Mindlessly in the Clouds

  

The article "Assembling the Shots" by Dick discusses a variety of tactics, such as rhythm and space, that a filmmaker has the ability to incorporate into their film. A film that applies these two tactics that Dick states in his article is Charlie St. Cloud.

This film is focused around a 19-year-old boy, Charlie St. Cloud, who loses his 10-year-old brother, Sam St. Cloud, in a tragic car accident just months before he intends to begin college. The filmmaker displays Charlie to the audience as frozen in time after the death of Sam. Charlie is unable to leave Massachusetts because of a promise he made to Sam to play baseball with him everyday at sunset no matter what. Due to that promise the film occurs in present day and in the mind of Charlie.

The beginning scenes of the film display Dick’s claim about rhythm, and a great film has no uniformity within its rhythm (81). This film portrays just that, for instance, the opening scene of the movie is shot over the ocean at an accelerated pace, the camera then pans over to Charlie and Sam on their sailboat competing in a sailing competition at the same pace. The speed of the movie continues at that accelerated pace until the competition ends. This scene works to support Dick’s claim how the variant speeds of scenes produce a rapid or slow rhythm for the film. The use of rapid rhythm causes an effect of suspension with the audience, wondering what is going to occur next. 

Towards the second half of the movie, the filmmaker incorporates space. He does this by introducing Tess into the storyline and into Charlie’s life. Tess is another sailor whose next excursion is to sail the world. A week prior to leaving, she attempts to sail the seas through a treacherous storm, despite being advised against it, and gets lost at sea. Because Charlie is stuck on the idea that he needs to be apart of Sam's world, he neglects to realize that in order to save Tess he must leave the comfort of Sam's world. Once Charlie comes to the realization that the time he spent with Tess was not a reality, he then makes the decision to leave Sam's world to save Tess. What the filmmaker depicts here is Dick's tactic of space.

Dick states that space is having the ability to correlate two events occurring at the same time, but in different places coherently as one (82). This occurs because Charlie thinks and believes that he has encountered Tess in present day, but he actually only sees her in his mind. Tess then attempts to lead Charlie back to reality to find her lost at sea.

The two tactics of rhythm and space within this film have the ability to create what Dick discusses as the continuity editing. Although they are only two elements, they have the ability to impact the viewer's perception.