A studious young man, an open book these two images swirl around the screen in a kaleidoscope effect, this was the introductory scene of Good Will Hunting. This scene is followed by Ben Afflick, knocking on Will’s door, when Will comes out a credit rolls by that says, screenplay written by Ben Afflick and Matt Damon, just as the two walk side by side. This shows how perfectly the makers of this movie have everything timed, down to the credits.
Also, the timing shows when the professor’s assistant and Will are alone and the assistant tells Will how lucky he is to have someone believe in him as the professor does. Just as he finishes saying this the professor walks in and suddenly the assistant has something better to do than just sit there so he gets up and leaves.
The cinematography in this movie is good, as right of way the viewer of this movie knows Will lives in one of the poorer sections of Boston, as his front yard is cluttered with junk and the look of the neighborhood surrounding his house is anything but colorful. The neighborhood looks gray and drab. Also, one of the many settings is a local bar which has the look of a neighborhood bar with Christmas type lights strung and normal looking people filling the place. Another setting is a Harvard classroom and a community college classroom. In the Harvard classroom the students appear to be attentive, clean cut, well dressed, and enthusiastic, while the students in the community classroom are barely awake, dressed grubby, and aren’t grasping what the professor is saying.
The camera angles in this movie are as effective as the set appearance. When Will is trying to solve a formula he writes his work on his mirror with a dry erase marker. The camera blurs out will and focuses on the formula and also does the opposite. While writing the formula out, the shots fade to the same shot but at a different angle creating a feeling that some time is passing by. Also, to support this feeling each time the formula is showed there is more added to it than one can write in the brief moment that it took to come back to it with the camera. Additionally, the benefit of having the scene of him writing on the mirror lets the viewer see him concentrating on the formula and lets the viewer see the formula being written out which shows the viewer how intelligent Will must be, since the formula probably made little sense to him or her.
Another effect was a fight scene captured in slow motion. After the fight scene the cops showed up and many flashes of the scene from different camera angles appeared creating a feeling of confusion and made it seem speeded up without it being filmed in fast motion.
During this movie many close ups were filmed where the eyes were the only bit of color on the screen. When Will starts talking to prove a point, which is several times through out the movie, the camera zooms in on him concentrating on his eyes. However, while Will and his friends were in the car the camera looks at each one individually from a distance while mellow music is playing while it is getting deeper into the evening. This creates a feeling of a long day coming to an end with Will and his friends being exhausted.
Robin Williams tells Will a story about a World Series game and as he tells it Will gets very into it and adds his recollection of the game. They start talking fast the more in depth they get into the game. As they recall the game, parts of the game flash on the screen as they seem to be commentating it at this point.
One scene is of Will looking at a painting in Robin Williams’s office. It’s of a rowboat in the sea during a storm. The painting is mostly gray due to it being primarily of the storm but even that has several streaks of color in it. In the center of the painting is a small boat being rowed by a man with
