se7en - "what's in the box!?"

the scene i choose for my analysis is from the very end of the film "se7en", directed by david fincher. (major spoilers ahead for anyone who hasn't seen it before) the scene in question is moments after john doe has told detective mills that... (here's that spoiler we talked about)

...the box that was just delivered to the random desert they're in contained the severed head of his wife, tracy. mills is, understandably, a little upset about this. the shot above provides such a great silhouette of mills in this dramatic moment

john doe goes on to inform mills that his wife was also pregnant at the time. john doe's callous composure is particularly unnerving as he's framed dead center of the screen staring almost directly into the camera.

detective somerset, having remained relatively cool-headed throughout the film, now has his one moment of anger slip out as he slaps john doe in the face.  

there's a great little switch of viewpoints right at the moment of impact. 

it's after the slap that things get particularly tense. john doe's plan here is to motivate mills into killing him, thus completing his seven deadly sins killing spree. once again, worth noting how dark mills appears in contrast to his bright background. 

the anguish on mills as he has to find out not only did he lose his wife, but he also lost his unborn child he was previously unaware of. for once in the course of the movie, he doesn't have anything to say.

john doe taunts mills; "he didn't know"

at this moment you can see the panic in somerset. like mills, there's such a stark contrast with their lighting and the light behind them. almost as if the darkness on their faces is coming directly from john doe. 

mills wants so desperately to be told it isn't true.

for whatever reason, when i try to add a caption or center the picture of mills above this one, it screws up all of my other ones, so i'm going to mention both here: "give me the gun, david" mills has his moment when he doesn't lie to somerset, essentially confirming john doe's story. mills, at this point, has lost all hope.

"david, if you kill him..."

"...he will win." and he knows it, too. it's only in his last moments that we see john doe's farming shift away from the creepy centering to a more traditional look, but with the majority of his face now covered in darkness.

mills is doing all he can not to pull the trigger.

one of the most important shots of the film, also the shortest. most people probably don't even realize it's there it's so short. i've seen this movie three or four times and i've been aware there was a moment where i thought i saw tracy in this scene, but could never actually describe what i saw it was so quick. this is essentially how it works for mills. he has a flash of seeing his wife's face, and that's what seals the deal for him. 

the contentment of knowing he has won.

by pulling out at the moment of the shot, it makes it feel a little less personal. in this shot,  it looks less like the result of two minutes of intense buildup and more like an execution. 

longer than the shot of tracy, but still a very quick cut here. 

anddddd back to the execution where you can still see a cloud of john doe's blood as it exits his head. 

oh, and a police chopper is watching the whole thing. they freak out. 

with john doe clearly dead, mills continues to shoot him multiple times, alleviating his wrath.

this final shot is mills and somerset walking in opposite directions, as seen by the police chopper. another instance of seeing the situation through a less up close and personal viewpoint. mills and somerset understand what happened, but to others, mills killing john doe will never be justified. 

motivated camera movement

1) "it follows" (film)

https://youtu.be/rfxzFCDGzj8

"it follows" is a film with that uses quite a bit of camera movement. many if not most scenes in the film begin with a slow pan. this does a great job to really help establish the tense atmosphere in the film. watching it, each scene you're searching for anything walking towards the characters or anything out of place.

2) "bad motherfucker" by biting elbows (music video)

https://youtu.be/Rgox84KE7iY

so, technically not a film/tv show/commercial, but while thinking of interesting camera movements, this music video came to mind because it's basically a first-person action film. so, some pretty atypical camera movement going on here. there are moments in films/shows where the camera is representative of a person's point of view, but usually not for very long. here the camera movement doesn't suggest what you look at, it does the job of looking at it for you. this creates a sense of excitement you don't usually get. because with this video you are the one right in the middle of all the action. p.s. if anyone watched this video and wished it was two hours longer, the director has a full-length film coming out soon in the same style, "hardcore henry".

3) "hannibal" (tv show)

https://youtu.be/5r_t03SGtDw

"hannibal" is without a doubt the most beautifully shot tv show i've ever seen. the creator, bryan fuller, told every director who worked on the show that they weren't making television, they were making "pretentious art film from the 80s" and it truly doesn't look like television. i tried to find the best youtube video i could that wouldn't spoil anything for anyone who hasn't seen this show. (if you haven't seen it, i obviously highly recommend it) within this clip, there's a lot of movement, but the main one that sticks out for me is the shot from 2:05 - 2:20. here we see will imagining himself as the killer, playing the *ahem* instrument. as the camera tilts upward, our focus shifts from the instrument being played to the seemingly empty seats being played for and finally to the sole spectator within the seats. this tilt serves as a visual representation of the shift in will's mind as he realizes the killer's focus was not on the creation of the instrument, but rather in obtaining the approval of his own sole spectator. it's depth like this that really makes me love "hannibal".

doc storytelling: justin oliver

justin oliver documentary

gear head blogs

1) no film school

"charlie kaufman's sundance cinema cafe"

i was immediately very excited to see charlie kaufman's name in a headline on this site. i'm a big fan of his and have really been itching to see his new film, "anomalisa". this video is kinda long (just under an hour) so there were sections i kinda skimmed over but overall a pretty interesting discussion exploring every step of this film's process, from the animators' relationship to the characters to the amount of realism these characters should achieve.


charlie kaufman's sundance cinema cafe

2) indie tips

"shutter speed and shutter angle explained"

since we were just talking about shutter speed the other day, i checked out this post to compliment our lecture. it was interesting to see actual comparative examples of various shutter speeds and shutter angles and seeing the different possible uses for either.


shutter speed and shutter angle explained