Never Been Kissed

The 1999 Film "Never Been Kissed" stars Drew Barrymore and David Arquette. In this movie, Drew plays a character named Josie Geller. She writes for a newspaper and is sent undercover to a high school to find a story. Her first undercover project proves to be a project in discovering herself as she relives her high school experience the way she wished it would have went the first time. This time she is popular and gets into the "in" crowd, with the help of her brother Rob, played by David Arquette. In the mean time, she falls for her English professor, Sam Coulson. The feelings are reciprocated; however it is impossible for the two to be together because of what appears to be an age difference, although none really exists. Her dilemma: to tell him that she's not in high school and risk blowing her cover, or hide her feelings and lose her chance at true love.

The final scene can be viewed on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zdhJvs22k8 . In this scene, she has written an article in the paper confessing her love for Sam and that if he feels the same, he should meet her at the baseball game. She will stand on the pitcher's mound and wait for him.

During this scene, various theatrical elements are used by the production team to deliver the message in its entirety. There is very little dialogue, yet the message is strong and gets the audience’s hearts racing. There is little natural sound. Most of the applause is put in after the shooting, as well as the music. The audio elements are very important in relaying what the character is feeling. It stimulates the audience and gets the viewers to feel what the character is feeling without the character saying any words. The camera pans around the stadium and zooms, along with many other shooting techniques. All of these give the audience a better appreciation of the scene, giving the viewer the impression of actually being there. However, there is a significant amount of the scene that is not true to reality. The audience looks fake in the background during one portion of the scene. Different elements like these lessen the sense of realism. This might be what the director is aiming at, however. He could have been trying to show the reader that the kiss was more like a dream and less like reality, and uses the theatrical elements to portray this message.

For assignment #4, I hope to analyze the scene to understand how the elements of sound, light, and camera movement work together to relay a message. Also, I hope to understand which are more prominent, or if they work together as a whole.