Director Case Study: Jason Reitman

                                                                                                                

Jason Reitman

Jason Reitman is a 37 year old film director; he was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1977. Before he became a film director it was Reitman as studying for a pre – med degree at the University of New York He is the son of famous director and producer Ivan Reitman. Ivan is famous for producing the Ghostbusters movie and directing Ghostbusters 2. Reitman earned Academy Award nominations for Juno (starring Ellen Page), and Up in the Air, (starring George Clooney). Jason has been around film sets due to his father being a director. Due to the fact he has grown up on a film seethe was surrounded by famous comedy actors such as Bill Murray, Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd. Occasionally, Jason has even worked as an extra on his father’s film.  When he was younger he spent time in the editing room of his father films sets and learned the directing process.

He started out making short films whilst he was at the University of Southern California. Instead of taking offers for commercial feature films he started making his own short films and commercials instead. Reitman was asked to direct the film ‘Dude, Where’s May Car?’ twice, he declined both times. His first feature film was called ‘Thank You for Smoking’ and it was made in 2006. Thank You for Smoking was originally a book written by Christopher Buckley, and then it was made into a screenplay then into a film by Jason Reitman. The film was a huge success a made $39 million worldwide.  The film was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards.  During an interview Reitman said due to the success of TYFS, he would be making another adaption of a book. This book was called ‘’White Collar Satire”.

After working on “Thank You for Smoking”, Reitman worked on the film Juno. After Juno premiered at the 2007 Toronto Film Festival it created a lot of buzz in the media Juno was then released in December 2007. Juno is one of the most talked about coming of age films on the web. Reitman received Oscar nominations for Juno. The awards were for best picture, Diablo Cody’s screenplay, Ellen page’s performance as the main protagonist and Reitman was nominated for best director.

From looking at the opening scenes to a few of Reitmans films it is clear that the narratives are similar. This is because most of them start off with the main character being in trouble or getting into trouble. The story is about the character trying to get out trouble. This doesn’t always work which gives the film an unpredictable ending. This makes his films seem interesting because it makes you wonder how the problem will be solved and if it does ever get solved. The music used in the opening scenes are often upbeat. The music used in Juno is a song ‘’All I Want Is You’’ by Barry Polisar. The song fits well with the camera angles and shots used. Reitman almost never adds extra sounds in his opening scenes but occasionally he will add a few diegetic sounds if they are needed.

Reitman has a certain style when it comes to opening scenes, the camera almost always pans across the screen during the opening titles. The pan is slow which allows you to see the typography on screen and the picture or scene. The panning usually follows the protagonist’s movement for example in Juno the pan follows her walking down the street. In the opening scenes of Juno Reitman uses close ups, he used this camera angle as it shows the facial expressions on the characters face. We know this is a coming of age film due to the fact the close up and long shot camera angles show a teenage girl. Through the use of mise en scene Reitman tells us a bit about the narrative of the film, it shows us the film is a happy film this is because we see the protagonist smiling during the opening scenes.  

Learning Comment:

From this piece of research I have learnt a lot of information about Jason Reitman and the different techniques he uses in his opening scenes. I have learnt that using a pan or tracking shot is effective as it makes the opening smooth and flow from one scene to the next.  I have learnt although the problem is solved it doesn’t always get solved in the predictable way which makes the narrative interesting. When I make my opening scene the narrative will be unpredictable but the problem will still be solved by the end of the film. I will use this idea because it original and not many directors use it. I will make sure that the film links with the coming of age theme