Scene Analysis
Lost in Translation
(Sophia Coppola)
August, 2010
1. SCENE OVERVIEW
INT. STUDIO.
Whiskey commercial shoot.
The set is full of activity as JAPANESE CREW work. Bob, in a shawl collared tuxedo sits at a European style bar set with a cut crystal glass of whiskey. A JAPANESE GIRL quickly powders his face as they adjust lights and the DIRECTOR and crew speak in hurried Japanese.
The Director ( with blue contact lenses ) says a few long sentences in Japanese.
TRANSLATOR, a middle- aged woman in a coordinated outfit, translates but it is only a short sentence now.
TRANSLATOR
He wants you to turn, look in camera and say the lines.
Bob wonders what she’s leaving out, or if that’s the way it works from Japanese to English.
BOB
That’s all he said?
TRANSLATOR
Yes, turn to cameras.
Bob thinks let’s just get it over with.
BOB
Turn left or right?
The Translator blots her face with a tissue, and asks the director in a Japanese sentence 5 times as long. The Director answers her in a long excited phrase.
TRANSLATOR
Right side. And with intensity.
BOB
Is that everything? It seemed like he was saying a lot more.
The excited Director says more in Japanese. Translator nods in understanding. Bob doesn’t really know what’s going on.
TRANSLATOR
Like an old friend, and into the camera.
DIRECTOR
( to Bob)
Suntory Time!
They get ready, and roll camera:
Bob turns and looks suavely to the camera:
BOB
For relaxing times, make it Suntory Time.
The Director yells something about ten sentences long. The translator nods.
TRANSLATOR
Could you do it slower, and with more intensity?
BOB
Okay
The Translator answers for him in four sentences.
On THE MONTOR- we see the next take: the moody lighting shines on Bob, the camera gets closer as he stares into camera and gives them the line.
BOB( CONT’D)
For relaxing times, make it Suntory Time!

2. Focus
- Scene Duration:
00:08:29 – 00:11:47
- Mise-en-scene
It is an interior scene in the daytime, in the scene they are preparing and advertising. This is mostly like a studio in Japan, you can see that there are dresser, cameraman, director , translator model dresser and Bob.
- Color Usage
The main color is bright yellow, followed by whiskey. In my opinion, the ad for whiskey is most about gentle and cultural, it is exactly identical with the color yellow that makes people comfortable and blend into the scene.
- Music
The background music is soft music, for advertisement whiskey.
- Dialogue
This is the most fun part in the scene, and this is the reason that I write down the script in this scene analysis here. See, the Director says a few long sentences in Japanese, “He wants you to turn, look in camera and say the lines,” the translator said, she just use few words to translate those long sentences. And this situation works for the whole translation.
- Sound
Most in this scene there is no sounds, the main part of scene is dialogues for the advertisement, so we can heard dialogues much more.
- Contrasting Areas
At the beginning, the main color is white, and it is really clear with comparing with the black suit of characters. Later, the scene's color is soft yellow, and the advertisement is for whiskey. So it is a very elegant, the whole scheme for people is morbidezza and comfortable.
- Lighting
There is a soft yellow lighting in all scene, I think it is most because this is a whiskey advertisement, you know, whiskey color is also yellow. Talking about yellow, we will think about gentle, royalty, happiness or warm. And, it is identical with the manner of speaking of Bob.
- Character Relationships
The main characters are the director who is the most talkative person in the scene, the translator who is doing translation and Bob, the actor of whiskey advertisement. Then, director is directing the advertisement, and Bob is advertising, but director and Bob cannot speak same language, so they need a translator who is the lady at the middle of them.
- Character Movements
The characters’ movements are not main focus in this scene. As we can see, the director moves rapidly from one side to the other side, and moves closer to Bob. The translator, moves to director when she talks to director, and moves to Bob when she has to talk to Bob. About Bob, he just sits down the chair with the glass cup.
- Timing
7-10 seconds for each advertises, around 30seconds for director’s talking. Translator spends about 4s to translate to Bob, and 8s for director.
- Editing Style
Editing uses many short sequences to be completed. It should be that always got mistakes and director always cut and correct it, especially when they don’t have same languages. And in this scene they need translate, then the translate part which is funny can be emphasized. It raised more fun for audience.
- Transitions
There is no cross-fade in the scene, only jump-out used. When the camera skips straight from Bob to director or the translator, it always jumps and jumps. The purpose is keep speed with characters’ talking.
- Shot types
It is a close-up and extreme close-up shot mix. Because close-up shot can see characters’ activities, and extreme close-up shot shows us the characteristics of characters, for instance, we can see that Bob’s expression is really innocent, he couldn’t understand but has no choice.
- Camera Angle
At the beginning it used over the shoulder view, in other shots just used normal camera views what is straight on. I think over the shoulder view used is to change shot to advertising shot, then fade in, let us into advertising shot.
- Camera Movement
Pan left, Pan right, zoom in, Tracking shot, these are camera movement used in this scene. It used pan left, pan right and tracking shot to trace characters’ talking. When Bob said actor’s lines, the zoom in movement is used to emphasize his characteristics. And the camera moves to follow director when he was saying something.
- Depth of Field
In this scene, no foreground or background is used in focus, just follow the normal sequence to direct.
- Total Composition
Showing a fun moment is using much more dialogues and characters’ behaviors, the director shakes hands rapidly and talks fast to indicate his meaning. Translator makes interesting translation with her speaking and action. Bob, the main character shows different expressions in his specific way.
- Subtext
We watch it for fun, but most of all, we also can know that Bob is not popular at all, he cannot find any funny in this career, and he is not happy. As an actor, Bob has no choice to satisfy director’s requirement. With translator’s poor help, he still doesn’t know how to do with ad, and couldn’t communicate with director as well. Under these external factors, it demonstrated deeply that Bob is just a poor and unhappy guy in his life.