Fringe Vs Pillow Talk

How are the sequences from “Pillow Talk” and “Fringe” different?

 

In my essay I will be talking about the differences and similarities in sequences when it comes to certain extracts in the two films “Pillow Talk” and “Fringe”. “Pillow Talk” is a 1959 romantic comedy that was directed by Michael Gordon while “Fringe” is an American TV series that was first broadcasted in 2008. Many factors influence the audience’s reception with the style of editing, camera angles, pace and the target audience.

The style of editing used in each film is very different as both films use a very diverse range of cuts that appeal to their own target audience. In “Fringe” we see that a conversation is split up into many clean cuts to close-ups that last only a few seconds, they also show the characters faces as they speak and sometimes when they are spoken too. By doing this the director allows the viewer to watch the character’s facial expression in reaction to the dialogue of the other character. This helps attach the audience to the characters emotionally as we can see their own emotion clearly displayed on their face. An establishing shot is also used in the extract as we see something weird happen outside. This is important for the series as the location of the events that will unfold is important to the plot of the story. It also provides a link between the show and the audience as since it is an American show the American audience will automatically recognise the location in which it is set in. In “Pillow Talk” we see how the amount of cuts drastically decreases in contrast to “Fringe”. In the conversation over the phone we see how the director uses a split screen instead of constant cuts to each character. It carries a similarity to “Fringe” in the sense that they use close-ups to capture the emotions of the characters to create a link between the audience and character. It achieves this effect by using the split-screen to emphasis their facial emotions at the same time. The date of the film may have influenced this decision as multiple cuts in films hadn’t fully integrated into films yet due to the technology. Another difference is that “Pillow Talk” as the camera angles mainly focus over the shoulder and doesn’t really revolve around who is talking. In some instances we will see the back of the head while they are talking, which rarely happens during “Fringe”. This extract also manages to achieve the effect of a scene change which differs from Fringe’s establishing shot by using a dissolve edit into the next scene. The director does this as it moves quite softly into the next scene, keeping the audience focused on the conversation at hand rather than where they are having this conversation.

The pace of the extracts also differs as the pace in “Fringe” is very quick in contrast to “Pillow Talk”. In “Fringe” we see how the average of the cutting is about 3 – 4 seconds. This happens mostly as the conversation progresses. This is because it helps build up the tension and the suspense that the audience has, making it seem more intense. The time period in which the TV series was broadcasted in has an effect on the pace. The target audience of the programme is mostly aimed at a younger generation of people so they are looking for fast-paced action because they are able to keep up with it. Therefore it assumes that the audience is watching, intensely, to what is going on and that they are up to date with the storyline. It also fits into the genre of the TV series, an action sci-fi show making fast cuts a convention of this genre. This contrasts a lot with the pace of the cuts in “Pillow Talk” as the average of the cuts is about 11 seconds. The pace also represents the age in which it was broadcasted in. Action paced shows weren’t fully developed unlike the action shows that we can watch today. The fact that this film also is a romance film indicates what the pace of the cuts will likely be. The slow pace of cuts also represents the intensity of the conversation. The first conversation is simply one shot so it represents how the conversation may be light-hearted between the two who are most probably friends. The second one includes more cuts as the conversation becomes more serious as the man provokes the woman. Although the last conversation is serious it isn’t as intense as the scene from “Fringe” therefore it isn’t as quick but a lot of cuts happens to show the emotions on the characters faces, similar to “Fringe”.

The audiences’ response differs greatly between the two extracts due to the huge time gap in which they were both created. “Pillow Talk” was shown to audiences in the 60s so the style of editing isn’t as diverse as it is in modern films. Therefore people who have only ever seen the modern films of their own time will receive the film differently than someone who was of age during the 60s. The slow pace of editing and simple camera shots are perceived as good from people who are from the 60s because that was the best that they had in that era of time. This is similar of the reception of “Fringe” from someone who was born in the 90s or much recently. This is because they have been brought up watching films to similar to this particular series with face pace editing and a lot of different camera shots & angles. For someone who has grown up with films such as “Pillow Talk” they will not believe that “Fringe” is as good as “Pillow Talk” and vice verse. Gender plays a huge role in the audiences’ reception. Men are more likely to prefer “Fringe” over “Pillow Talk” due to the intensity and action that comes with it. While women may prefer “Pillow Talk” because the genre is a romance so the film has been directed for that specific genre. So the appeal towards women is greater than the appeal towards men.

In conclusion, the sequences from “Pillow Talk” and “Fringe” are directed very differently due to the time period that they were created but still hold the same meaning, for example, capturing facial emotions.