Expressive movement unit 2

Following the progression of the music, the editing, in interplay with the shot composition and facial expressions/gestures, stages an image of pleasurable camaraderie.

In the interplay of editing and shot composition there is a transition in the spatial figuration: The undetermined space (>EMU 1) is left for a now clearly outlined narrative space. The alternation of long shots and jumps into medium close shots follows classical conventions of spatially oriented editing . This is supported on the level of shot composition: The change to an interior – its planar borders corresponding in the long shot to the frame of the shot – creates an almost theatrical staging on the level of visual composition; much brighter lighting now also enables comprehensive visual orientation.

The dynamics within the shot composition and the changing facial expressions of the protagonists are orchestrated on the temporal level by the diegetic music. The onset of the drum solo marks a change in the choreography – from protagonists previously indeterminately placed in the space to a staged group gathered around the radio. With the horns that come in at the end of the piece, the music finally finds a moving echo in Ramirez’s motion and facial expressions, the highpoint is Ramirez drumming his fingers and moving his shoulders rhythmically. Music and acting – in the form of facial expression and speech – are thus interlocked in the composition of the EMU and create a dynamic expressiveness that intensifies from indeterminate to excited and finally elated.

Parallel to this, the dialogue creates a direct connection of the joy thus staged to memory; linking music and home.