Mis-En Scene

The movie I decided to break down is one that was up for many awards and also brought home a couple in 2015 due to it's lighting, cast, and direction. Whiplash is a movie that very well captures the motif of fear and anxiety through many different vessels. Specifically the vessels I will break down are that of direction and lighting. The movie was able to bring home best supporting actor (J.K. Simmons), best film editing, and best sound mixing. The most underrated facet of the movie was the lighting in my opinion, while being well received by most patrons, it did not catch the eye of the academy voters.The lead gaffer in the movie, Elan Yaari, encapsulated the incessant fear and nightmarish feel with his lighting schematics in the feature. Although the scene comes together primarily because of the script, the lighting scheme is the cherry on top. It seems as though Miles Teller's character is stuck in some sort of musical purgatory led by devilish ensemble instructor Fletcher (J.K. Simmons). The overhead spotted lighting scheme glowing down on the students gives the feel that they are mere test subjects. The movie is very vulgar but does a very wonderful job of being tasteful while keeping a sense of raunchiness.