One thing I loved about this scene is how languidly paced it is, so in addition to labeling the shots, I added the timestamp of when the shot begin from the clip I trimmed from YouTube (you can follow on here if you'd like:
).
(1) We fade from black into a shot of a...ceiling fan? It's a fairly unusual shot for this game. Usually when we focus on an object, it's a weapon or bomb, or at least to establish a
new location. By this point, we've been in Seventh Heaven multiple times, so we're already very aware of its interior design. Instead, I would say this brief shot is there to set the "vibe" of the scene.
(2) Cloud is sipping his drink. Tifa ascends from the basement. The camera doesn't so much as follow Tifa as it follows Cloud watching Tifa go behind the bar. Note that this shot is 14 seconds long! I would say the average shot length in this game is around 3-5 seconds, so this is fairly noticeable. If the game just wanted to establish the geography of these characters, it could have done so with 2 or 3 quick shots showing Tifa's movement, but instead, it chose to do it one take, letting it play out in real time, so that the tension is palpable (mirroring how the characters are feeling). By the time, Tifa is pouring herself a drink, I'm practically begging the camera to cut away, which is does into:
(3) Cloud watching Tifa drink. Just in case
(2) wasn't clear enough, Cloud is
definitely looking at her. About 5 second long, but it feels longer, since nothing is really happening so that we notice when Tifa sighs and Cloud takes a breath
(4) Another long (12 seconds) shot, where we watch Tifa walk from the behind the counter to one stool away from Cloud in real time. The camera holds on
(4b) for about 2 seconds to make sure we take notice of the distance Tifa puts between them.
(5) Finally someone speaks! We are halfway through the scene, and the only sounds we've heard up until now are Tifa sighing, walking and pouring herself a drink. The OST (Star of Seventh, an appropriately slow/lo-fi remix of Tifa's Theme) doesn't start playing in the background until Cloud speaks.
(6) brief shot of Tifa then a cut to
(7) of her playing with her drink as she answers. In this game, close-ups of a character's hands are usually a way to express the anxiety that they cannot say out loud. Tifa's still speaking as we cut to:
(8) a very similar shot to
(4b) from a slightly wider angle. We know that neither character has moved so this isn't to re-establish their geography, instead it's to emphasize the distance between them.
(9) Tifa finishes --
(10) Cloud responds
(11) Tifa's reaction to Cloud's response. She doesn't say a word, though this shot is longer than any of the shots where a character is speaking
(12) Last shot more or less from the ceiling fan's POV. A third wide shot highlighting the distance between them. The scene begins with the fan and ends with the fan (the rest of Avalanche come up after this, their time alone is over). Since neither Cloud nor Tifa are moving or speaking, the fan's movement makes up for the characters lack of movement. With each rotation, we think about the what's left unsaid.
I can't think of any other scene in this game (non-action/mission related, at least) where so much time is spent is spent on two characters in silence (well, other than Tifa's resolution that is). The tension is established with the length of the shots, the deliberate framing of their distance (3 separate wideshots in a 1 minute scene!), as well as the movement of the ceiling fan that contrasts with their stillness.
The timeline is a bit different, but I think this is the Remake version of the OG scene where Tifa reminds Cloud of the Promise to get to him to join the next mission (Cloud remembering the Promise, of course, comes in the next Chapter). In line with her Remake characterization, rather than mentioning the Promise explicitly, she merely references it, so that if/when Cloud doesn't remember, it won't feel like as direct of a rejection.
The timing of this scene in the Remake also adds another layer of melancholy/longing to Tifa's statement. After a nice day of doing sidequests/reconnecting with her childhood friend, one of the last things Cloud does is nearly murder Johnny to shut him up. She notices the hardness in his eyes and begins to realize that her childhood friend has become someone she does not recognize. Of course, right before this, she makes him a drink and they flirt, but she is still very much putting on a cherry facade at that point. And she puts that facade back on immediately once everyone else joins them, but in this moment, she is quite vulnerable and real.
But she is also shy and wary, so she sits one seat away from him and waits for him to speak first. He asks her how she's feeling, but he's still trying to play it cool and detached. When she replies with a reference to the Promise, it completely goes over his head. He's still being supportive in his own way, but it's not what she's looking for at all. She wanted to see if the Cloud sitting next to her is the same boy she made who made a Promise with her as a child. She wants him to choose to stay of his own volition. And so his response is quite disappointing.
You can see it in
(11) - she sighs, kind of shakes her head, looks like she's about to say something, but doesn't. Then everyone else arrives, and they've missed their chance. Despite all the time they've spent together that day, the emotional distance between them feels as wide as ever. Cloud may not be as aware of it, but Tifa definitely is.
I also wonder if the ceiling fan was shown here because Cloud later remembers the Promise because he sees a random fan on the roof of a building, which reminds him of the fan at the Water Tower in Nibelheim --- but that may be a bit galaxy brain of me.
