Dental Hygiene Dilemma Dissected

In the “Dental Hygiene Dilemma,” the art director certainly followed all of the basic rules for setting up shots and scenery.  At no point in the entire scene does the audience’s view cross over the 180 degree line.  For the most part, the angles are fairly squared off and keep a consistent perspective of the room.

The artist did, however, make good use of the rule of thirds throughout the scene.  In the intro sequence with the scholarly duck, the dental equipment is placed in the left third of the shot.  With the bouncing duck small and centered in the shot, the focus is on the right third of the shot where his screen is flashing sporadic dental-related images.  After entering Jeff’s room through the mouth on the duck’s screen and zooming out from the close-up of the television, the view of the entire bedroom is set up using the rule of thirds.  The main focuses in this shot are on the television and on Jeff lying anxious on his bed.  Dividing the shot into thirds, the brightly colored television is in the upper right third and Jeff is lying down on his bed, centered in the lower horizontal third of the shot.  When Jeff stands up, he ends up vertically in the left third of the shot.

All the cuts, pans, or zooms obey the 30-rule as they change at least by 30% or 30 degrees.  Most of the changes are from a wide shot of the room to a close-up of an object in the room.  For example, in the intro the shot zooms in at least 30% to get from the view of the duck in the dentist’s office to the screen on the wall, as well as zooming from a wide view of Jeff’s room to the close up of the television.

The shots in this scene are very simple and straightforward, as they obey all the basic rules without cutting any corners.  The directing of the scene is well done but it certainly does not jump out at me as being especially artful and creative in setting up the shots.  However, I feel that more artful and creative focus was put into the content of the scene and the avant-garde morphing of the objects within, such as everything going on in the television.