Otherwise Engaged Analysis

From the beginning of Otherwise Engaged, the long shot of the two protagonists of the film are seen to what seems to be exercising right outside the city (shown behind them due to the long shot). The technical codes shown here in this shot implies the struggle of how hard it is to attempt to escape the control the media has on you and the huge city presenting how tremendous the impact of the digital world has on the people while also depicting how large the influence the media has over the public. Additionally, we get the same type of shot displaying the woman doing star jumps facing the city, essentially facing backwards from where she came from. The technical codes here, as well as the performance enacted, implies how she wants everyone to notice her and is always seeking attention; giving the audience the thought that she has the urge to shout “look at me!” while jumping for attention. This show’s how childish her character is from the start and gives us an insight into what kind of character we are dealing with.

The mid shot of when the man attempts to propose for marriage on his knees with the phone in the shot is significant because the phone out of focus represents how she cares more about her mobile phone and what other people are doing in their lives, coming back to the two shot of the couple, this shows the lack of affection and attention she has solely concentrated on her partner himself, when in reality she should have her eyes fixed onto her partner instead of her phone which suggests the lack of interest also how the relationship is more focused on her and the mobile phone than with her partner. It’s almost like her eyes are the camera lens, hence she is constantly looking through the camera during the most important moments of her life. The performance of the film also emphasizes this when the man asks his partner while proposing, “Should I look into the camera?”, as if to discretely imply to the audience that his girlfriend is actually a digital device and how the facial expressions he makes shows how mentally exhausted he is about this.

The acting is really well performed as the film makes us laugh and the director portrays the film in such a way where we don’t really take it so seriously due to the comedic elements but reinforces how immature the woman is about the relationship with the aim to make us tense and displeased about their relationship during certain scenes within the film. The actors try to represent how modern day couples act which makes the acting within this film feel natural to the audience because most of us who are in a relationship can relate and laugh about the characters weaknesses and insecurities that’s displayed in the scene after the man puts on the ring on his partners finger and as they go to take a ‘selfie’, she complains about how fat and sweaty she looks when in reality she should be enjoying the moment.

The mise en scene for instance the costumes/outfits that both the protagonists are wearing gives us the impression that they’re comfortable seeing each other in this manner and also indicates how long they’ve been in a relationship together before the man states how they met in fresher’s week. The lighting is natural lighting from the daylight weather as I believe Alicia’s motive with the film was to portray it as natural as she could in order for it to create a connection with the audience.

The irony used by the woman when she responds to her partner after he asks “Should we tell our parents about this?” she replies with “Can’t we just enjoy the moment?” This is really humorous because the woman is contradicting herself as she’s not theoretically enjoying the actual moment at hand since she’s fixated on her phone than rather her boyfriend. It’s really ironic due to how the audience feels that he displays certain actions such as frowns and huffs in exasperation while he wants to express how much he wants her to actually enjoy herself rather than using her phone as a means of enjoyment.

The sound within this film was of majority digetic sound as it was mostly dialogue by the couple. The only non-digetic sounds in the film was the sound effects of when they were typing on their phone and the camera snap effect to when they took pictures on their phone. Also, notification sounds were included in the non-digetic category.