Submarine

• Director

  Richard Ayoade
• Producer

  Warp Films
• Release

  Toronto International Film Festival
• Plot


  Oliver is teen struggling with typical adolescent anxieties age, sex, school, family & love
• Title


  Bouts of depression suffered by Oliver's father, feels he's submerged in ocean
• Soundtrack

  Alex Turner (AMS), supplementary narrator to Oliver, sings thoughts in his head
• Oliver's narration


  Directly addresses audience, shares most innermost thoughts, contrasts with real life awkward gender stereotypes
• Progressive stereotypes


  • Oliver - sensitive & emotional male

  Jordana - strong female character, goes against teen archetypes, dominant, assertive & in control, reluctant to date Oliver, unconventionally attractive, not sexualised, no make-up, quirky, seduces Oliver, modern femme fatale
• Conventional ending


  Oliver and Jordana get back together, walk into sea smiling
• Cinematography

  • Mid shots of Oliver's isolation, blue colour motif in prologue, use of his silhouette not his face, pathetic fallacy, Oliver's romanticised POV, difficult & complex, Oliver's sombre mood, rose-tinted spectacles (romance with Jordana), sepia-tinged melancholy (post-romance)
• Colour symbolism


  Emphasises moods & emotions (melodrama), Jordana's red coat symbolises her fiery persona, colour motif changes from blue (sadness) to red (love)
• Mise-en-scene

  • Romcom iconography - lens flare, two shots, arc shots, natural lighting
• Film style/aesthetics


  Draws influence from contemporary American indie movie aesthetic, Wes Anderson, use of colour motifs/symbolism, coloured chapters, melodrama codes, Ayoade's awkward star persona impacted his style/signature, stylistic influences from French New Wave, Tarantino, Woody Allen, John Hughes
• Editing


  • Chapters & title cards separate narrative into 3 chapters, jump cuts in 'Under the Bridge' sequence, music video aesthetic, uses home video/super 8 footage, French New Wave style
• Stylistic influences


  French New Wave - hand-held camera, feeling of naturalness, natural lighting, filming on location/minimalist sets, young stars, expression of complex thoughts/emotions

  The 400 Blows (1959) - primary inspiration for Oliver, similar scenes of Oliver running on beach ending with freeze frame

  Wes Anderson - using text to anchor visuals, 'good' & 'bad' lighting in bedroom, use of symmetry

  Martin Scorsese - Taxi Driver, Travis Bickle - juxtaposition between Oliver's isolation & psyche, primary influence for Oliver

  Cleo from 5 to 7 - sense of nostalgia & romance, 8mm format

  Jean-Luc Godard - Jordana's hairstyle, Michael Poiccard (Breathless) breaks 4th wall & talks to audience like Oliver

  Schindler's List (Spielberg) & Don't Look Now (Roeg)
• Warp Films


  Independent British film company known for innovative films
• Warp Films


  Part of a company with media and creative interests including a record label (horizontal integration)
• Warp Films


  Worked with director Richard Ayoade who had previously directed music videos for the Arctic Monkeys (signed to Warp's record label)
• Film4


  Founding partner of Warp X digital studio, develops and co-finances film productions
• UK Film Council


  Non-departmental public body set up to develop and promote the UK film industry, provided funding for Submarine through the New Cinema Fund
• New Cinema Fund


  Supported emerging talent and established filmmakers working outside the mainstream, focused on innovative writing and gifted directors
• Submarine attracted audiences through critical acclaim at film festivals rather than a large marketing budget
• Submarine was distributed by The Weinstein Company after playing at film festivals including Toronto, London and Sundance
• Mise-en-scene


  Everything the audience can see on screen, including costume, location, setting, scenery, props, lighting, and actors
• Components of mise-en-scene


  • Costume
  • Location
  • Setting
  • Scenery
  • Props
  • Lighting
  • Actors
  • Framing
• Setting


  • Where scenes are set, such as a nightclub or a school
  • Choosing where to set a scene can have a major impact on how the audience views the characters
• Scenery


  • Set dressing, or making a particular setting look a certain way, is an important part of the production process
• Props


  • Objects used in the set dressing and giving a character a prop to hold or use can be a way of adding character as well as developing the narrative
• Lighting


  • How scenery, characters and props are lit can affect how the audience sees them
  • With careful placement of lights, the audience's attention can be directed to a specific part of the mise-en-scene
• Actors


  • Casting the right actor for the part is crucial, not just for their acting ability, but also for the 'look' they bring to the character
  • How the actors are arranged within the frame is also important
• Framing


  • The positioning of actors and props within the setting is important so that the camera picks up exactly what is needed to get meaning across to the audience
• Mise-en-scene

  The arrangement of the visual elements in a film frame
• Submarine (dir. Ayoade, 2010)

  • A tale of Oliver Tate, a misfit schoolboy living in Wales in the 1980s
• From the film's first frame, mise-en-scene is used to flesh out Oliver's character and help the viewer understand who he is
• Oliver's bedroom


  • A puppet, a toy boat and a wind-up robot suggest that Oliver is interested in science
  • A small painting over the bed does not feel like a picture a young child would have
  • Shelves with thick, substantial books suggest Oliver's intellectual interests
• Oliver's coat


  • A duffle coat, which has associations with 'nerds' and 'swots', becomes a major part of his character
  • Oliver wears the coat constantly, even when relaxing in his room, suggesting he is wearing it as a self-conscious and deliberate attempt to present himself as 'different'
• Jordanna's coat


  • A bright red coat in contrast to the drab, drizzly tone of the setting, suggesting she is a source of excitement and glamour in Oliver's life
  • The coat is also a thick duffle type, similar to Oliver's, suggesting they may be more similar than it first seems
• Oliver's parents' clothes


  Beige and light brown colours suggest a particular dreariness, reflecting Oliver's view of them as living dully in a boring town
• Submarine's distinctive marketing campaign, backed by strong critical reviews and a soundtrack by Alex Turner of Arctic Monkey's fame, has helped this quirky coming of age tale find an audience in the UK
• Digital screening cuts the cost of releasing films, allowing Submarine to reach a wider audience through the Digital Screen Network scheme