Month: December 2020

Notes on “How To Do A Plot Twist – Knives Out” Video Essay

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Warning: Spoilers for Knives Out, The Last Jedi, and a small spoiler for Game of Thrones

  • In Knives Out, the plot twist improves the story
  • Director, Ryan Johnson’s last film was The Last Jedi, which was overwhelmingly criticized for the fact that it subverted people’s expectations
  • Director fails to use a device in one story (The Last Jedi) and learns and succeeds in another (Knives Out)
  • Ryan Johnson made an intentional effort to be divisive in The Last Jedi
  • Divisiveness itself is not bad
    • Taboo topics are divisive, but nothing is inherently wrong with them
  • Johnson wasn’t divisive because he raised valid and interesting questions that some don’t want to be raised, but simply because he compromised fundamental elements of his story for a quick, short, cash in on shock
    • Achieved polarity by intentionally incorrectly using storytelling devices and decreasing the quality of his work (“subverting expectations”)
  • Johnson learned a valuable lesson with these two films, that subversion done right doesn’t reduce the quality of your story, it enhances it
  • (3:29) 3 core rules that decide whether your subversion, shock, or twist will be an asset to your story or a detriment to it
  • (4:00) Rule 1: It must enhance your story going forward
    • How does it enhance your story?
      • The main subversion in Knives Out is that it flips genre’s halfway through
        • Entire advertising campaign for the movie, and the whole first act, a murder mystery “who-done-it”, trying to find the killer
        • At the end of the first back, we see exactly who did it and it seemingly answers all the questions
        • No longer “who-done-it”, but “how is she going to get away with it?”
        • Johnson weaponized the tropes of the murder mystery genre
          • The audience believes Marta poisons Harlan Thrombey by accident, so far she has been a kind and likable person, we are rooting for her to succeed
          • In every murder mystery, the detective finds the killer, it’s a trope that every murder mystery has
            • In the end, the detective gathers everyone around, goes through all the clues, points at the person who did it, and they get caught
            • Johnson weaponized this trope, because of it, we genuinely believe Marta is going to be caught at the end and she will go to jail
            • Makes every interaction more interesting because we are rooting for her while simultaneously believing she will be caught at the end
            • Knives Out exploits and weaponized its own tropes
  • (8:44) Rule 2: It must have a strong verisimilitude with the story told before
    • Verisimilitude means that a thing makes perfect logical sense in light of all the other logic that surrounds it
      • Can be foreshadowing but not just that
        • The infamous scene where Rey gives Luke his old lightsaber and then he throws it over the cliff
          • Goes against what Luke would actually do as a character
            • That lightsaber is a sentimental object, created by his mentor, used by his mentor, used by him, the only family heirloom that he has
            • Bad verisimilitude, not bad foreshadowing
        • Knives Out shows less foreshadowing and more good verisimilitude
          • Makes a good, easy to swallow twist
          • Good example Ned Stark’s death in Game of Thrones
            • You expect his life to be spared
            • Almost no foreshadowing, but is a good shocking surprise that fits
        • (12:03) Foreshadowing
          • Some of the best clues ones that you don’t notice until the twist has happened
          • You can still have a great twist that people see coming, but it’s hard
          • It needs to fall in a sweet spot between being logical and too predictable
          • In Knives Out, Ransom is revealed to be the real killer behind it all, he swapped Harlan’s medication to make Marta accidentally give him a lethal morphine dose
            • This is a good example of the sweet spot, near impossible to figure out beforehand but almost obvious in hindsight
          • Order in which clues are delivered
            • Not often talked about in the context of plot twists
            • Has a massive effect on how easy to guess the twist is, but little to no effect on how cathartic the twist is
            • In Knives out, the very first clue we get that Ransom is the murderer is in the very beginning, when everyone in the family is interviewed by the detective and we are told that at 3am in the morning, once everyone is in bed, the dog starts barking
              • We absorb this information but don’t know what to do with it
              • We are then given clues throughout that slowly fill in more pieces of the picture
                • Such as, the dogs are friendly towards everyone except Ransom, they are friendly towards Marta during the night, the detective, etc.
                • The only time we see them aggressive towards someone is when Ransom first arrives and they bark at him and harass him
                • The detective even says, “A good judge of character is a dog”
              • If these clues were given in the opposite order, the twist would be more obvious
              • Cathartic not only because we discover it is Ransom, but because we realize it only ever could have been him
  • (15:12) Rule 3: It can’t break any promises
    • People’s main issue with The Last Jedi
      • We were promised certain things, like Rey’s parents
        • In The Force Awakens, we find her parentage is a mystery, but we are promised an interesting answer, and hyped up for this plotline, for this interesting mystery, people were speculating, they were interested
        • Then, Kylo Ren delivers the news (in The Last Jedi) that her parents were nobodies
        • It takes a mystery that was hyped and gives an answer that is mundane, that makes it not matter
        • It achieved nothing except disappointment
    • In Knives Out, Johnson learned from his mistakes, he keeps his promises
      • He lets you think he has broken his promises, but then it turns out to be a really fun, interesting climax
        • We have that murder mystery plot, and it fizzles out, goes away
        • We then have a new plot, of Marta trying to get away with it
        • In the end, we not only resolve the plot of Marta, but we also resolve the murder mystery plot, delivering on a promise we already thought was broken
        • The plots recombine and every single promise made is delivered in the climax

Invisible Man Inspired Production Project

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“Film Production: Cinematography” by vancouverfilmschool is licensed under CC BY 2.0

SUMMARY

Role: Cinematographer

Main Inspiration: The Invisible Man (2020)

Intention (SMART Goal)

Specific: I want to create tension, like a horror/thriller movie, with my camera work, utilizing eerie POV shots and empty space.

Measurable: This is measurable in what the film made those who watched feel, so it is measured by feedback from the audience.

Achievable: The motivation for this goal is my interest in making films of the horror/thriller genre, and my interest in The Invisible Man (2020), and how the cinematography contributes to the suspense.

Relevant: I am setting this goal now because it is what I am interested in, and I have never worked on a film in the horror/thriller genre, so it will be expanding my skills and perspective.

Time-Bound: We will be setting a deadline for the film, about 1-2 months from when we start, and it is realistic because it is more time than we had last year for the production cycle. This extra time should account for the challenges of completely online learning, and it is also flexible.

PRE-PRODUCTION – INQUIRY

Leader(s) in the Field / Exemplary Work(s)

I chose Leigh Wannell’s The Invisible Man

  • (0:27) We see Cecilia (played by Elisabeth Moss) framed on the far right, leaving lots of empty space to her left, unsettling the audience and making us think something is there in that empty space.
  • (0:40) Cecilia sets the knife down on the counter and walks to the right, but we see the knife “fall” off the counter. The knife is small in the frame, and watching it the first time, the movement catches your eye and it looks like the knife fell, but you never hear it hit the ground, which is very unsettling and makes us as the audience think it may be the invisible man.
  • (0:46) The burner is turned up, which, just like the knife, is a small almost imperceptible motion, and the first time I saw it, I wasn’t even sure if it had been turned up at all. These small things leave us feeling unsettled and anxious, as it is somewhat clear to us that the invisible man is now here.
    • This is further corroborated by the fact that Cecilia is now out of the frame. We are anxious to see where she is, and we feel that the man is here because the frame is just the empty kitchen, with odd things happening.
    • We continue as the camera stays still, with the same framing, and we slowly see the pan (with eggs and bacon in it) burn and start smoking, and then catch fire. This is the slow, unsettling suspense that this movie has.

  • The covers are pulled off Cecilia as she sleeps. When she gets up to get them, and she grabs them, she senses or hears something odd, so she turns around and looks at a seemingly empty chair.
  • (1:24) We see this empty chair, framed in the middle of a shot like a subject would be. Cecilia’s fear, along with our knowledge from the previous breakfast scene that the invisible man was in her house and still could be, makes us wholeheartedly believe he is sitting in the chair.
  • (1:57) Cecilia is pulling the blankets back to the bed and someone steps on the end. She tries in vain to continue pulling them but then sees the outline of footsteps on the end, and the footsteps slowly walk towards her. The lack of most sound in this scene besides muffled footsteps and her breathing makes for an even scarier scene.

  • (3:04) An open, seemingly empty doorway is framed. Though the video clip above does not continue the scene, Cecelia talks to the man she thinks is in the doorway, invisible. We know he is real, and because of the framing and her, we highly suspect he is right there. But, because he is invisible, and this is present throughout the whole movie, we never know if he is actually there unless he is actively doing something. We get lots of slow shots of empty rooms, doorways, etc, and we suspect that is where he is, but we will never really know.

The New York Times: ‘The Invisible Man’ Review: Gaslight Nation, Domestic Edition

“Whannell does a lot that’s smart here, including the way he uses bodies in rooms. He likes to isolate Cecilia in the shot, surrounding her with negative space that at first seems to be just visually expressing her feelings of isolation. This dovetails with how he deploys differing points of view, as he shifts from what Cecilia sees to seemingly unmotivated camera moves, like a pan to an empty corner.”

This article is a positive review, talking about Elisabeth Moss’s “full bore-performance” and the director’s smart decisions.

Training Source(s)

  • (0:39) Start of example
  • Observations:
    • Blue/green dark lighting
    • Tracking shots
    • Lots of shadows
    • POV shot from outside the house looking in
  • (1:47) Breaking the example down
    • Slow camera movements to create suspense
    • (2:18) First shot long slow one-take shot
      • Makes the viewer anticipate what could be next, where Sarah went, and what’s around the corner
      • Leaves the subject (Sarah) for a few seconds, the empty kitchen we see creating suspense
      • (3:16) Using negative space
        • Framed Sarah on the far right of the frame, leaving lots of negative space to the left, makes it feel like something belonged in that left side of the frame, we see the shadow of a mysterious figure run by
        • (4:35) Utilizing really long shadows
          • Adds mystery as we don’t know what is causing the shadow
          • Use hard lighting and low key lighting for strong shadows
    • (3:59) The second shot is from outside, we see Sarah looking out her window, we are in the POV of what could be hiding in the bushes
      • Shooting from behind something gives the viewer the perspective of someone or something that could be there
      • Adds to the fear factor of being watched
    • (5:04) Summary:
      1. Slow camera movements
      2. Part ways with your subject
      3. Negative space
      4. Shooting from behind something
      5. Shadows
    • (6:09) Lighting
      • Moonlit scene
      • Many horror movies take advantage of low key lighting
        • “Low key lighting is a lighting technique for film that focuses on accentuating shadows by using hard source lighting in a scene”
      • Relied on just the moonlight lighting, no additional lights inside the house
      • Moonlight for first shot
        • Aputure Mini 20 aimed at the front door where Sarah is walking in
          • Cooler temperature, around 700 degrees Kelvin
          • No diffusion because shears/light see-through curtains on the doors/windows acted as diffusion
          • On full blast because not very strong light
        • Aputure Mini 20 aimed at camera right, window right by the door
          • Keeps consistency in the moonlight
          • Casts lots of shadows
          • Silhouettes Sarah
          • The same curtain on the window acting as a diffuser
        • Aputure 120DII pointed through the back window at the couch
          • No diffusion to keep shadows but reflection cone that came with it
          • Windows don’t have any curtains
          • CTB color temperature blue gel over it to match moonlight
          • 75% power
      • Mirrors good tool to use, to add depth, add a character in the mirror, etc. Just be careful and make sure you can’t see the camera, or cinematographer, etc.
      • Second shot lighting
        • Light straight above the bush shooting down to give an edge to the leaves
        • The light inside the house bouncing off a light reflector card to side light her face, so we can see enough of her face to see her expression
        • Low power light shining on the side of the house to keep up the moonlit look

Project Timeline

  1. Obtain the skills needed for the session by researching cinematography, and more specifically, the cinematography in horror.
  2. Create/share trello board and google drive team folder with the group
  3. Set film intention/goal with the group and record in Trello
  4. Set the tone for the film with the group after discussing genre, style, theme, and inspiration for the film and record all in Trello
    Prepare equipment
    Practice set up and recording
  5. Work with the director on:
    1. Add equipment to shotlist
    2. Compose mise-en-scéne in the storyboard
    3. Map lights / reflectors / green screen for blocking
    4. Map camera(s) and movement for blocking
  6. Compose equipment checklist
  7. Record on storyboard/shotlist:
    1. Light meter settings
    2. Camera manual settings
    3. Camera ISO, shutter speed
    4. Lens focal length
    5. Lens aperture
    6. Composition Rule(s)
  8. Film scenes with group
  9. Help with shot log

Complete film production forms with linked resources