movies, When Harry Met Sally. I thought that this would be very easy to recreate, but positioning my body and the props was actually pretty difficult… even when I did a side by side comparison multiple times before the actual shot. Looking back on this picture, the poster above my head and Sally’s comforter are actually very similar, so if I could reshoot this, I would take down my poster and use it as the blanket.
I chose to replicate a moment from the film Talk to Me. I made this scene in the library with the help of a friend who played the “hand” that possessed the characters in the film. I recently watched this film with my friends, and it was by far the worst film I’d ever seen, so I decided to recreate it. I couldn’t catch the background or the candle because I was limited with my resources, but I did want the attention to be on the hand because it was the whole purpose of the film.
This scene is from Dead Poet’s Society. I decided to recreate this scene after I found inspiration surfing through the internet and it seemed relatively easy. However, my wardrobe options were very limited and I had to borrow the blazer from a friend. Additionally, getting the setting right was hard but I tried my best in my dorm room. After taking the picture, I forgot to copy the hand positions and facial expressions, but overall I was happy on the product considering my limiting materials.
While I was initially fretting about which movie scene to choose, I noticed a green dress in my friend’s closet. The green dress immediately reminded me of the heroine in the movie Atonement. I was fascinated by its tragedy when I first watched this movie. In the recreation of the iconic scene from “Atonement,” where the character Cecilia sits on the edge of a fountain at night, contemplating deeply, the essence is captured through meticulous attention to mood and setting. I chose the steps near White Hall that is surrounded by trees to replicate the dim environment. The moonlight and lighting in the recreation, with a soft glow in the backdrop and a night setting, helps replicate the dramatic and moody atmosphere of the film’s scene. I really love this assignment because it relates movie scenes with our daily life.
I decided to recreate one of the most iconic scenes in film history — Rose and Jack’s sunset scene from Titanic (1997).
The Original:
My Recreation (ft. my Roommate):
Coming into the project, I hadn’t thought much about some of the smaller details that go into making an image. However, it was only after comparing my photo to the one taken from the movie that I began realizing the small things that made a big impact on the final product. For example, the intentional choices in camera angles, distance, and centering made the original photo much more emotionally expressive in ways that are difficult to put into words. Having mastery over this concept is, i’ve realized, what makes the best movie directors stand out from the rest.
I decided to recreate the Titanic because it was one of the first movie scenes I thought of. I thought it was a movie scene that everyone would be able to recognize, and that it would be generally easy to recreate. The balcony at the student center reminded me of the setting of the movie, especially at sunset. The railing is similar to the railing that was on the boat. I had one of my teammates help me reenact the scene; she was Rose and I was Jack due to our height differences. Our outfits are different from the ones that the characters wore in the movie due to the fact that neither of us have old-fashioned clothes like the ones that they are wearing. Overall, I think I made a good recreation of this scene and I feel as though everyone would know what scene we are recreating based on my photo.
I chose to recreate an image from Baby Driver because it seemed manageable and I recently watched it again. My friend has a car on campus and I used my own sunglasses and earbuds. I tried finding another pair of sunglasses that were all black but was unable to. This assignment made me realize how difficult being an actor is. I attempted doing the same facial expression depicted in the image, but with the sunglasses, I realized how hard it can be to convey emotions effectively.
I decided to recreate a scene from The Big Short which is one of my all-time favorite movies. This scene was very feasible to recreate since I had similar clothing, notebooks to scatter around my dorm, and a desk to include. However, when trying to capture the scene I encountered some challenges as I had to set my phone up on a timer which was balancing on a stack of books on my bed. Additionally, due to the phone being on a timer, I struggled to position both of my hands accurately in the scene due to the rush of lying down and getting into position. I enjoyed this activity as I had to be very resourceful and creative about what scene I chose with the materials available to me.
The moment I saw this assignment, I knew exactly what scene to recreate and how I was going to recreate it. The high school musical during my senior year was Mamma Mia! where I was fortunate to play the role of Tanya. The costumers were incredibly generous and allowed me to keep the white jumpsuit I wore when we performed the show’s finale: “Waterloo”. I brought it to school with me thinking of it as nothing more than a Halloween costume, but I was excited to find potential other uses for it, including this assignment.
The only obstacle I faced through this assignment was what to use as my microphone in the recreation. I ultimately decided to use a bottle of dry shampoo, mainly because it was white and matched my costume. I then photoshopped the recreated image onto a sparkly silver background and put it side-by-side with the original scene.
This has definitely been one of my favorite assignments by far, and I loved being able to revisit one of my favorite movie musicals!
