If you're a bird, I'm a bird shot

The famous 'chick flick' The Notebook has many different aspects that make it interesting other than excessive melodrama. But, this movie uses effective camera angles to achieve an exacerbated melodramatic effect. Instead of analyzing the heart-tugging scenes, I will analyze the famous scene where Noah tells Allie, "if you're a bird I'm a bird."

The shot follows the familiar long shot, medium shot, close up progression. It starts with a long shot showing that Noah and Allie are in the beach. Instead of being an isolating shot, we can see how both of them are interacting with each other. The waves and birds around them help create a sense comfort in nature. Of course, trying to achieve a generally sympathetic relation to the public, the scene is shot for the most part in an eye level angle. We can see how Noah and Allie are in love, and the way that the audience feels is like an outsider looking into their relationship. This forms a sort of bond between the lovers and the audience, because we can see their interaction.

Progressing through a variations of long shots and middle shots, we can see how Allie and Noah start getting closer to each other physically. These shots are all shots at eye level, once again solidifying the relationship between them and the audience. The camera zooms in and out slightly, but not enough to go back to a panoramic shot. We don't feel that the characters have an established power, nor do we feel that they are destitute. These shots are meant to show how 'normal' of a couple they are, having a date in the beach. 

Finally, to close the scene, Allie jumps and Noah catches her. After she asks him if she could have been a bird and he responds yes, she tells them that he should say he is a bird too; after that he says "if you're a bird I'm a bird" and all the girls in the movie theatre go "aw." All of this is shot in a close up shot leading up to a kiss. Here, their love is perpetuated and we can feel very connected and sympathetic towards them because we as an audience feel that we have been with them and seen their relationship develop, even though it's only been one short scene. After the kiss, the camera zooms out into a long shot, showing the two lovers hugging. Again, the audience feels even more connected because it is as if they were one figure in the frame. Who can resist that?

Here is the link to the scene in youtube: If you're a bird I'm a bird.