When Films Speak Without Words

The film I chose to review a 5 minute clip of was, Empire Records. This film is one of my all time favorites. A little background about this movie; It is a day in the life of the employees of a record store that is about to be bought out by a furniture store. The manager almost had enough money to out buy him but one of the employees gambled it away. On this particular day a "rockstar" Rex Manning comes to do a signing. The clip in which I am going to talk about is prior to the star getting there and the employees setting up his signing area.
The mise en scence or the making the scence is varied. First the people are all over the place because they are jamming to a CD while setting up, they are singing and dancing and have props such as chairs, tables, posters. There is also a line and crowd of "fans" in the store.
The first shot is of Marc( an employee) coming down the stairs, the camera is below eye level and a wide shot when Marc is at the top of the stairs. Then Marc runs down the stairs and in doing so the camera zooms in on him and does ann extreme close up as he is talking. The camera is also now at eye level. These two shots are with Marc only. There is then a cut in the scene and we are now seeing Rex Manning.
Rex Manning makes an entrance and is sitting at a table. The line of fans begins to come up one by one to get his autograph. The camera is above his eye level at a medium shot to show from the "view" of the standing fan. Then the camera cuts to the fan speaking and it is another medium shot that is below eye level to show or give the perception from rex's view as he is sitting. There are several shots and ranges going on in just this one segment form this movie.
All of these elements and language of the film help to give the movie a realistic feel and add to the dimensions of the film. The use of close ups or the use of angles can "talk" to the viewer in the sense that they can indicate importance, feelings, and directions of the characters without them even speaking.