“The essence of a dramatic form is to let an idea come over people without it being plainly stated. When you say something directly, it is simply not as potent as it is when you allow people to discover it for themselves.” This was a quote spoken in 1975 in Time magazine by one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Stanley Kubrick. This quote captures the true purpose of the art of Filmmaking, not just to tell a story but to create a message and an idea to send the audience home with different feelings or lessons they may not have gotten otherwise. The way a filmmaker conveys these messages and emotions is through a number of different tricks and techniques that speak to the audience on a conscious and subconscious level.
La La Land was a movie released in 2016 written and directed by Damien Chazelle. Chazelle used a mix of music, lighting, and symbolism to convey a message to the audience’s subconscious mind. An example of this is the first music sequence, “Another Day of Sun”; the opening of a movie, especially a musical, is meant to ground the audience in the world. “Another Day of Sun” does this excellently, the sky is clear with no cloud in sight, giving the world the feeling of a dream, almost every person is wearing vibrant clothing that catches your eye and the music is upbeat and has lots of energy. This scene doesn’t just put the audience in the world; it also creates the perspective that you are watching a dream. The idea and concept of dreams is integral to the story and message of La La Land, which is why this opening works so well.
After the opening dance number, we are introduced to Sebastian. When we first see him, he’s listening to jazz, constantly rewinding it, and is in an old school fancy car. This first introduction tells us that he’s old-fashioned (old school car and listens to jazz) and a perfectionist(constantly rewinding it). This scene tells us about Sebastian’s character without saying a word; this sets an expectation for us, the audience, for how he will act for the remainder of the movie. Much later in the movie at the 1:17:32 point in the runtime, Mia and Sebastian reunite after Seb went on tour, where the two have dinner together. The set is lit with a green light; green, the color most commonly associated with feelings of jealousy or envy, foreshadows the coming argument where Sebastian accuses Mia of being jealous of his success.
Chazelle’s mastery lies in the fact that every story beat is reinforced by these clues. The audience consciously understands the narrative of dreams, romance, and sacrifice, while subconsciously empathising with the tension, hope, and internal states of the characters. La La Land demonstrates how film can manipulate both channels without losing narrative focus.
While La La Land uses more traditional cinematic methods, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse took an entirely new and unique approach to storytelling. This film was revolutionary upon its release in 2018. The film sought out the impossible task of bringing the pages of a comic book to life through a never-before-seen animation style. The style is never gratuitous; every choice reflects the protagonist Miles Morales’ journey from hesitant outsider to confident Spider-Man. The first way the creatives did this was by giving every Spider-Person their own distinct color palette. Some examples of this are with Spider-Nior, who is in all black and white, or Miles in warmer desaturated tones that grow as he gains more and more confidence.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse also plays around with the frame rates to give the audience a better feel of the character arc of Miles Morales. Throughout most of the first and second acts of the film, Miles is animated 2 frames slower than every other character, giving the signal to the audience, whether they realize it or not, that Miles is slower and not as experienced as the others. This changes during his now iconic leap of faith scene, where he is finally ready and begins moving just as smoothly as the others in a far more vibrant and saturated New York. This is a vast parallel from his first rooftop swinging sequence, where it is slower and falls in a darker, desaturated valley.
Co-directors Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman, along with production designer Justin Thompson, have emphasized in interviews that character-first thinking drove every visual choice. This was clearly demonstrated with the choices in color, frame rate, and paneling, never distracting and even amplifying Miles Journey. Consciously, the audience follows origin, mentor, setback, and triumph. Unconsciously, rhythm, motion, and color evoke tension, excitement, and mastery, making the final emotional payoff integrated and deeply satisfying.
Rian Johnson’s Knives Out demonstrates the same principles in a unique live-action whodunnit story format. The story follows Detective Benoit Blanc as he attempts to find the true nature of the supposed suicide of infamous mystery writer Haarland Thromby. Writer and Director Ryan Johnson uses subtle clues throughout the film that if keen-eyed viewers saw, they could unravel the mystery at hand. This was done through shot composition and supposed misdirections.
At the beginning of the film, we see the 2 police officers, Trooper Wagner and Lieutenant Eliot, accompanied by Blanc as they interview members of the family about the night of Harland’s death. We see in every version of the story that the character telling the story always places themselves at Harland’s side, showing how they all want both the detectives and the audience to see them as closer than they are. Another detail in the set design is that every character is placed next to the knives on set, every character except for Marta, who is centered in the ring of knives, creating a halo around her, telling the audience that Marta is pure and innocent.
We also see Johnson hide subtle clues about Blanc’s own suspicions and how he’s putting together the story. The first example of this is in his first interaction with Marta, where he looks down at her shoulder, which is later revealed to have a drop of blood, clueing Blanc in that Marta is involved in some way. After Marta chooses to confess to her alleged crimes, she confesses to a moment that Ransom shared. Upon being cut out of the will, he had a “moment of clarity” which helped Blanc realize that Ransom was the true perpetrator of Haarland’s death. All of these clues help clue in who was truly behind the events of the movie.
Rian Johnson and cinematographer Steve Yedlin in an interview with Vanity Fair, describe lighting and camera setups designed to capture objects in precise compositions. Set decorators staged “mini crime-scenes” across the mansion so shots could encode both character and evidence, enabling unconscious cues to guide audience expectations.
This resonated with the audience as every clue and fame constantly challenged the unconscious mind to attempt to solve the mystery, and once we reach the concussion help the audience feel like the payoff was earned due to the clues set up priorAcross all three of these films, filmmakers demonstrated different ways to convey a story not just through exposition but in subtle ways that make the audience feel something, whether they realize it or not. In the end, that’s the true challenge of Filmmaking, not just making the film but making the audience feel something. A challenge that not every film can achieve however the ones that do, that truly resonate with audiences, will forever go down in history.
