The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a feature length coming of age film made in 2012. The film revolves around fifteen year old Charlie, a shy teenager and an endearing and naive outsider. He tries to cope with the struggles of his best friend's suicide and his own mental health issues whilst trying to find a group of people with whom he belongs. He is taken under the wing by two seniors, Sam and Patrick, who welcome him to the real world of love, loss and friendship. Ultimately crushing the naivetity that he endorsed. The film stars Logan Lerman and Emma Watson and is directed by Stephen Chobsky who wrote the book that the story is based upon. The clip that I have analysed is the first ten minutes of the film itself, The film uses continuity editing throughout to flow and is very stereotypically American based film. 

 

The film begins with the production company ident of the production company behind the making of the film. It then rolls on to the credits which are seen in a typewriter's font. The non-diegetic sound of a typewriter can be heard as each credit is typed out onto the screen. This creates a mysterious feel for the audience as to what the story will be about and also contrasts with how Charlie wants to one day become a writer. Music then starts to play over the top of the scene and the background of the credit roll changes from black to scenes of a car going over a bridge and through a tunnel. The camera has been put onto a car so the viewer can only see the bridge and tunnel. The camera interchanges between long shots and close ups whilst a higher angle is used in some of the tunnel shots to show more detail of the flashing lights. The car going through the tunnel suggests Charlie's intense lonliness and the pains of getting through his mental illness. The slowness of the car's journey connote to Charlie trying to slowly return to the normalities of real life and the music chosen relate to a scene seen later in the film where the three characters travel in the car feeling 'infinite'.

 

Once the credits have stopped rolling and the song has ended, the scene fades into another scene of Charlie sitting at his desk in his bedroom writing. The shot starts as a close up of his face seen as a reflection in the window. The camera then slowly zooms out to a long shot of him sitting which makes it look like the camera is right behind him. Charlie narrates over the top of the scene what he is writing in his first letter to his imaginary friend to make the audience aware of what Charlie's story is. The setting then changes to Charlie walking down a hallway and then walking into the living room of his house to show his normal surroundings of his home to the audience. The scene then goes back to him writing at his desk. The camera does what it did at the start of the scene but in the opposite way - zooming in from his behind to his reflection. These varying camera shots reflect Charlie's own mind and his reactions to daily life as he tries to format himself back into his own life after the traumas of the illness.  The fact that he is writing a letter to an imaginary friend shows the audience ways in which people with mental illnesses try to get better and to fit back into his own life.

 

The setting then changes to his school. The scene then flashes back to his first day of school and the present day. In this scene, a handheld camera is used to make the school scenes look more natural and a variety of camera shots are used to highlight the setting and characters. A long shot of Charlie looking into a trophy cabinet is shown briefly which shows how much of an introvert and how alone he is. The setting then changes again from a hallway to a cafeteria. The camera shows a mid shot of Charlie, his sister and her boyfriend getting lunch. The camera pans as they walk along the cafeteria lunch bar. Charlie thought that his sister might let him sit with her but she points out that it's 'seniors only'. This is the very first piece of dialogue or diegetic sound in the film and demonstrates the true meaning behind school 'cliques' and friendships. Charlie sits alone to have his lunch whilst reading a book. He points out other people who he used to know but no longer want to be known to him. He is afraid to talk or meet anyone after all the problems that happened to him.  It is apparent that he is trying to fit back into normal teenage life but is failing miserably. The different camera angles and shots show his lonliness and his difficulties with making friends.

 

The setting the changes again to Charlie's woodwork class. A senior called Patrick is in the class and decides to do an impression of the teacher to 'break the ice'. The camera flicks between medium shots of Charlie and Patrick to show each of their point of views. The teacher then walks into the classroom and is not amused with the impression. This creates a two shot with dialogue of the teacher and Patrick. The rest of the scene suggests the class starting. The setting then changes again to another of Charlie's classes - Advanced English, which he is very excited about and which can be shown through the close up of him writing it on his paper and then a mid shot of him sitting at his desk to show the classroom and other students surrounding him. The girl across from him mocks him for being in a class with upper students. We then see a long shot of the teacher at the front of the classroom who starts talking which means the start of the lesson and more dialogue. As the lesson goes on, the camera roams around the room, sometimes zoning in on Charlie, and pans as the teacher walks around the classroom whilst talking. He asks a question and nobody answers. We then see a close-up of Charlie's book seeing that he has written down the right answer but the teacher sees that Charlie doesn't want to speak. The teacher then asks another question and the class start shouting out answers. As this happens, Charlie writes down the right answer again. After class, Charlie and the teacher have a discussion about Charlie not participating. This is shown through an over the shoulder shot. As this happens, diegetic sound of students can be heard from behind Charlie through the open door of the room to create a more realistic scene of class ending. Charlie is starting to fit into the daily life of school and his intelligance is helping him. Yet, his social disabilities are making things hard for him which are shown through the camera shots and the teacher's reactions to him when he doesn't put his hand up but write the right answer down. These struggles could be seen as similar to people with high functioning autism but he doesn't seem to have that. He is just strugglng to fit back into life after losing his best firned and going through mental illness.