The dominant feature in this picture is Ellie. The light from the lamp shines on the blanket across from her, placing her profile in stark contrast. The light also shows her face which holds a forlorn expression. Ellie is visibly upset by the idea of leaving Peter the next day. This emotion sets the stage for a later scene when Ellie is in bed and suggests that she and Peter run away together.
The main subsidiary contrasts that I noticed were the top of Peter’s head, the pajamas sitting beside Ellie, and the two chairs visible in the room. Peter’s head is shown just enough for the viewer to tell that he is straightening out the “wall of Jericho” but little else can be told about what he may be thinking. One thing we can gather is that he feels the need to put up the blanket-barrier soon after coming into the room. He seems to not want to be tempted or reminded of the opportunities that await him on the other side of the blanket.
The pajamas sitting beside Ellie are the only pieces of Peter that are allowed on her side of the wall. They show that he cares about her and perhaps even that he wants to be with her. The chairs are also an interesting point. There is a simple wooden chair beside the door and a more ornate wicker chair sitting opposite, the corner just barely in the frame. They sit across from each other, at a stand-off, just as Peter and Ellie are across from one another in their beds. The simple chair is also on Peter’s side of the room while the ornate chair is much more fitting on Ellie’s side.
The frame allows for Peter and Ellie to move around in the room, but it also shows how small the room is. While they are able to move, they will still be very close to each other, regardless of where they go. Ellie’s placement on the bed near the wall and the frame make her seem meek and withdrawn. She is staring off to the side, deep in thought and sadness. Though they are in personal space, Peter and Ellie seem far apart due to the blanket.
Great job, Amber. One way to push this a bit further would be to make a direct comparison with the earlier sequence where the "Wall of Jericho" originates. The rotation of the set up here, with the wall horizontal to the plane of the camera, definitely changes things, making the blanket's width much more of an issue, when earlier, when it was perpendicular to the frame, the relative width of their separation was negligible. Good stuff! M.
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