'The Master' clip analysis: By Matthew Neale
In the clip from the movie 'The Master', the use of low-key
lighting in the first scene where the family are having dinner gives a sinister
feeling to the conversation in which the family is having at the table. This is
because the low-key lighting takes the attention away from the background,
making it nothing but black, and focuses fully on the dinner table and the
people surrounding it. This attracted my attention to the conversation, making
me focus more on what they are saying and with the low-key lighting it made the
situation a lot tenser. In addition, diegetic sounds also added to the sinister
feeling of this scene. This is because of the pace and sound of the actor’s
voice, as if they were intimidated by their father, but also as If there was
some urgency in what they were trying to say, like it is something that needed
to be dealt with straight away. Also in this scene, there was also a use of
chiaroscuro lighting. This Italian term refers to the contrast of lighting
between light and dark in the scene. For example, all family members in the
scene besides the father had half of their face covered by the shadow, where as
the father had no shadows on him at all. This firstly links in to the idea that
the father is more powerful, but it also brings all the attention to be focused
on him rather than on his family.
In addition, from the first scene at the dinner table, the
use of a low camera angle facing the father gave me the feeling that he was
more powerful and was the leader from the group. This is because the low angle
camera shot gave me the feeling that he was above me making me feel smaller and
less powerful than him. However, with all the other characters the camera shot
was at eye level giving me a natural felling, as if to say I could relate to
them and how they are feeling in that situation at a dinner table, as a son or
daughter is never the most powerful person present when their parents are
there. To continue, we can also tell that the father was the more powerful
character due to the mise-en-scene. This was because the father was sat at the
head of the table, which is wear the head of the family normally sits, whereas
the rest of the family are sat down the sides of the table. To add on, the mise-en-scene
also gave me the feeling that the family was quite wealthy. This idea could be
the reason as to why when we look at the father we are seeing him from a
low-angle, as he may have gained all his power from being rich. And money is
what allocates someone with power.
Furthermore, in the first scene, the son says ‘I don’t think
Freddy is as committed to the cause as us’. This personally gives me a sense of
curiosity as to what he meant by ‘the cause’. And with the sinister effect
created by the lighting it gave me the first Impression that the family was a
cult of some sort, the lowkey lighting in the scene also gave me this
impression as it created a dark scene and the chiaroscuro lighting also
shadowed half of the faces of all family members besides the father. Which is
an effect that can be used to contrast light and dark, but also made me think
that half of their face was covered, because they are evil on the inside but
seem good to everyone on the outside.
However, after this conversation has taken place, we get
shown high key lighting, which is used mostly in good scenarios for example a
romance. Anything where there is a good thing about to happen. This more
lightening scene made me change my mind about what was going on as I know felt
that the low-key, sinister lighting used in that scene, was used to show that
the conversation they were having was dark, and off putting, however them as a
family, may actually seem to be nice people. However, like I said they could be
good on the outside and bad on the inside as the chiaroscuro lighting showed
me.
To continue, further long in the clip there is a scene in
which a character called ‘Freddy’ s receiving help from the father. This showed
me that the father was a doctor of some sort and was offering aid to help
Freddy with mental illness perhaps. Showing us that the film could be part of
the sub-genre for drama ‘mental illness’ and because the film is of the Drama
genre, it means that the film is following the standard genre conventions. An
example of this is how the film shows the characters emotions and how they are over-dramatic,
like when ‘Freddy’ is going wall to wall telling the ‘Father’ what he is seeing
and felling, with his eyes closed. This is because ‘Freddy’ starts to get
really annoyed at the repetitiveness of what he is doing, causing him to punch
the wooden wall and break it and in drama going over the top with emotions is
seen as a convention.
Comments
Post a Comment