As most epic battle scenes go, there will be just so much happening at once that it's kind of hard to really determine the meaning in a lot of the choices made in this scene. And I happy announce that this one was no different; however, we you look deeper, you can notice the enormous amount of important details as to why these fast moving choices are made to contribute to the final culmination to probably one of the best movies every made by one of the most entertaining pop culture franchise in Marvel.
From cuts back and forth from fight scene to fight scene, or all the shot choices made prior to the main battle, it is clear that Ryan Coogler wanted this epic climax to encompass the essential elements of what has made up this record-breaking film. And those elements consist of just these basic film techniques that make Black Panther a classic Marvel film.
Now in terms of color, there is much diversity found in this segment of a scene that I chose. Various mixes of darks and lights go along with the cliché theme of good vs evil found in literally every superhero movie. But, this diversity of color also somewhat symbolizes the environment of Wakanda. This kingdom is diverse in culture, tribes, architecture, technology, etc. which all comes back to the choice of color that Ryan Coogler uses.
Alright, enough of this, on to the three hours of work that I crammed in right before this blog post was due. Here we go!
the shot
| A shot is an uninterrupted sequence of film/video bounded by edits. Note that camera and/or actors can move or zoom, and any elements below can change as that happens. | ||||||||||
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focal depth/ implied proximity | Closer to people’s faces seems more intimate and “about” the character, usually. | ||||||||||
extreme long shot/ establishing shot (XLS) | View outside of Vibranium mine. | 1:41:14 | |||||||||
long shot (LS) | Killmonger and everyone else runs towards the crash. | 1:42:15 | |||||||||
medium long shot (MLS) | Killmonger vs. guards. | 1:44:05 | |||||||||
medium shot (MS) | "Two shot" between T'Challa and Killmonger. | 1:42:45 - 1:42:53 | |||||||||
medium close up (MCU) | Chest up shot of W'Kabi. | 1:42:06 | |||||||||
close up (CU) | We get almost a neck up shot, but mainly focusing on the disappointment found on Okoye's face during the conversation between Killmonger and W'Kabi. | 1:41:54 | |||||||||
big close up (BCU) | |||||||||||
extreme close up (XCU) | |||||||||||
close up | We get a close up on Nakia's armor that she doesn't want to grab. | 1:45:43 | |||||||||
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angle | Looking up gives them power. Looking down disempowers them. | ||||||||||
bird’s eye | |||||||||||
high | Looking down on the space between T'Challa and everyone else | 1:42:41 | |||||||||
eye level | At eye level with W'Kabi and Killmonger | 1:41:44 - 1:41:47 | |||||||||
low | Looking up at the plane crash with W'Kabi and Killmonger. | 1:42:10 | |||||||||
worm’s eye | 90° up from looking to the top of the Vibranium mine. | 1:41:30 | |||||||||
canted/Dutch | |||||||||||
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movement | tilt | Our moving drone camera stops, then our "camera person" is stationary while camera moves up to view the opening of the mine. | 1:41:30 | ||||||||
ped/dolly |
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pan | 1:41:35 - 1:41:37 | ||||||||||
crab/truck | Camera is stationary but we move with W'Kabi for a brief shot. | ||||||||||
crane/drone | We get a drone flythrough inside of the operations happening within the Vibranium mine. | 1:41:14 - 1:41:30 | |||||||||
POV/subjective/”I”/eye camera | We get a POV shot of Killmonger and W'Kabi looking up at the plane crashing. | 1:42:10 | |||||||||
handheld | |||||||||||
dolly zoom/Vertigo shot | |||||||||||
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plane | foreground | 3 planes before T'Challa destroys an armed plane/ship. | The spear à | 1:44:22 | |||||||
midground | T'Challa à | ||||||||||
background | The plane/ship à | ||||||||||
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space | onscreen | vs. | |||||||||
offscreen | |||||||||||
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open | vs. | The top of frame is free to show where the open space of battle will take place. | 1:42:41 | ||||||||
closed | The top is closed in before it expands out in the next cut. | 1:42:39 | |||||||||
| A mix of T'Challa and his surrondings. | 1:42:30 | |||||||||
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diagonals | balanced/centered | This shot of T'Challa, as he is still facing what stands between him and his throne, shows that he is meant to rule as his surrondings are balanced and centered. | |||||||||
| Medium scale ex. à | 1:43:08 | |||||||||
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oblique/unbalanced | Surroundings of Killmonger are unbalance because we know he is not morally worthy to rule as the "villian". | ||||||||||
| Medium scale ex. à | 1:42:46 | |||||||||
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lighting | Note the way 3-point lighting works, first. The fill light removes shadows. The back light makes figures pop from the background. | ||||||||||
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low contrast/high key |
| This contrast of lighting is present throughout the scene | 1:41:14 - 1:46:00 | ||||||||
high contrast/low key |
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sidelit |
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underhead |
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overhead | |||||||||||
backlit |
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frontlit |
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“Obie” or eye light | |||||||||||
oddities | diagetic lights | Parts of the walls inside the mine are lit by the Wakanda sun | 1:41:30 | ||||||||
lens flare | |||||||||||
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photography |
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aspect ratios
| See this diagram – the top 3 traditonally used 35mm film. | ||||||||||
1.33:1 (4:3) | |||||||||||
1.78:1 (16x9) & 1.85:1 | |||||||||||
2.39:1 | Anamorphic widescreen is used throughout this whole scene and the movie in general. | 1:41:14 - 1:46:00 | |||||||||
2.75:1 | |||||||||||
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lens
| Films often use various lenses. | ||||||||||
wide angle | |||||||||||
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telephoto/zoom | For a brief moment the lens is out of focus, then comes into focus, and then back out when Killmonger turns his head to Okoye while he speaks. (You could also call this moment in the scene having rack focus, as well) | 1:42:02 -1:42:05 | |||||||||
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| (See above) | (1:42:02 -1:42:05) | |||||||||
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image quality | Film is a sandwich of light-sensitive particles in fluidic emulsion sandwiched between harder layers of acetate. Less expensive and/or faster film leaves more unresponsive particles in the emulsion, leading to speckly grain. This can be an aesthetic choice (gritty, realistic, etc.) | ||||||||||
film | grain | ||||||||||
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condition | |||||||||||
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quality | |||||||||||
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video | “quad” tape | ||||||||||
Hi8 | |||||||||||
| digital | high res | Used throughout the whole scene | 1:41:14 - 1:46:00 | ||||||||
degradations added/virtual grain | |||||||||||
low res | |||||||||||
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exposure | The amount of overall light. | ||||||||||
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underexposure | extreme |
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somewhat |
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“day for night” | |||||||||||
“correct” exposure |
| There is correct exposure throughout this scene. | 1:41:14 - 1:46:00 | ||||||||
overexposure | in darkness | ||||||||||
in light | |||||||||||
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editing | The joining of shots together. | ||||||||||
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styles | “classical cutting” | The norm for editing for 100+ years. The idea is to explain scene transitions in and out of a space. | |||||||||
| outside in | Surprisingly none since the opening part of the scene was a drone shot that was never cut. | |||||||||
| inside out | planes inside the mines lookin up .......... to ......... outside of the mines flying away | 1:43:03 - 1:43:06 | ||||||||
| master shot & coverage | We get all kinds of angles and cuts between this conversation from W'Kabi and Killmonger. For example: 1:41:40 - 1:42:00 | |||||||||
| cross cutting/ parallel editing | At 1:43:10 we go from T'Challa approaching Killmonger and the rest of Wakanda to Shuri, Nakia, and Ross sneaking behind now "enemy" lines. Again at 1:45:21 we go from the battle to the other three going through their plan to help T'Challa. | |||||||||
montage | From 1:44:37 to about 1:45:00 of just constant cuts and edits of the start of the battle. | ||||||||||
| some cut types | For the examples below, look sharp! The edit is pretty immediate (and indicated by the “X” in my descriptions below.. And because edits can be quick, make sure you see the first one, otherwise 3 or 4 edits will go by and you’ll wonder which it is. | |||||||||
invisible (ish) | match on action | Guard charges at Killmonger X Strikes him now in view | 1:44:00 - 1:44:02 | ||||||||
eyeline match | W'Kabi looks X T'Challa is approaching | 1:43:24 | |||||||||
graphic match | Front of shield soldiers X Back of shield soldiers | 1:44:16 | |||||||||
shot reverse shot | Okoye warns W'Kabi X W'Kabi reacts with no emotion but only with the intent to start the battle. | 1:43:22 - 1:43:24 | |||||||||
the hook | |||||||||||
lapping/sound bridge/ J or L cut | Weapons be carried up the stairs of plane X W'Kabi starts conversation with Killmonger | 1:41:39 | |||||||||
visible | jump cut | ||||||||||
flash/smash cut | |||||||||||
symbolic match | W'Kabi blows horn X His Soldiers Chant X Rhino's appear | 1:45:00 - 1:45:05 | |||||||||
dissolve | |||||||||||
fade | |||||||||||
wipe | |||||||||||
iris | |||||||||||
animation | |||||||||||
sound | These 5 pairs of terms can overlap and serve to differentiate kinds of sounds. For example, a voiceover is diagetic… | ||||||||||
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| diagetic | Diagetic sound found 99% of the time even with non-diagetic playing over it. | 1:41:14 - 1:46:00 | ||||||||
| non-diagetic | Soundtrack ensues with drone shot until T'Challa returns. | 1:41:14 - 1:42:08 | ||||||||
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| onscreen | We see Killmonger talking to W'Kabi. | 1:41:40 - 1:42:08 | ||||||||
| offscreen | Plane crashing down caused by T'Challa, while the camera is focused on Killmonger's conversation. | 1:42:08 | ||||||||
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| simultaneous | Only simultaneous sound found in this scene. | 1:41:14 - 1:46:00 | ||||||||
| nonsimulataneous | ||||||||||
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| synchronous | Only synchronus sound found in this scene. | 1:41:14 - 1:46:00 | ||||||||
| asynchronous | ||||||||||
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| external | Only external sound found in this scene. | 1:41:14 - 1:46:00 | ||||||||
| internal | ||||||||||
Hi Easton, while I am impressed with the amount of film techniques you discovered throughout this scene, I would like to see a screenshot/image of the scenes that you analyzed. Without the images, I can't really tell or see the scene in your perspective that way it can convince me to change my viewpoint. What is it about this scene that grabbed your attention? What are the details that I can see in the scenes but cannot see in the film techniques? I think that if you were to add these images it would make me understand why you chose this scene and why it is significant to you.
ReplyDeleteHey Easton, I think a good thesis/ argument for you here would be to talk about what makes a good fight scene or what an effective fight scene needs. So if you think this is the ultimate fight scene then you should point out all of the effects and clips that make it work. On the other hand if you don't think this fight scene is the best it could be you could point out why it isn't as effective, and show in comparison a different fight scene you feel like is better.
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