He Got Game free essay sample

# 8211 ; Cinematography And Film Techniques Essay, Research Paper He Got Game is a movie about the relationship between a male parent and his boy. In this movie the male parent, Jake Shuttlesworth ( Denzel Washington ) , is functioning clip in prison for slaying his married woman. His boy, Jesus Shuttlesworth ( Ray Allen ) , is the state # 8217 ; s top high school hoops recruit. The governor, being an avid hoops fan, has made a trade with Jake that will restrict his sentence if he can convert his boy to travel to the governor # 8217 ; s alma mater, Big State University. Jake agrees, but much trouble lies in covering with a boy who still hasn # 8217 ; t forgiven him for taking his female parent # 8217 ; s life. It is around this trouble that the secret plan is built. In this movie, Spike Lee uses the techniques of filming, mise en scene, redacting, and sound to heighten the feud between male parent and boy. He gives us insight into their feelings and motives, he compares their personalities and attitudes, and he illustrates the disagreement between the two work forces through the usage of these techniques. Filming In Jesus and Jake # 8217 ; s first meeting on the ball tribunal, Lee makes usage distance and infinite to increase the sense of separation between them. Empty infinite here is exaggerated through the usage of a fisheye lens. Jake is seen here in the foreground with Jesus and Booger in the background. All three work forces maintain a healthy distance apart. When Jake approaches Booger to give him love, Booger backs off, responding to the misdemeanor of the infinite that the manager has created between these characters. This distance between Jake and Jesus is kept throughout the scene as they walk parallel waies across the tribunal to the fencing. As the movie progresses and as Jesus begins to accept his male parent more and more, the distance between the histrions decreases. For illustration, when they are walking along the beach subsequently in the movie, they are walking side by side and even doing contact at times. A telephoto lens is used here to assist flatten the distance. Besides, in this scene Jake and Jesus are about ever in the same shooting. In old scenes, the two work forces were seldom seen in the same frame. This had affected the viewing audiences # 8217 ; perceptual experience of the distance between them by doing them seem further apart. The usage of infinite and distance in the ocean scene, nevertheless, creates a feeling of intimacy. The scene ends with a dramatic misdemeanor of infinite: Jake clinchs Jesus. With this clinch, Lee demonstrates another usage of filming. He uses close-up shootings to assist uncover character emotions. First, there is a close-up of Jesus # 8217 ; face as he looks down on his male parent. His look reveals much of repulsive force and non a small of disgust, but for the first clip in the movie we don # 8217 ; t see his choler toward his male parent. Following, the camera is tilted down to catch a close-up of Jake. The face that follows indicates to us that he is profoundly hurt by the state of affairs and that he longs for the chance to once once more be near to his male child. Position is besides used to expressively in this movie. During Jesus and Jake # 8217 ; s early statement on the hoops tribunal and in the kitchen, Jesus is frequently shot from a high angle, while Jake is more often shot from a low angle. This emphasizes Jake # 8217 ; s power over his boy. When the two work forces face each other at the terminal the state of affairs is reversed, and Jesus proves to be the dominant participant. After the lucifer is over, the two work forces are shot from the side, face to face. Jake asks him # 8220 ; Do you experience like a adult male now? # 8221 ; Here they are shown as peers. Finally, Jake is taken off and the camera zooms out to an highly high angle shooting of Jesus standing entirely on the tribunal. As the camera rises, his ego psychiatrists, and the increasing infinite around him is a hint to his solitariness. Mise en Scene Lee besides uses composing to divide Jake and Jesus. The points shown in a shooting are frequently carefully selected for their consequence. I found it interesting how Lee used objects of bright colour in the movie. Color can be a all right method for subtly showing emotion and Lee is non afraid to utilize it. Most managers use colourss to show emotion by shooting a scene with a filter, a particular lens, or colored visible radiation. In these instances, the consequence of the colour encompasses the whole scene. Lee, nevertheless, seems to prefer the usage of colour in backgrounds and objects. One manner that he did this in He Got Game is through the colour of characters # 8217 ; garments in the movie. In Jesus and Jake # 8217 ; s first meeting in the flat, Jake is seen in a black shirt, while Jesus wears a white one. For a minute, as the two work forces stand following to each other, the contrast created helps place them as opposing forces. In the scene by the ocean, both work for ces wear bluish and white. Along with the blue sky, these soft and hushed colourss create rather a different feeling. Throughout the movie, characters that are hurt or angered in confrontations are seen have oning ruddy. Jesus is have oning ruddy when his male parent pushes him over, and when Lala admits to rip offing on him. Jake is have oning ruddy when his boy rebukes him. In about every scene in the movie that contains some kind of struggle, one of the characters involved is have oning ruddy apparels. I don # 8217 ; t think that this is a happenstance. If Lee had used lenses or filters this often, it would hold been deflecting. The usage of coloured garments besides allowed him more flexibleness in placing a peculiar temper with an single character, instead than the whole scene. Physical objects are frequently placed between Jake and Jesus in a given frame. This adds to the feeling of separation. After a serious conversation in the gardens, Jesus steps backwards over the bench he was sitting in. This takes topographic point after the reference of his female parent. Lee has made it clear that the issue of Jesus # 8217 ; mother has divided male parent and boy. The bench that now stands between them acts as a physical barrier that can non be misinterpreted. Near the terminal of the movie when Jake and Jesus play against each other, a fencing station is seen between them as they prepare to play. The usage of objects to separate characters in this movie is rather frequent. We see it with chairs, Gatess, and autos every bit good. One unusual illustration of object arrangement takes topographic point when Jake and Jesus confront each other in the flat. Here, Mary is seated between the two opposing forces. She might be seen as a common ally to both work forces, as a go-between between fighting parties, or as the object over which they struggle. At this point in the movie, her function is ill-defined. Editing Though the usage of mise en scene and filming are used repeatedly to exemplify the relationship between Jake and Jesus, no technique is used more extensively or every bit efficaciously as that of redaction. Through the usage of redaction, Lee conveys the similarities and the differences in the manner that Jake and Jesus think, act, and feel. Parallel redaction is used at several points during the movie to demo what Jesus and Jake are making at a certain point in clip. One illustration of this occurs when Jesus appears on ESPN # 8217 ; s SportsCenter. The scene cuts back and Forth between Jake and Jesus as both work forces watch the plan on telecasting. We see how they each react otherwise to different parts of the plan and through this, Lee helps us understand each character better. The scene begins with the gap of the plan and a close-up shooting of both work forces watching it. Both Jake and Jesus reach up and rub an scabies on their olfactory organ. Showing such a specific and far-out motion in unison shows the similitude of male parent and boy. When Coach Bobby Cremins compares Jesus to Stephan Marbury and Kenny Anderson, Jake waves his manus and miffs at the remark as if to state that he knows his boy is better than either. This shows Jake’s pride in his boy. When the announcer discusses how Jesus was forced to raise his sister, Jesus smiles with pride. His male parent looks off and wipes his forehead as though ashamed to hold put his boy in such a state of affairs. When Jesus is talking in an interview about his instruction, he relates that his female parent would neer allow him play hoops in the gardens until after he had finished his prep. Jake proudly susurrations, â€Å"that’s right.† Later in the interview, Jesus says that unluckily h is female parent â€Å"won’t be able to go to ( his ) graduation.† At this point, both Jake and Jesus are shown in silence, with a inexorable expression on their faces. These close-up shootings are done from the side and the visible radiation from the telecasting in both dark sleeping rooms makes each man’s eyes glisten, as if moistened from unhappiness. In one short sequence, Spike Lee has used parallel redacting to demo us that Jesus misses his female parent, that he values her sentiment about instruction, that Jake is proud of his boy, and that he feels compunction for by chance taking his wife’s life. Another redacting method that Lee uses efficaciously is the lucifer cut. We foremost see the lucifer cut used in the gap collage of people hiting baskets. Jesus is shown hiting on the resort area and Jake is shown playing ball in Attica penitentiary. This helps put up the beginning of the movie by demoing similarities between the two characters and by bespeaking each character # 8217 ; s location and their distance apart. Lee uses the lucifer cut once more when Jesus is reading the missive his female parent wrote him when he was a kid at hoops cantonment. We have a flashback scene of Jesus as a kid at cantonment reading the missive. He puts it off and begins trickling the ball underneath his legs while sitting on the fingerstall. The movie cuts to Jesus as an grownup, carefully seting off the same missive and get downing to trickle the ball under his legs while sitting on his bed. He stops resiling the ball and ranges for a box of unopened letters from his male parent in prison. Though we see both of Jesus # 8217 ; hands keeping the box, the trickling sound continues. The camera so cuts to a shooting of his male parent trickling the ball under his legs while sitting on the bed in his hotel room. Both the reading of the letters and the dribble of the ball are actions that are matched in these lucifer cuts. Lee shows a similarity between Jake and Jesus, and at the same clip he differentiates how Jesus feels about his male parent and female parent. The female parent # 8217 ; s missive has been lovingly read many times, while Jake # 8217 ; s letters are unopened. The best illustration of a lucifer cut, nevertheless, comes in the really concluding scene of the movie. The camera cuts back and Forth between Jesus reading his male parent # 8217 ; s missive and Jake talking the contents of the missive in a soliloquy while confronting the camera. There is a series of three lucifer cuts here. The first is a average close-up of each adult male sitting on a bed in a similar manner. The 2nd is a close-up of each adult male from the waist up, confronting the camera. The 3rd is an utmost close-up of each in a squeezed frame shooting. As the shootings get closer and closer, we get the sense of a existent connexion between the two characters. Lee uses the leap cut every bit good to stress of import points in the movie. When Jesus walks into his flat and sees his male parent for the first clip out of prison, there is a leap cut of Jesus coming about the corner that is shown twice really rapidly. This creates the consequence of a dual return. In this manner, Lee emphasizes his surprise at seeing Jake. At other times, leap cuts serve to compare similar scenes in the movie. When Jake knocks the immature Jesus over in a game of hoops, the impact is shown in three shootings from different angles in rapid sequence. The same technique occurs when Jesus ironically knocks down his aging male parent during their concluding confrontation. This serves to do the viewer remember the former scene and besides to compare the two incidents in the movie. This type of redacting besides has the consequence of stretching clip, so as to make a certain degree of anxiousness in the spectator and to individual out those events as important in footi ngs of secret plan development. Showing similar scenes is used in several other topographic points in the movie every bit good. When Jesus reprimands his small sister about giving up on school, he grabs her by both shoulders and shakes her around stating, # 8220 ; If you of all time say that once more, I # 8217 ; ll kill you myself. # 8221 ; This is clearly a mention to the scene where Jake shingles Jesus by the shoulders and says # 8220 ; you # 8217 ; re gon na sit when I say sit. # 8221 ; An even more obvious illustration occurs at the terminal of the movie when Jake throws the hoops over the prison wall. The shooting is done in slow gesture the same manner it was done when Jesus threw the ball over the fencing as a child. Like the leap cuts mentioned earlier, this slow gesture technique serves to stretch clip and to stress the importance of those events in the movie. Sound Sound is besides used in the movie to pull differences between Jake and Jesus. It is of import to observe that there are two drastically different types of music in the movie: the classical mark done by Aaron Copeland, and the blame vocals done by Public Enemy. Early in the movie, Copeland # 8217 ; s music accompanies Jesus, hoops, and the daytime scenes. Public Enemy follows Jake, darkness and iniquitous actions. This helps do the characters distinct, and gives the feeling that Jake is a bad individual by partner offing him with darkness and wickedness. The blame music is played at a perceptibly higher volume in two scenes. The first occurs when Jake has merely gotten out of prison and covertly cheques into a sleazy hotel. The 2nd is the scene where he attacks D # 8217 ; Andre outside of the school and walks around the metropolis streets acquiring rummy and roughing up his nephew Booger. Whenever Jake and Jesus meet, there is a minute when the music stops. These minutes normally h ave really weak, ambient sound if there is any sound at all. This serves to make the feeling of tenseness between the two. As the secret plan unfolds, the audience, like Jesus, begins to see Jake in a different visible radiation. The initial minutes of silence are shorter and less dramatic. Classical music is played more and more in scenes where Jake # 8217 ; s compassionate side is displayed. Two all right illustrations of this are the stamp lovemaking scene with the cocotte Dakota, and the flood tide of the movie, when male parent and boy confrontation on the tribunal. Spike Lee has used assorted cinematographical methods to stress the relationship between Jake and Jesus Shuttlesworth in this movie. Cinematography, mise en scene, redacting, and sound all drama parts in assisting the audience understand the complexness of the struggle between the movie # 8217 ; s two chief characters. I believe that the relationship between Jake and Jesus was the primary focal point of the movie and I think that Spike Lee has shown a great trade of versatility as a manager by making so much to do that relationship more powerful.