Blog 3 - Relationship Between Shots

For this assignment I picked a scene from one of the most under rated films I have seen. A few people think that this movie just doesn't have what it takes to be a solid action film but with its emphasis on silence (audio), pauses, and still shots the specific scene shows that you don't need much to create one of the best scenes from a movie in recent history.
To give a quick description of the scene Ryan Gosling who is "The Driver" is set to pick up two guys from a heist and escape through police trouble.
Every item that is zoomed into to give it a close up shot shows importance in the next scenes to come. The drum like beat in the background of this scene provides the sense of action almost like a fast heart beat the background sound makes the scene even more tense without the use of words or actions. Most of the shots in the beginning of the scene is a close up or an establishing shot with barely any movement in them to provide a brief glance of the setting and switch up the mood to a more tense environment. In the part where he drops off the robbers the music gets louder and camera pans into the actions of the robbers and the location. At this point you don't hear much of the actions going on in the shot such the leather gloves and the watch . You can hear the radio in the background which will be important later in the scene. The whole movie is perfectly set using the rule of thirds. Through out the rest of this scene the audio plays a much more important role in regards to actions. Each shot relates to one another through a simple pattern to keep the viewer intrigued. It first starts with a medium shot with some movement in it then afterwards it pans into a close up shot with very little movement. The lighting also plays a critical role during the police chase where it sets up a nice mood for the scenario they are in. During the chase the audio is simply limited to the helicopter, the car's engine, and the radio. Both the helicopter and engine noise is there to constantly change the mood of the shot while the radio dialogue briefly explains the situation going on which also affects the rhythm and mood of the scene. In the end of this scene the audio becomes like a regular film where you hear everything ( the LA Clippers fans exiting the stadium ) and the film perfectly transitions to the main story of the film with its beautiful soundtrack and back to the close up shots on Ryan Gosling with barely any background movement. The depiction of detail is what makes this scene and the rest of the film great. The way that the director planned out the lighting, audio, and action is spot on for this scene and the rest of the movie. In the shots each section of lighting, audio, and action lead into one another with each not over powering each other. The movie was perfectly edited in a way like the saying goes "show not tell".