Interaction Through Cinematography

Ever cried after watching a movie? If so, what movie made you cry and do you know why? I had cried once while watching the story of a little kid, who died of cancer. It was not the kid or the storyline that evoked such strong emotions. It was a flying bird captured at the end of the movie that made me cry. The bird’s movements were taken into the camera with beautiful back edge light, making it look as if the bird had a halo. It seemed to me as if the bird looked like an angel that had finished its job on the earth. The emptiness I felt about the life cycle being completed was exactly what made me cry. But how can movie techniques such as eyeline match, lighting, shot angle and sound have any emotional resonance in the real life? With a universal subject that everybody can relate to, it is actually possible to interact with humans by dynamic use of different filming techniques. In Spike Lee’s documentary “When the Levees Broke,” Lee takes the national disaster, hurricane Katrina, into a 4-hour requiem that covers from the upbeat cultural richness of New Orleans to its depressing destruction. The documentary seems to raise five universal themes: love, family, death, justice, and fear. All these themes are something that we all can relate to. At the heart of Lee’s documentary, he asks the question of why trapped victims of hurricane Katrina were predominantly low-income African Americans. Through Lee’s camera and cinematography techniques, such as sound, lighting, shot angle, and eyeline match, Spike Lee exposes the disparities in hurricane preparedness and communicates with viewers to persuade them that the social disparity was the major cause that determined the difference among victims of the hurricane putting the poorest in the most disadvantaged position and causing deaths of many civilians.

One of the most important aspects of the movie is sound. Without the use of sound, people naturally feel something is missing. In “When the Levees Broke”, the sound sets overall upbeat emotional overtone of the documentary. As an introduction, drum sound brings us into Lee’s documentary. Short and dramatic sound carries over shortly before the first scene begins.  When the camera pans to reveal the cityscape of New Orleans, a rather corny song, “Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans” by Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday, plays over the opening scenes. The romantic melody is juxtaposed with Humanity Street on the verge of disappearance, and horrific pictures, such as houses with dead bodies inside. As the song goes on “Oh… the mardi gras, the memories…,” the scene is now taken to jazzy and festive parts of New Orleans, where everybody seems to be happy. This cheerful sound from its diegetic time is heard over aftermath images of Katrina at the end of the song, and viewers are confused whether to enjoy the music played or to be horrified at the pictures shown. This juxtaposition continues throughout the documentary, where the mood of a song does not match the mood of the images shown.  This is particularly evident in Act 6, where the sound of trumpet plays over the images of the poor 9th ward residential area. Act 6 is full of pictures filled with despair. To name a few, there are pictures of a little kid who is standing alone on a street, not knowing how his life has changed, dozen families on their rooftop, where permanent changes have set in their lives, a young mother, who is holding her baby tightly looking tired, where viewers immediately realize that a better life for them is far away. Through the irony, Spike Lee sends a message that most victims of Katrina did not have means to evade from their town. The prevalent victims were, in fact, representatives of the lower-class. By seeing what these people wear and what they have, we are gravely touched and humbled. With festive sounds sprinkled on the top of the documentary, Lee is successful at suggesting that creativity remains even in the situation when people struggle over the natural disaster.

Lee also attempts to show the fear by using lighting techniques. We all know that after Hurricane Katrina, the situation in New Orleans and other affected areas deteriorated rapidly. Natural disasters destroy the sense of security and undermine the normal social life of the population. They wreak havoc and instill fear and other emotional reactions in people. Lee is successful at depicting a sense of terror in people by using a high contrast lighting technique. The technique is very effective in cinematography because, when the subject is being watched on a flat screen, the light is the only aspect that controls how the three dimensional objects are illuminated. As you may have already experienced, the intensity or the direction of lighting has a significant impact on how images are perceived. In Lee’s documentary, he uses a couple of lighting techniques: three-point lighting and low key lighting. In personal interviews, Lee often uses three-point lighting technique, where the Lower 9th Ward residents’ faces are lit with highlights, while other lights are used as a fill light to cast people with some shadows. Shadows casted upon someone’s face seem as if they are drawn back, perhaps to protect themselves from getting hurt, as if they are experiencing fear. In one interview with a gunshot victim, Lee uses three-point lighting to represent concerns or anxiety on his face. As the person describes how he got shot, the hue and depth slightly changes surrounding him. The slight change on his face moves our attention toward his depressing story, where he was shot wandering around because he had nowhere to go. Lee also uses a low key lighting in personal interviews, where very little fill lights are used to create a dramatic contrast. This contrast on the victim’s face seems as if he feels being a little uneasy about the experience. He seems to be drawn back from shadows created, and looks as if it is painful to talk about his past. Also, in the personal interview with Michael Seelig, the resident of New Orleans uptown, Lee uses low key lighting to create strong contrast between the bright and dark part of his face. As a result, little hues of shadows are created, and as he describes how he saved his poor neighbor, who didn’t have a car out of near drowning, his shadows become the expressive channels that connect viewers to his experience. By using lighting techniques, Lee emphasizes fearful facial emotions to show you the person’s real emotions and sufferings in a very effective way. As a result, we are emotionally moved.

In Act 2 and 3, Lee uses shot angle techniques and eyeline match to describe the most sensitive part of one person: his economic status. Whenever the camera moves to a person with power, it is shot with a low angle shot, where the camera is looking up, and the person shown look as though they are powerful and imposing to the rest of the world. This is true of shots in George Bush and ex-governor Blanco, and rest of the important political figures in Katrina. The sense of injustice is portrayed by juxtaposing Bush’s flying fish trips to the sad eyes of Katrina’s victim. We do not only feel that something is not right, but we also see it through the victims’ eyes by Lee’s eyeline match technique. When the victim explains how her house has completely demolished and disappeared with the flood, she looks at the wreckage right after, and we see what she feels about her house. Also, whenever the camera goes to the victims of Katrina, it is shot with a high angle shot, where the camera is looking down from above, portraying weakness and inferiority. In an interview with a lower 9th ward resident, the unnamed person looks as though he is powerless and trapped in each scene. The use of shot angle technique is prevalent in Act 1 of Lee’s documentary. While the camera moves from well-developed areas to destitute residential areas, shot in different angles, it seems to point out that the poverty is the reason why most people suffered from Katrina. As camera shows residential areas of New Orleans from a high angle, Katrina victims look as though they are the ones who are considered as socially insignificant in our society. The high shot angle is used to show where some neighborhoods are flooded up to rooftop. Many personal interviews, after showing Katrina’s disastrous aftermath, seems to suggest that many did not have money nor have vehicles to get evacuated. As in any natural disasters that happened in history, the basic engineering of the evacuation bases its idea on the model that population would have their own transportation. Consequently, the outcome of any natural disaster is huge disparity in their preparedness, shown in Lee’s documentary. Lee successfully uses sound, lighting, shot angle, and eyeline match to educate us about victims of Katrina. This movie has to be seen, because we do need to continue to put pressure on our political representatives to make sure right progress is made in that city. In such a way Lee has managed to reveal the extent to which the poor are vulnerable to tragic effects of natural disasters. At the same time, he has intertwined the social status of victims and their vulnerability revealing their close interdependence.

References:
Lee, K. (2006). When the Levees Broke. HBO Home video.