Wednesday, March 9, 2011

There Will Be Blood - Shot by Shot Analysis

The scene I decided to analyze came from the film There Will Be Blood.   This dark, stunning film won an Academy Award for Cinematography and Best Actor.  No one can deny Daniel Day-Lewis’ fantastic acting along with Robert Elswit’s visual masterpiece.  This scene starts off when the newly flowing oil rig catches on fire and the men run towards it to put it out.  It has minimal dialogue along with sparse lighting which amplifies some of themes we find in the movie.  

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This first shot I put up was the establishing shot that shows the engulfing fire coming from the well of oil.  They decided to shoot this shot around dusk which I thought was a great idea.  As the sun goes down, we will eventually see the fire being the only illuminate in the film.  The next two shots lead out to a wider shot as it captures the men rushing to the flame.  They glide through this shot instead of having a natural, shaky camera like a scene you’d see in war. In the first four shots we see Daniel Day-Lewis mainly in the center of the frame, even as the camera moves.  I never noticed while watching the film but as I break it down, I realized how important this character is and why it’s perfect they keep him in the middle.  The next three shots show him taking up the screen, still perfectly in the middle.  One theme of the movie is loneliness.  He is shown with a desolate background; nothing is really in the frame except him and his oil.  That ties into another theme within this movie, greed.

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The next four shots are of Daniel Day-Lewis’ partner doing the same thing he did in trying to maintain the well. It shows the wide shot of them running towards the spike and then ends with a close up the oil fire.  As important as the oil catching fire is, we can still sense about how the main character is obsessed with this profit.  Throughout this scene, we see the main character or the oil taking up the screen.  It sounds absurd to call the oil a character but its importance is key to Daniel Day-Lewis’ character.  It shows he’ll stop at nothing to achieve what he wants.

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This quick shot has Daniel Day-Lewis in the middle with the oil fire.  It’s gotten completely dark so the only illumination is the fire.  We can see on each side of the screen that the cinematography flaring the lens on purpose.  It shows the extreme contrast between the pitch black night and this raging fire.  The oil and the character alone in this shot fit perfectly with the movie.




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We now see Daniel Day Lewis close up on the right with his partner standing in the middle.  He is drenched in oil and with the limited lighting, you can barely see him.  Not only is the scene dark, the character is “dark”.  They could’ve easily lit this shot to show him more but I think keeping him the least lit person exemplifies another theme.  He himself is a dark character.  He’s greedy, heartless and “hates most people” as he states in the film.  

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We have kinda the same image here as we did three shots ago except now the lens flare is even more prominent.  As the sun disappears completely, the true only light is this fire.  The flare almost makes you want to squint as you watch it, making me feel as if I was there.  This once again was not an accident but a purposely film tactic used by Robert Elswit to connect the audience to this scene.  It breaks us from the illusion of film.  The other shot is an extreme wide shot showing the oil fire over the vast desert.  Completely dark and emphasizing on being the only thing worth of value in this desert.





Image and video hosting by TinyPicWe now get a closer shot of his partner and him watching this oil burn.  You can see Daniel Day-Lewis drenched in oil.  Showing them with small distance apart hints on the inevitable distance within their work relationship.  The warm colors coming off of them come from the fire but also can suggest the main character’s passion for his career.
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These two shots cutaway to the main character’s son who is also covered in oil.  He is staring at the fire from a distance but yet we get the most close up shot of this entire scene.  I think they chose to give this kid actor the closest shot because it shows his fascination with the entire thing.  He wants to be just like his father, he wants to be a part of the business.


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In the last three shots, it goes back to Daniel Day-Lewis and his partner. It gets a little closer but not by much because it’s balanced out on each side of the screen. It gets a little darker as it goes on so Daniel Day-Lewis is really dimly lit. I say this darkness about him shows the darkness within. His corruption and greed make up who he is and as he gets what he wants, he doesn’t need anybody else. Although it may not have been intentional, I believe setting these actors this far apart is important. The main character only gets close with his son and that’s about it. He distances himself from everyone because he doesn’t trust them. Seeing him drenched in oil just fits this scene perfectly.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

My Filmmaking Goals

For the future film maker in me, I want to be a director.  Editing, cinematography, and camera operating are enjoyable but I think it’s better to be in control of everything.  I enjoy choosing the shots, the camera angles and the blocking.  It’s difficult to say where my general career is going but I’d rather write and direct my own pieces.  One of my favorite directors would have to be Darren Aronofsky for his different and stylistic directing. 
As for goals for this class, I want to learn better techniques for cinematic visuals.  If that makes sense.  I want to learn how to approach and convey artistic styles without showing them bluntly.  There are a thousand ways to portray an emotion or feeling and that’s the techniques I want to learn how to do.  As I go on throughout this college, I have a feeling I’ll learn what I need to know to start my career.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

My Visual Style

I decided to choose six images that inspire and move me.  I chose one art piece, a movie still and four other images in which some are famous and others that are abstract.

This first image is a picture of an amazing chalk drawing.  I’m simply blown away how artistic this image is.  The waterfall is just beautifully done and the extent of how much work was put in to this is overwhelming.  

This picture was taking over a year ago in Moscow. It’s supposed to be a sign of alien activity on our planet but I don’t believe all that.  I think it’s intriguing because it’s unexplainable.  This strange but perfect halo of light in the sky is just perplexing. It moves me because even though I don’t believe in aliens, it does make me feel like we’re not alone. Haha.


This art by Andy Warhol called Che is inspiring to me because it’s the same image but all of them are different.  For some reason in my mind I relate this to film.  When you’re trying to film a certain scene, you could film it a hundred times and each time could be different. This painting is something I think of when I think of how the same image can change with different effects. 



This desolate road picture is awesome.  It’s dark and could be considered depressing and that’s why I like it.  It’s not a typical picture of a road but it speaks to my artistic style because I appreciate movies that don’t go in the same cookie cutter format as most movies.  Movies that have dark, neurotic characters are the ones that appeal to me the most (American Psycho, Requiem for a Dream).


Jimi Hendrix lighting his guitar on fire is a classic picture.  The reason I like it is because it makes me think of spontaneity and artistic ability.  No one else lights their guitar on fire and this anti-normal act inspires me to be a random film maker. Doing things out of the ordinary is one of my favorite things to do.



My last image is a screen shot from There Will Be Blood.  I could write a book on why I love this movie but I’ll just summarize it in a couple sentences.  This movie’s cinematography motivates me to learn how to light a scene the perfect way.  Also, Daniel Day-Lewis’s character Daniel Plainview is one of the most ruthless characters I’ve ever seen in film.  Pretty much this whole movie inspires me to makes movies. Haha.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

10 Favorite Things

A couple of my favorite movies would have to be....

1. Mission Impossible 2
2. Pulp Fiction
3. Count of Monte Cristo
4. There Will Be Blood
5. Requiem for a Dream
6. Black Swan
7. The Hurt Locker
8. American Psycho
9. American History X
10. Gladiator