The extract from the television show, “You” (Season 1, Episode 1) constructs meaning using camera shots, angles, movement, composition, editing, sound and mise en scene.
This show is about the main character, Joe Goldberg who takes interest in a girl, Guinevere Beck and begins to stalk her and go out of the way to get closer to her.
The show begins with two aerial shots and one long shot to establish the setting as a city in New York. The lighting is natural with a warm, sunny hue, which evokes a feeling of mellowness. Peaceful non diegetic music is heard and a bell chimes as a girl is shown walking into a bookstore. The bookstore is an important part of the scene because it is where Joe works and foreshadows where most major scenes will occur. The camera pans from her legs while tracking to follow her. The camera cuts to different parts of her body such as her eyes, her back, her blouse, and her bracelets. The entire time there is a voice over of Joe’s inner thoughts analyzing this girl, determining her personality type and such through her physical appearance. The camera shots and movements of Beck are of Joe’s Point of View, to show what he sees as he breaks down her personality and to highlight her importance. When he mentions her bracelets, they jingle, to imply that Beck enjoys some attention.
Beck soon approaches Joe, and the camera rack focuses from deep to shallow, perhaps to emphasize the significance of their first meeting. They converse with shot reverse shots of eye level close ups on their faces. This conveys a feeling of intimacy or closeness when the two talk, as if they are connecting right away. Then, Beck is seen at an over the shoulder shot, staring intently at a shelf of books while she solemnly comments on the lack of interest of reading nowadays. This shot signifies Beck’s love of books and reveals a major character trait of this girl that will carry out throughout the show. A two shot of Beck and Joe is then seen, where Beck is looking at another customer, but there is a shallow focus on Joe who is gazing at Beck with a lustful facial expression. The shallow focus is for the audience to fixate on Joe’s facial expression and realize he has caught hard feelings for Beck, and leaves the viewers interested in what he will do next.
Joe then begins to stalk Beck online, discovering unsettling details about herself and her life, like her address, and starts to follow her in real life. Joe watches Beck outside her house through the windows wearing dark clothes and a hat. This suggests that Joe knows how to stalk and he is not uncomfortable doing so. The camera pans with Joe as he is following Beck on the outsides of her place, to emphasize the eeriness of him shadowing her. The scene then cuts to the Title logo, “YOU” in white font, as the letters slowly become stained with red. The logo can foreshadow deaths and darkness throughout the show, since the white words become tainted with what moves and appears as blood.
In conclusion, the way this show was edited with the shots, lovable dialogue, and natural lighting gives of an atmosphere of a cutesy romantic comedy. At the same time, Joe’s voice over and vexation on Beck gives off an eerie and creepy vibe, causing viewers to feel conflicted but also grabs their attention when they realize there is more than an average man with Joe. This show gives of a startling message, that not everyone is who they appear to be. This is seen with Joe, who appears to be an average guy but is actually a borderline sociopath. “You” does an excellent job at catching the audience’s attention, by portraying the main character, as a three dimensional character who does extremely good, and extremely bad things, all while thinking his intentions are good.
