500 days of summer expectation vs reality

It’s important to balance your expectations … just like it’s important to use different focal lengths to convey different levels of intimacy.

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Watch “500 Days of Summer Expectations vs Reality — Directing the Same Scene in Two Ways”:
Who made this?
More videos like this
Recommended Reading
Is 500 Days of Summer realistic?
What was the actual point of 500 Days of Summer?
Is 500 Days of Summer from Tom's perspective?
What is expectations vs reality?

Fox Searchlight Pictures

By · Published on November 22nd, 2021

Welcome to The Queue — your daily distraction of curated video content sourced from across the web. Today, we’re watching a video essay that offers a breakdown of the “expectations vs. reality scene from the movie (500) Days of Summer.

Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a greeting-card writer, an aspiring architect, and a hopeless romantic. When his girlfriend Summer (Zooey Deschanel) unexpectedly dumps him, Tom is left in a daze that pushes him to reflect on the 500 days of their relationship.

As is the case with many a break-up, Tom and Summer wind up crossing paths once again. They bump into one another on a train en-route to a wedding and reconnect. In Tom’s fantasy-prone brain, their evening together — and Summer’s invitation to come to a party at her apartment — can only mean one thing: she is still interested.

As Tom skips over to the party, flowers and party favor in hand, the screen splits in two. On the left, we’re presented with Tom’s expectations for the night he hopes will be an intimate rekindling of their past relationship. On the right is what actually transpires, the reality of boundary-heavy hugs and solo-beer drinking.

Unpacking the differences between the two scenes is a marvelous case study in cinematic decision-making. Upon closer inspection, director Marc Webb makes a surprising amount of minute, but powerful, technical choices that greatly impact our perception of each scene.

The following video essay unpacks the ways that Webb approached shooting the “Expectations vs. Reality” scene from (500) Days of Summer, from differing focal lengths to how characters are framed, and from composition to set dressing. Turns out shooting the same scene two different ways is a lot harder than you’d think.

Watch “500 Days of Summer Expectations vs Reality — Directing the Same Scene in Two Ways”:

Who made this?

This video about the “expectations vs. reality” scene in (500) Days of Summer was created by StudioBinder, a production management software creator that also happens to produce wildly informative video essays. They tend to focus on the mechanics of filmmaking itself, from staging to pitches and directorial techniques. You can check out their YouTube account here.

More videos like this

Here’s another scene breakdown from StudioBinder, on what makes the poker scene in Casino Royale so captivating even if you have no idea how poker works.
And another scene breakdown from StudioBinder: on the iconic ending of The Graduate.
Here’s more of StudioBinder’s work: a video essay that clarifies the importance of a script breakdown with a look at Wes Anderson‘s The Grand Budapest Hotel.
And here’s StudioBinder’s video essay on what makes the business card scene in Mary Haron‘s American Psycho so effective.

Is 500 Days of Summer realistic?

Among many, many multitudes of reasons, my main reason for enjoying 500 days of summer so much is for its realistic, gritty and very honest portrayal of love. It looks at love and relationship in a very honest way which is hard to find in cinematic presentations and representations.

What was the actual point of 500 Days of Summer?

Possibly one of the most important lessons from (500) Days of Summer is that happiness cannot be dependent on another person. Summer becomes the only source of happiness for Tom, and he loses himself because of that. It is unfair to put that pressure on anyone.

Is 500 Days of Summer from Tom's perspective?

(500) Days of Summer tells the story of Summer and Tom, but exclusively from Tom's point of view. Refinery29 calls the movie a “love story for cynics,” and it seemed like a response to the many romantic comedies that graced the big screen in the 2000s. People loved it, and it still has an 85% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

What is expectations vs reality?

Expectations are what we think will happen, while reality is what actually transpires. While we hope these two will match up, they often don't. This disparity of expectations vs. reality can often lead to feelings of discontentment and unhappiness.