No Loitering: Shot by Shot Analysis

I did the opening scene of Fight Club. David Fincher is the Director and Jordan Cronenweth is the DP. This movie is pretty awesome, I saw it all the way through for the first time not very long ago, and thought I'd share it with all of you. I chose to do the opening scene because, as we talked about in class, it is used to set the mood for the entire movie. This scene is a reflection of the ending of the movie. Where the narrator is talking to Tyler and figuring out that he knows things because Tyler knows them.

okay, so we start with a very XCU of the narrator's (assumed) forehead (again, assumed)

we then move quickly up the gun until we reach...

even further up the gun! you can sort of see the narrator, but he is very blurred out in the background

we then pull back and the gun goes out of focus, and we see the narrator for the first time

it then switches POV to the side, where we actually can see what is going on

then we switch back to where we started just further back.

we then pull back even more to a bust shot of the narrator, and a little peak of Tyler's backside

the two are talking, and Tyler walks away into the background but still remains pretty much in focus

We then go back to a XCU of our narrator, we are hearing his thoughts about how he knows what he knows because Tyler knows, which really makes no sense to the audience now, but will eventually as the movie progresses

I really like this shot for some reason, although it really bugged me when watching for the first time. It doesn't seem to go with what has happened so far, but makes sense with what is about to happen (if that makes ANY sort of sense at all?)

Now the scene, which has been pretty slow and steady speeds up rapidly. It takes you down the side of the building and down down down through the ground, I thought I was watching one of those Imax movies where they fly you all over the place and give the whole audience communinal motion sickness. I think it was necessary to convey what the narrator was thinking, but it just hurt my stomach to watch.

so we are now in the garage. hello van.

we go through the van to see a bullet hole that isn't created until this scene actually happens at the end of the movie.

again, more bombs!

back into the room. back to the earlier composition.

XCU of Brad Pitts backside, something I am okay with if I do say so. But, I also thought it was interesting that we never see Tyler's face in this scene, if we see his front he is looking down, and other than that it's mostly his hip, or hand, or his back turned to the audience. I think it works because Tyler technically isn't there, but we don't know that yet! (unless of course you've seen the movie)

we go back to that composition, but we see a lot more. this shows that they really are alone in a big room in the city. something that has already sort of been established, but sometimes it is nice to get your barrings again.