Opening

• Beginning with a fade from black, the establishing shot of the smoke filled Ozark landscape - western genre subverted by revealing the forgotten America.
• The colour palette is bleak greys and browns (dark fairy-tale) revealing an authentic frostbitten winter combined with the beautiful bleak disintegrating landscape.
• The non-diegetic track is an acapella 'Missouri waltz by Marideth Sisco' performed by a local ozark musician reflecting the qualities of an independent film.
• The music is melancholy affirming and validates the lives of the marginal characters.
• On-loc shooting utilizes the natural lighting and retains the authenticity.
• Cuts to a LA handheld camera LS, in the forest positioning the audience as hunters and Sonny and Ashlee as the prey.
• Granik positioned the audience as outsiders, the trees acting as boundaries protecting the young children.
• granik builds a sense of distancing the ozark from the unknown (modern people) as a form of protection. The handheld camera creates a documentary style in this opening.
• Again, she brings the camera in yet establishes the boundary through the trampoline in LA MS, and the following shot the wooden bars of the decking.
• The motif of animals is establishes with the children playing with puppies: it creates this idea that the community is so rejected from classical Hollywood that the humans build closer relationships to the animals than people.
• Granik uses juxtaposing images of the kids playing in MLS: Sonny = skateboarding, Ashlee = hanging up washing + playing with a doll.
• These juxtapositions enforce the strict gender expectations and roles of men and women in the community that are built into the children since youth.
• In a MLS - Ree + Ashlee work together to put up the washing (female domesticity) before stopping to dress a doll: showing Ree's mothering nature and top priority that is her siblings.
• In terms of ideology, the feminism is obvious through the domestic roles done by the women.
• The dominant ideology of the ozark splitting the roles into manual labour for men and cooking + parenting for women is challenged as Ree + siblings lack a father + stable mother figure, therefore both responsibilities fall to Ree.
• The opening supports critics quote: 'feminist film in an anti-feminist world'
• Within the first few minutes of WB, it has passed the Bechdel test
• Ariel shot with the tree's branching over the sky act as bones: McDonough’s camera establishes the brutal theme of normalised violence through the symbolism of bones.
• Fade to black before taken inside Ree's home (the house of actor of Ashlee = authentic cast + location)
• Ree introduced through domestic chores.
• LS / handheld camera of Ashlee + Sonny sleeping on the sofa establishes the poverty and anti-capitalism ideology of the AD failing the people in this community.
• To make the film more authentic, the film was shot on-location, and the houses and clothes belonged to locals. This allowed the female characters to be desexualised, and assume the roles of real people, rather than overly dramatized, idealised characters (male gaze)
• The female characters don’t have make-up, and they aren’t lit in a flattering way – this adds realism, and supports a feminist view
• McDonough's hand held camera MS shows Ashlee going out to feed the dogs: two diegetic gunshots are heard yet her performance conveys no reaction: this is noise built into the soundtrack of the community.
• The natural diegetic sound immerses the audience into the plot.
• Aesthetic = dull
• Editing – Pace of editing is slow. Long takes promote realism and create a voyeuristic watching experience. Contemplative editing connects characters to their environment and promotes an active viewing to watch and reflect on this part of America that is being shown to us (which is very rare in Hollywood
• mise-en-scene: poor background and lack of wealth due to run down house and ragged old clothes, this could explain why the mood has been set in a very dull way as it is reflecting the family’s emotions.
• theme of isolation is consistent through the film: the woodland surrounding visualizing this
• Preferred reading sees Ree as a feminist character is a hyper-masculine world
• The film is a meditation on alienated relationships whether they are communal, familial or our own detachment from this part of America.
• McDonough’s camera, not entirely settled, gently shifting the frame and often more overtly peering around the corner, nosing into rooms or over a character’s shoulder. 95% of filming is on hand held cameras.