Photography Essay

            Photography is a catalyst to film. Through a cinematic shot, the director and cinematographer collaborate to visually create images in the film which capture its essence and symbolism. As Dorothea Lange has said, “ Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.”  Cinematographers work to capture the form of an image to symbolically represent its content in order to “alter life” in the context of a film. Through the utilization of photography, filmmakers have the ability to explore ethical implications by the presentation of cinematic shots. In this manner, highly debated issues of ethics are introduced to a wide audience in the creative outlet of film. Ethical dilemmas such as morality, love, and honor are questioned within The Usual Suspects, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Gladiator, in order to utilize various photographic techniques to convey each film’s ethical message.

        

Within The Usual Suspects, morality is questioned through the 
success of the villain justifying immoral 

actions and is demonstrated through the photography within the film. From the opening shot, the overbearing dominance of the villain, Keyser Soze, is introduced in order to establish his persona. Through the usage of low camera angles and close up shots, Keyser’s height increases as the camera pans upward on him urinating on the fire from above. Low key lighting establishes the film noir through the usage of shadows and darkness to further showcase the villainess behavior of Keyser. High contrast lighting of the fire surrounding the characters adds to the hell/devil metaphors, which Keyser emulates. Flames in the background surround Keaton entrapping him in high angle eye level shots of him glancing upward at Keyser. The photographic techniques are used to add to the mystery of the film and cause the audience to piece together their own predictions of Keyser’s identity. This is crucial in establishing the backwards-moral code which this film showcases. Having the audience question Keyser’s identity causes sympathy to play out for the other characters of the film making it easier to justify the opening scene later on. Keyser’s dominance causes the audience to glorify his immoral actions by the end of the film instead of fear them because of his revealed identity changing the perception of the scene. Film student Adam Clowry shares this perception of justified immoral actions by the statement, “ While the plot of The Usual Suspects is important, even more important is the manner in which it is told” (The Usual Suspects: An Analysis). Having a non-linear plot ensures the unpredictability of Keyser’s identity allowing the audience to sympathize with the other characters, especially Verbal. Verbal is characteristic innocent. His meek mannerisms, limp, and fear throughout the film cause him to appear the least likely of evil. As such, the audience believes in Verbal , the all trusting narrator of the film, and as Clowry says , is essential to the “manner in which it (the story) is told” (The Usual Suspects: An Analysis). The audience cheers for immorality because the audience falls in love with Verbal not Keyser. Furthermore, the scene when Keyser’s identity is revealed the audience’s identification with Verbal justifies his unethical actions. As Verbal limps down the steps of the police station, the long shot follows him down the street as characteristics of Verbal disappear. When Verbal passes the camera, the shot switches from eye level to low angle amplifying the understanding of Verbal’s identity as his limp disappears. The following scene is essential in the evolution of the film. It causes the audience to glorify Verbal’s actions as intellectual and epic. Although Verbal has killed, manipulated, and caused harm to many in the process, his immoral actions are forgotten because he is not Keyser the villain, but Verbal the character the

audience has grown to love. Naturally the underdog, the realistic/classical cinema element used in the film causes the audience to identity more with Verbal because he is so characteristic of the everyday man. Realists shoot the film without much manipulation in order to capture Verbal in a more relatable context to justify his immorality by the end of the film. Through the use of various photography techniques within The Usual Suspects, morality is questioned and immoral actions justified.

            Within Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, photography techniques are used to question ethics through manipulation of love by technology demonstrating how all relationships, even the painful ones, are worth having. Through the loss of Joel’s memories of Clementine, the audience sees how Joel has the unique ability to fall in love with the memories all over again. By having the opportunity to view a relationship backwards, the audience sees the importance of retaining the memories of lost loves not only for the bad, but for all the good. When the house crumbles around them, Joel’s final memories of the two fall apart as well. The conflicting forces of Joel and Clementine are shown in their cool and warm colors. Joel’s calmness, tranquility, and boring qualities are contracted with Clementine’s passion for life and love, impulsivity, and anger. The realist lighting has a symbolic importance of the memories slipping away as darkness in the background contrasts with the spotlight following Joel in the foreground which he is unable to escape. The light suggests there still is a hope of love even when darkness comes to take it. A blurred filter begins to fill the screen as the memories fall apart with the house. Medium shots pan to Joel’s feet then face emphasizing his remorse and nostalgia over their relationship. Through this scene, the audience sees the unethicalness of losing the memories of love through the regret and closure which the two possess. Expressionists use the formalistic cinema of the house crumbling around Joel and Clementine to portray the importance of having a relationship even if it ends. Love is worth saving even as a house crumbles around it. The audience feels the closure and doesn’t want the relationship to end proving the unethicalness of manipulating love through technology. In an analytical essay, Ph.D. student Kelley L. Ross states, “Much of the power of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is that the process of forgetting itself appears to reveal that there was enough there, that there always was enough of an affinity, that even a great deal of work would be worth the effort to renew the relationship”(Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind).  Through brining up

the unethical nature of removing memories, the film proves the power of keeping those memories in the hope of renewing love again. The risk of love is worth taking even if it all does fall apart because of its hope. Hope in love is constant. Even if the same relationship does not resurface, there is a hope in finding love again and learning from past mistakes. Finally, the parallel train scene from the beginning and end of the film showcases how painful it is to watch when the characters no longer remember their relationship. Realism is used to capture the realistic aspect of their love before the audience sees it fall apart and come back together again. It defines the relationship as something real before creating a formalistic statement of their love. Even natural lighting, the realist light preference, is used to capture their love realistically. Furthermore, the characters find love again despite their memories of each other no longer existing. Joel and Clementine decide that although their relationship ended once in turmoil, it is still worth having. They both still have a hope in their love. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind uses the importance of having a relationship even if it does end, to justify the immoral action of erasing love through technology.

            Within Gladiator, honor is questioned in order to redefine its meaning through the usage of various photography techniques. In the opening scene, Maximus is preparing and experiencing his final battle before returning home. A deep focus eye level shot pans in on Maximus contemplating the battle he is about to engage in. Long/medium oblique angle shots follow the battle in order to capture visually the anxiety of the moment at hand. Cool low key colors of the surroundings contrast the warm high key colors of flames which surround the battle. Through the usage of slow stock, these colors are captured vividly contrasting the fast stock often used for documentary style filming. The immense amount of harm and killing showcased in this first scene is used as a comparison for honor’s evolution in the film. Maximus feels fighting is necessary in ensuring the greatness of Rome. He kills because he has to. The opening scene is grotesque and intense because the audience sees the affect war has on its soldiers. It opens the question is war worth the lives it costs? Honor appears to be the number of bodies which a soldier kills, but is killing really an act worth praising through the glorification of war? Rob Wilson compares the Roman Empire within Gladiator to Pax- America by stating, “Ridley Scott’s Gladiator is situated and decoded not just as a representation of the Roman Empire but as a blasted allegorization of the Pax Americana itself in its modes of moral innocence, Euro-civililizational ratification, soft hegemony, and hegemonic technologies of sublime spectacle” (Gladiator). Wilson points out the pure hypocrisy of killing for sport and entertainment out of a need for glorified honor which, in a different context, violence plays a role today. The people of Rome find entertainment in the gladiator games and consider it an honor to die for Rome. As Maximus soon realizes, he was killing for Rome all along only to see the city’s current state was not worth fighting for. What is honor then? A final scene of the film

occurs when Maximus kills Commodus in the games. The medium shots pan cyclically surrounding Commodus and Maximus by guards and the fans of the games. From the perspective of a man who has seen death constantly as a soldier, the unnecessary death displayed in the games seems ludicrous. The true honor is seen through Maximus knowing when to kill and when to not. He remains a good man despite his loss of family, home, and title. Commodus dying proves to the audience how crazy the games truly are, by killing the man who re-started them. Maximus’s death shows that all killing comes with a cost. It is not something to be gloried, but mourned. Within Gladiator, honor is redefined in order to make a statement on what it means to kill using photography techniques.

            Ethical dilemmas are constantly debated. Within The Usual Suspects, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Gladiator ethical issues of morality, love, and honor are questioned in order to portray their deeper meaning. Through the use of photography, cinematographers are able to capture scenes with their ethical implications. With the power of photography in film, a cinematographer has the rare opportunity to truly “alter life by holding it still” (Dorothea Lange). 

Works Cited

"Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. N.p., n.d. Web. 27      Sept. 2014. <http://www.friesian.com/sunshine.htm>.

"Gladiator ." Rob Wilson . N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Sept. 2014.                       <http://www2.ucsc.edu/aparc/Rob%20Wilson%20for%20APARC/Gladiator%5B1%5D.pdf_1.pdf>.

"The Usual Suspects: An Analysis." A Lowry. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Sept. 2014.     <http://tnlproductions.wordpress.com/2011/11/27/the-usual-suspects-an-analysis/#comments>.

MLA formatting by BibMe.org.

Mise en Scene Terms

Meg, Daria, Sarah 

Parallelism 

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 

Toy Story 

Iris 

Women in White 

Silent Film 

Closed/Open Form 

Closed Form: The Shining 

Open Form: Princes Mononoke 

Depth 

Deep Focus Shot

Shallow Focus Shot 

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a formalist film. Expressionists work to edit the film so the shots are distorted or stylized from reality in order to portray the deeper meaning behind the film. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind uses the loss of Joel's memories of Clementine to showcase the rawness and truth of love in its formalistic style of form over content. It questions if a relationship is worth having if it is bound to end? Are the memories worth keeping? Nihilism is a philosophical doctrine which suggests that everything is temporary and nothing lasts. A relationship always commences with the optimism that it will last forever, but Nihilism suggests the risk of love is not worth taking if it is all bound to fall apart. In the scene above, the two opposing forces of Clementine and Joel are always being torn apart. The warm colors of Clementine, representing this passion for life and love, as well as impulsivity and anger are attracted to the cool colors of Joel, representing a calmness and levelheadedness perceived sometimes as boring and brooding. The house crumbles around them as Joel's final memories of the two together fall apart as well. The formalist lighting of darkness in the background stresses the symbolic importance of the memories slipping away as a spotlight follows Joel. The light suggests there is still hope in the darkness of losing the memories. Although love is temporary, it is worth the risk. Worth the risk of a house crumbling down in order to save it. Medium cinematic shots of Joel pan at high and low camera angels to his feet and then face emphasizing his nostalgia and remorse over the loss of Clementine. Still, even as the house fills with water and crumbles around them, there is a hope in Montauk. A hope of love. 

The parallel editing of the scene above foreshadows future events and is as ironic as it is painful.  Close up eye level shots follow the dialogue, and hand held camera movements make this scene one of the few elements of realistic cinema. Within Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the realism is used to capture the realistic aspect of there relationship before and after the audience sees it fall apart and come back together again. It makes the audience connect more with the relationship by defining it as something real before using editing to create a formalistic statement on that love. Little is done stylistically to distort the images playing out before the eyes of the audience, natural light and color are used. The conflicting personalities of the two characters shows through their personalities and warm and cool coloring that is associated with Clementine and Joel. Despite the norms of society pushing them apart, the two characters can not help but be drawn to each other. References to there relationship through Clementine's hair color and name emphasis what they have lost yet there dynamic connection. Even the music suggests the irony of the situation playing out before them, Clementine and Joel oblivious to it all. Parallel to the beginning and end of the movie, the same scene has such a different meaning to its audience. 

The Usual Suspects

The opening scene of The Usual Suspects is all about dominance. A series of low angle shots pan upward to focus in on Keyser above Keaton as he urinates on the fire from above. These low angle shots only increase the height of Keyser and hide his face from the view of the camera. Low key lightining adds to the mystery of the shadows and darkness which is exemplified in the film noir. The darkness, shadows, and flames in this scene further emphasize the devil/hell metaphors that often follow Keyser. The close up shot continues to follow the feat of Keyser, as the only sound which can be heard are his footsteps approaching Keaton. The flames in the background surround Keaton as an eye level angle of him glancing upward suggests a dominating figure above entrapping him to his death. A close up shot of Keyser's lighter igniting a flame further emphasizing his dominance and destruction. Even the sound of the lighter is heightened to the audience. The whole scene foreshadows elements that will piece together the story by the end of the film, the gold lighter and watch are no exception. Often, the camera pans to the entangled ropes which foreshadow later events as well. The iconic tilt of the gun and eery music adds to the gangster ambiance of the film as the two gun shots end the scene. 

As Verbal leaves the police station, the mystery of the story is finally revealed making it a key scene in conjunction with the rest of the film. The long shot of Verbal limping down the steps suggests an on- looker following Verbal as he proceeds down the street. No longer is the voice over done by the trusting narrative of Verbal as the clues of the story piece themselves together. Keyser is repeated constantly as characteristics of Verbal disappear. The shot pans down the street as Verbal passes the camera the eye level angle switches to a low angle. Furthermore, the shot becomes more close up as Verbal's identification becomes more clear. This switch in angles exemplifies the understanding of the audience of the identification of Keyser. Paralleling the first scene, the identification factor of Verbal's limp and nervousness disappears with the low angle shot. The lighting switches to high contrast in the background as Verbal/ Keyser is the low key element in the foreground. The foreshadowing of the gold watch and lighter is further justification of Verbal and Keyser's mutual identify. Verbal enters the black car as it approaches down the street leaving as mysteriously as Keyser's identity. 

What's Eating Gilbert Grape

What's Eating Gilbert Grape explores the evolution of a man who feels entrapped within his own life. Gilbert is stuck in a routine of monetonous responsibilites which he no longer wants to worry over. Through the disability of his brother, weight struggles of his mother, and responsiblity of being the man of the household, Gilbert feels trapped in a town where nothing happens. Shots of Gilbert, as seen above, frame his entrappment through the busyness of the background around him and the bored expression on his face in the foreground. All of these "background images" display the chaos that goes on around him which he can not escape. Dialogue often hints at the entrappment which Gilbert feels. When Betty says the reason she chose to be with Gilbert was because she "knew he'd never leave", this exchange demonstrates the general knowledge of Gilbert being stuck in Endora due to his obligations. Becky is the freedom which Gilbert so desires. Shots and framing with Becky include an open background, as seen above, often of the countryside which is used to represent this freedom and openness which she emulates. Her whole life of movement and change is the stark opposite of Gilbert's and it is what attracts Gilbert to her in the first place. 

The Grape home represents the entrapment of the family and provides justification for its destruction. In this shot above, the decaying color of the walls and dirtiness of the home demonstrate something once whole that has been worn down by many years of distress. The house and the family have diegesis, stories underneath the surface, that attribute to the deterioration physically of the home. The father's suicide, the mother's weight, and the children's eternal battles all are examples of the diegesis this film presents. As Gilbert begins to realize how to discover his own freedom through Becky, the home's destruction serves as the final representation of his new beginning. The parallel shot from the beginning to the end of the film, the mobile homes driving in, portrays Gilbert's full evolution as a character. A man once not able to find freedom and happiness in his own life is able to start fresh through fulfillment in his new life. 

Basic Terms

Meg, Daria, and Sarah

Auteur 

Quentin Tarantino  

 Quentin Tarantino Films 

Focus 

Moving from Out of Focus into Focus    

Out of Focus 

Out of Focus vs. In Focus 

Genre 

Science Fiction 

Flash Back/FlashForward 

Toy Story 2 Flash Back Sequence

Before 

After 

A Little About Me...

Begin Again is one of my all time favorite movies. A person's love for music carries them away from the overproduced music industry to the stripped down core of the writer's own voice. It is rare to find a film that intertwines a musical score without its plot turning into a mass production of show tunes. Begin Again does this flawlessly. To me, the movie wasn't about a singer recording an outdoor album (although the idea of an outdoor recording studio is amazing), but instead a writer using an audial representation of their work to showcase their life. Cinematically, the film captures New York City with all of its urban chaos and makes it beautiful. I left the theater wanting to become a songwriter, even though I possess little of the musicality to become one. When a movie inspires me like that, I know something has been done right. 

I love to travel! A couple of summers ago I went to Europe, and my favorite part of the whole trip was finding little areas of the city that people normally pass over. I find that these glanced over spots are often the most beautiful because they are so untouched. Not untouched in the sense that no one has ever seen them before, but untouched in that they are not overridden by the tourists, but instead by the people who live there. It's almost like seeing the city in the eyes of those who live it everyday. What I love about the picture above is the possibility. It seems so easy to just hop on the bike and explore Italy!

Reading is one of my favorite pass times. As I was looking up pictures which would accurately describe my love of reading, I came across this book shop in Washington D.C. where inside is floor to ceiling stacks of books. It would be so fun to explore the shop one day and just see what you could find. I think that describes why I love to read too. Opening the cover of a book is the possibility of finding anything. One of the first books I fell in love with was Little Women. My mom read it aloud to my sister and I, and she would repeat the line, "I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship" (Louisa May Alcott). Even though I didn't recognize it at the time, it was my first experience of seeing a book resonate with someone and books have with me ever since.