Mixtape - By Joe Blissett

The sequence begins with the running of a cassette tape, shortly followed by a close up of a young boy’s hands writing labels to which we presume will be used for the tape that is currently running. The shot then switches to a slightly larger close up, however the camera slowly zooms in towards the young boy’s head, from behind. Alongside this, the song ‘I wonder where my baby is tonight’ is playing in the background (diegetic sound), however very faintly as if it was coming from the boy’s headphones from which we see from the close up. At this moment, the audience is unsure how dated this could be as by using the prop of a cassette tape makes it seem as if it was a couple of decades ago, although by the clothing the boy is wearing as well as props inside his room and his headphones, the audience assumes that the sequence is perhaps set more in the present. The camera then switches view 180 degrees to face the character at a close up, before he removes his headphones, and the backing track which was originally playing increases in volume, now turning into non-diegetic sound. Also from this close up angle, the audience understands that this boy seems to be fairly young, probably around the age of about 13, and so the audience has a first understanding of who the film is aimed at.

A mixture of close up shots then show the boy removing the tape from the cassette player and placing it into his pocket… on the second attempt. Loud diegetic sound (in the form of a backing track) is then heard playing alongside the boy leaving his house in slow motion, creating an intense atmosphere. A mid shot is then used to also show the boy leaving his house, however by having it at this angle, the audience can now work out more about the boy which also justifies the aspect of who the film is predominately aimed towards. A long shot is then used to show the boy walking down the path of next doors house, or what we soon discover to be a flat, before a close up of the boy’s hand pressing the buzzer immediately stops the music. We then see a long framing shot of the boy standing at the door, placing doubt in the audiences mind on why the camera shot seems to show us as the audience hiding from the scene. A woman then answers the door.

Brief dialogue is exchanged between the two characters, making us understand the boy being called ‘Ben’, as well as asking for a girl named ‘Lily’, who we assume is the woman’s daughter. Because of the way the sequence has been acted so far, we believe that ‘Lily’ is likely to be roughly the similar age to ‘Ben’. After a couple of moments, the audience discovers that ‘Lily’ is not home and so ‘Ben’ offers to leave the mixtape with the mother until she returns home. Ben is then heard asking the mother to tell Lily that he had been round, giving the audience a hint that perhaps the pair have a close relationship or friendship with each other.

A long shot is then used to show Ben lying on his bed reading a newspaper, revealing to the audience his possible social class as being middle class or upper class, however as the newspaper is a widespread, we can make assumptions that he is perhaps more likely to be upper class. We then hear the non-diegetic sound of the same music we heard in the first scene being played, to which Ben gets up and goes towards the wall. A close up shot shows Ben at the wall with a picture frame bouncing on the wall in time with the music, suggesting that the music is coming from next door. The shot then switches to a close up shot of a young girl, who we now presume to be Lily, singing the lyrics of the song (‘I wonder where my baby is tonight’). She is blonde with blue eyes which suggests a stereotypical view on young love, linking to fairy tales such as Cinderella. The editor uses parallel cuts between the two shots to show the link the song makes between Lily and Ben. The two characters are seen to be singing and dancing to the song together, even though they are apart, suggesting that they both know that the other is also listening and doing the same, adding to the sense of fun and humour to the sequence.

The sequence ends with a split screen shot of the two characters lying with their backs to their own walls, smiling as if the other can see them, before the scene cuts to black and the song ends on cue.