Creed Film Techniques

 

Time stamp: 10:00-13:29

 

The scene open up with a close up taken from a slightly low angle of Adonis taping his hands

before entering into the gym on a bright sunny day. After showing the taping the camera beings

to tilt in order to show Adonis’s face. This is done as a way of showing that the most important

part about what is about to happen has to do with Adonis’s hands rather than his face.

This highlights the fact that Adonis’s world will continue to be dictated by what he can do with

his hands and not by what he can do with his looks. This scene also serves to demonstrate

that even though Adonis is the son of famed fighter Apollo Creed, Adonis knows that anything

that he wants to gain will have to be earned with his own 2 hands. This scene is accompanied

by the sounds of sirens howling and traffic passing by.

 

 

The second shot includes a medium shot focusing on the outside glass of the gym. The glass

reads “Home of Apollo Creed” which once again brings attention to Adonis’s father and the

reputation which he had built.

 

 

Our next cut is a low shot of two people sparing in the boxing ring within the gym. This view

however is obstructed by the jabbing hands of two other fighters. This is done to show that this

space is not one of glory, rather quite the opposite as in this gym there is nothing but men

agonizingly working towards a goal of pulverizing others with nothing but dim and grimy lights

accompanying them.

 Eye level shots are then taken from behind Adonis as he walks up to the trainer of the gym. This is done with low and dim lighting to show the gym’s character. In the gym we hear some undefined music which serves to show that the music is not important rather, that it was diagetic and on in the background as the fighters are sparing.

 

The shot then is taken from a slightly high position as they look down at the money which

Adonis has brought as proof of his winnings.

 

There are then a series of eye level close up shots taken while it would seem that all the light

which is infiltration the scene is coming from the windows as it reflects off of the characters faces

creating a sidelit effect.

Adonis then goes on to fight against 2 people, one of them being the 31-0 Danny Wheeler.

This fact is brought to us by spelling out Wheeler’s achievements in writing to his left as he

walks up to the ring. He walks up in a slightly high shot to show that Adonis is watching Wheeler

approach from inside the ring which is raised.

 

This is followed by a series of low shots taken from outside of the ropes to make the viewer feel as though they are in the crowd surrounding the ring. The fight then draws to a close when the camera synced up with Wheeler’s punch which sent Adonis to the ground. The move present is either that of a crane or drone as the camera was extremely mobile and focused on Adnois’s face as he fell as opposed to a larger shot of his entire body.

 

Finally the scene is concluded with a low shot of Wheeler walking away victorious while the main sound that you hear is a woozy voice of the trainer telling Adonis “I tried to tell you, but you don’t want to listen”. This is done to show Adonis’s state being that he cannot clearly hear after he got embarrassed in a fight. We get one more closeup of Adonis laying in the ring sideways as he spits his mouth guard out, showing that he accepts his loss.