Submarine - Scene analysis

• Cross media convergence and synergy in production, distribution and marketing


  • Film4 Productions
  • Film Agency for Wales
  • Wales Creative IP Fund
  • Red Hour Films
  • Warp Films
• Smaller companies coming together to produce Submarine


  Helped make the film successful by sharing experience and increasing the budget
• Success of Submarine


  • Below the line advertising
  • Critical acclaim via success at Toronto Film Festival
  • Word of mouth rather than huge marketing budget
• Synergy in distribution of Submarine


  Film festival success attracted distributors (The Weinstein Company)
• Festivals Submarine was screened at

  • 54th London Film Festival
  • 27th Sundance Film Festival
  • 61st Berlin International Film Festival
• Ben Stiller's involvement as Executive Producer


  Attracted distribution and gave the film pedigree
• Mini Major film distributor


  The Weinstein Company
• Optimum Releasing


  Smaller company mostly releasing independent British films
• Weinstein Company and Optimum Releasing distributing Submarine


  Helped generate interest and increase overall audience
• Submarine's marketing campaign


  • Distinctive
  • Backed by strong critical reviews
  • Soundtrack by Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys
• Submarine offers hope that British cinema produces a healthy slate of films each year which can remain successful despite Hollywood dominance
• Digital copies of films


  Ten times cheaper than 35mm
• Digital Screen Network: £12 million investment in 240 digital screens at 210 cinemas across the UK
• Digital screening cuts the cost of releasing films (a digital copy costs around one tenth of a 35mm print)
• Submarine had no website of its own, only pages through Weinstein and Optimum
• Submarine had a Facebook page which helped fans keep up to date and encouraged viral marketing
• Ben Stiller Presents... on US poster


  Stands out much more than UK poster
• Oliver Tate's Guide to Avoid Bullying interactive animation


  Used to promote the film and for an anti-bullying campaign
• Submarine's soundtrack by Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys


  May have encouraged British audience to watch the film
• Synergy between the film and the band (Arctic Monkeys)
• Lovemaking sequence


  1. Different combinations of handheld camera work

  2. Different close up shots

  3. Final defining long shot
• Tape containing the song Hiding tonight


  Soundtrack to the whole sequence
• Canted frame


  • Distorted unusual feeling of love
• Continuous panning shot

  1. Jordana and Oliver on a bike with a rocket attached

  2. Running shot of them setting off some fireworks
• Setting


  • Abandoned theme park or another derelict place
  • Motions of Jordana and Oliver make it beautiful
  • Red flares light up the whole area, symbolising love and passion
• Motivated editing


  1. Situated medium shot to sped up hand held long shot into a final tracking long shot

  2. Jordana and Oliver watching some fire crackers being set off

  3. Close up of her hand and his leg, to a medium shot of them laughing, into a final shot including the romantic setting of the stream behind them
• Oliver's submissiveness and vulnerability


  • He is shown to be happy when pleasing Jordana
• Paper boat with typed lettering of rules and regulations to their relationship


  • Topped with a sparkler
  • Passed between the two and placed within the stream
• Long overhead shot of Oliver placing the boat onto the water


  • Symbolizes weakness or vulnerability, shows how small and insignificant their relationship is in relation to the world
• Foggy/misted over shot of Jordana and Oliver


  • Clouds the details, shows how emotional everything is for them and how otherwise significant details no longer matter
• Fire is a recurring symbol
• Fire as a main source of lighting


  • Lights up their faces and what they are doing, like chiaroscuro lighting
• Oliver and Jordana playing with sparklers


  • Jordana's face shown through a point-of-view shot looking through a kaleidoscope
  • Oliver introducing his 8mm film with Jordana backlit by a huge bonfire
• The non-diegetic song 'Hiding tonight' represents their misfit love and development of their relationship
• Oliver is wearing his father's dressing gown and drinking from his mug


  Links him to his father's depression
• Oliver walks from the shallow side of the pool to the deep side and jumps in
• Subtle uses of reds


  • Represent Jordana's involvement in his fantasy of jumping in to the deep end
• Sound effect of splashing as he hits the water
• Hand appears and touches the bath water, as though Oliver isn't there
• Camera pans up to reveal the hand belongs to Oliver himself