The film starts with credits appearing on a black background accompanied by easy-listening music. After the credits, the scene fades in from black to introduce us to a close-up of a man in his late 40s to early 50s staring intently at the camera. The close-up is near enough to identify the sweat beads forming on his forehead and the scowl lines between his eyebrows – as the audience, we can tell that he is concentrating on something intensely. This might well be one of the men who stare at goats from the title. The close-up also shows his greying moustache which further supports that his age is 40+. In the background we can hear the diegetic sound of a typewriter.
The next camera shot is a mid-shot of the man sitting on his desk. At this point, we are starting to get to know him because as he sits on his desk, still concentrating on something off-screen, subtitles appear at the bottom-left hand corner, “Brigadier General Hopgood/U.S. Army Intelligence/ Fort Bragg, NC 1983” and his identity is further backed by the Army uniform he is wearing and the tanned skin also suggests work spent under the sun. The mid-shot also shows an office as the background – it has the American flag which suggests that he is a patriotic man; the certificates on his wall shows that he is an educated man; the neat desk also tells us that he is a well-organized man.
The camera shot then goes back to close-up to capture his facial expression as he speaks to a colleague off-screen. This positions the audience to feel like we can hear him better because he seems closer to us. The long shot of an office wall with frames at the very centre encourages the audience to assume that this was his object of concentration earlier and that he might steal the frames or do something with it. As he starts to stand up, the camera pulls back into a mid-shot and the camera moves with him, keeping the same distance – as if the audience is being respectable because of his rank in the army. The typewriting sound from earlier now changes into a military march-type music. He stops for a moment, giving us more idea of the office and he speeds past his colleague, whom we get a brief glimpse of, also dressed in an Army uniform. Hopgood runs head straight into the wall and this creates a diegetic sound as he bumps and falls backwards into the floor. In real-life situations, falling backwards wouldn’t create a sound as loud as that. This type of effect is used to emphasise the impact of the fall, as well as colliding with the wall.
On the floor, Hopgood is lying down and the camera shot is taken from his waist upwards at a high angle. This makes us feel like we’re looking down on him, but the high angle is low enough as if we have crouched down to his level as if to help him. The scene cuts to a black background with the text written in white, “More of this is true than you would believe.”, as if to tell the audience that although the previous scene was humorous and seems ridiculous, it is in actual fact real, at least in the universe of the film. This makes the situation even more comical.
The scene switches to an establishing shot of a house and a driveway, in which a car is approaching the house. The lighting is a soft sunlight therefore, we can tell that the scene takes place during mid-morning to noon (the subtitles on the bottom-left hand corner states that the setting is in ‘Ann Arbor, Michigan’ and it takes place in autumn 2002, therefore the lighting will be softer).
The camera switches to a different viewpoint so that the car appears to move towards the camera. The scene cuts back to the original establishing shot and a man then gets out of the car, donning a light, trench coat – this then becomes a long shot since a person appears in it. During this scene, a non-diegetic sound is produced – the man starts a narrative about his life and how he got into the situation he currently is in now, giving the audience a backstory.
When the scene changes to the interior of the house, he starts to give the backstory about his interviewee. It starts off with a close-up of a man holding a VHS tape and we see the interviewee’s face as the camera zooms out from the close-up. The camera pans to the right, bringing in the main character in to the shot, making it into a two-shot. Both characters are sitting at a table but are at the edges of the frame, this suggests an established distance between them even though they have just met. They both have an over-the-shoulder shot in an unconventional way – in most films, an over the shoulder shot is capturing the character who is speaking. In this film, instead of capturing the one speaking, it does the opposite; it captures the other party’s reaction to the dialogue. The scene then goes back to the two shot and it becomes a group shot when the interviewee’s mother starts to serve tea between them.
Screenshots
Close-up shot of Hopgood staring intently at the camera, clearing concentrating on something off-screen. Shot is also shallow focus; this creates an effect that that could signify that his concentration is sharp and that he is very focussed.
Mid-shot of Hopgood sitting at his desk, with his fingers interlocked and pulling the same expression he had with the close-up earlier. We get to know more about him here – we can now tell that he belongs in the Army and is American judging by the uniform he’s donning and the American flag at his right hand side. The subtitles indicate these too.
Hopgood’s POV shot – the other side of his desk. This shot displays a few frames hanging onto a wall, one of them containing the map of America, which again suggests that he is a patriotic person. The frames are dead centre on the wall; we assume that it is these things Hopgood was staring at intently.
Mid-shot of Hopgood standing up, still looking at the wall with the same expression in his close-up and the other mid-shot. He takes his position as he gets ready to run.
Another mid-shot of Hopgood, this time, with his face planted on to the wall. Initially, as the audience, we assume that he was going for the door – but as the story progresses, we learn that in fact, he wanted to walk through the wall.
High angle shot of Hopgood on the floor, having been defeated by the wall. His closed eyes imply that the force of his collision was painful.
Text against a black background to tell the audience that despite the previous scene being comical, it is actually real and occur frequently.
Establishing shot of the next location shows a friendly neighbourhood with a good-sized house as the main focus since it is in the middle and is caught by our eyes immediately.
Close-up of interviewee’s VHS tape. Shows that the VHS tape is instructional and starring himself.
Over-the-shoulder shot facing the interviewee, purpose of shot is to capture his reactions to what the main character is saying.
Over-the-shoulder shot facing the main character, purpose of shot is to capture his reactions to what the interviewee is saying.
Two-shot turned into a group shot when the interviewee’s mother appears with tea.
We could:
1. Start with close up and pull back rather than other way round as is more usual for establishing
2. Film conversation between sisters from slightly unusualangles to show mise-en-scene
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