Chernobyl - A Masterclass in Perspective

perspective is a powerful tool for storytelling in film and TV you can control perspective with the writing through what stories you choose to focus on and how you tell them you can control it with the cinematography and how you frame an event visually and you can control it in the Edit with where you place the focus of the scene one of the things that makes the Chernobyl miniseries so powerful is its use of perspective let's look at how the creators of Chernobyl from the writers to the editors shaped the perspective of each episode scene and the show as a whole and how that impacts the story this video is brought to you by movie what is perspective in film and TV I'm not talking about point of view shots where we see what the character sees though that is one tool that helps establish the perspective of a scene perspective is the vantage point from which the audience experiences the scene emotionally and dramatically I'll show some of the tools Chernobyl uses to establish its perspective as we go along [Music] Chernobyl chooses a more subjective approach to telling its story using the perspective of individuals in a lot of scenes subjective here doesn't mean less factual just that the goal is to tell the story as those characters experienced it instead of trying to give the clearest possible account the account is more personal meant to emotionally convey the event as it was experienced a perfect example of this is episode 4 the Chernobyl area cleanup was a massive project spanning years and involving thousands of people but in order to tell this story the series chooses to mostly focus on one group of three men performing one job and then within that group the experience of one young man it's extremely difficult to make a story about many people emotionally impactful psychologically humans are more likely to empathize with individuals than with groups so focusing the story on an individual allows for maximum emotional impact all you need then is a few visual clues to show the audience that the experience of this one individual can be multiplied by thousands in taking a more subjective perspective like this you'll sacrifice some information in the show we don't learn many details about all the other jobs that were being done but it allows us to be more emotionally invested in the characters the show does focus on I thought well that's it about you you put a bullet in someone you're not you anymore you'll never be you again but then you wake up the next morning and you're still you it's not just important to choose between subjective and objective perspectives for your story or scene if you choose a more subjective perspective whose perspective you choose for each scene is incredibly important throughout the first episode the perspective shifts in each scene usually to the person in that scene that is encountering the disaster for the first time we see the disaster first from the perspective of the plant workers as they deal with the initial fallout from the political characters perspective as they learn about the disaster as the firefighters arrive on-site the show shifts to the perspective of an individual firefighter as he's awoken and arrives at the disaster but when the firefighters are taken to the hospital we see that scene from the perspective of a single nurse being awoken and seeing the effects of the disaster for the first time this puts us in the perspective of each character at the moment of maximum surprise it's part of what gives the first episode such a sustained feeling of tension while the perspective of each scene varies the primary perspective of the story as a whole is Lagasse loves while many scenes are not from his perspective most of the scenes he's in are framed in his perspective the show establishes this by beginning with his suicide and him recording himself telling the story what does that mean no one knows doesn't matter showing us this event largely through the eyes of someone who eventually killed himself because of it sets the tone throughout the show when we see his reactions to everything that is happening we know what it's leading towards the show is in effect increasing suspense by showing a reaction and then showing what caused that reaction this is a technique the show will use again to dramatize exposition like this [Music] fireman was severely burned on his hand by a trunk of smooth black mineral on the ground outside the reactor building smooth Blackmun of graphite there's there's graphite on the ground this exposition is dramatically powerful because we saw the gaseous reaction to it just a few minutes earlier [Music] professor lacrosse off you can also use perspective to make the revelation of information feel more meaningful you do this by showing it to the audience from the perspective of the person that the information would be most meaningful to if you want to dramatize the firefighters medical situation construct those scenes from the perspective of one of the firefighters wives trying to get to her husband and seeing him deteriorate being here if you want to show how far spread the disaster is show this information being discovered by someone who is far away and who understands the implications of the disaster and how far it's reaching I've never wronged him Malik no I would have gone off before it's coming from outside perspective is established in the writing but the entire production team must work together to create those perspectives and actually sell the effect to the audience let's go back to the firefighter and his wife in the scene where she and the audience sees his condition for the first time we do see him but notice how most of what the camera focuses on is her face the shot is an example of using cinematography to establish perspective if you pay attention to the cinematography of the show especially in the first episode you'll notice how much time is spent on close-up shots of characters reacting to things a shot like this of the firefighter reacting to his comrades burn is dramatically just as important as actually showing the burn in some ways it's more important than actually seeing what's going on and throughout episode one we hardly see the details of the actual disaster this plays an important role in keeping us in these characters perspectives the characters cannot see clearly everything that's happening so we the audience will not see an objective view of what's happening that they do not have access the shot used to establish the Chernobyl area before the explosion at the beginning of the show is not a nice wide shot of the power plant the focus of the show it's some apartment buildings in Pripyat we focus on a character and experience the explosion from her perspective as she would have in the control room slow-motion sound design and tight constricting cinematography keep us focused on the operators and their emotional state and reaction a wide steady calm objective camera would pull us away from the emotional state of the characters and out of their perspective it's not literally seeing what the characters see that puts us in their perspective when we can see their faces and reactions and connect with their emotions when the camera feels like it's in the room with them we're experiencing the scene from their perspective in a scene like this when we see a shot of legis off by himself in the frame boxed in and framed by bodies around him were in his perspective if the cinematographer had wanted to stay in a more objective perspective they could have shown a wider shot more clearly displaying him with the characters around him this personal individual perspective is consistently maintained throughout most of the first episode only rarely and quite far into the episode do we get occasional slow steady wide shots revealing more of the disaster itself and we only see these types of shots as characters themselves gain these perspectives an explosion disaster or monster by itself is not very scary it's relative to characters we can sympathize with that these things become terrifying [Music] look at this scene from Deepwater Horizon a film that dramatizes another real disaster we see certain moments from the perspective of the characters but these are intercut with very objective shots of the mechanics of the explosion the audience is always aware in extreme detail of what's happening even when the characters don't know what's going on it makes for a flashy ER scene than we see in Chernobyl but it removes much of the suspense in favor of showcasing the explosion in as graphic detail as possible and it confuses and models the perspective of the scene and that's often the failing of many films it's it's not that they choose the wrong perspective it's that they fail to use it as a tool for their benefit and just somewhat arbitrarily seem to use whatever perspective is convenient take the helicopter crash as an example many shows or films wouldn't be able to resist the maximal action and drama of seeing the crash from inside the helicopter with the pilots yelling as it falls to the ground Chernobyl instead only lets us see it from a distance from the perspective of those watching it's maybe not as exciting but excitement isn't the goal here instead we see and feel the crushing hopelessness and despair it's not that Chernobyl is good because it uses a subjective perspective it's that it knows when and how to use perspective effectively the show does use a more objective perspective in the last episode we do eventually see the gory details of the explosion compare how steady objective and wide the angles are and how much more clear the geography of the control room is in these flashbacks from episode 5 compared to the scenes in the control room in episode 1 a different perspective is used because the intent for the scene is different we see these flashbacks intercut with the account of what happened at the trial by now the characters are more objectively aware of what really happened and so we get to see the event in a more objective light by keeping the cinematography more subjective and restricting the use of objective views it also allows the show to use these objective shots for maximum impact the score plays a big role here helping to give these slow creeping shots a feeling of doom and dread and by using the same style you use for a shot this on a shot like this it helps the audience infer the danger of this pile of clothing and the show doesn't have to explain with exposition how radioactive it is editing also plays an important role in constructing perspective and you can see good examples of this throughout Chernobyl small things like intercutting a shot of the firefighters of life with a close-up of his face as he approaches the reactor he'll place us in his mental perspective we know he's thinking of her in this scene we see the meeting from Lagasse's perspective this is established largely by leaving the camera on him in the Edit even while other people are talking military and civilian patrols have secured the region we see his reactions and hold on closer angles of him instead of showing the room as a whole another way perspective is established through editing is by staying with characters leading up to or during a significant action establishing a scene by showing the characters walking to the location might seem unnecessary but it helps place the audience in those characters perspective for the coming scene for example in this scene we are mostly analogue Assad's perspective because we are with him as he approaches the cell if the editor had chosen to start the scene inside the cell and shown from inside ligase entering we would have felt more like the scene was from Alana's perspective in this scene we stay with ligase while they wait for a reconnaissance team to return he's back the show could have stayed with the team as they measured the radiation levels but staying in legolas perspective as he and therefore we the audience wait to find out increases suspense it's not three long again it's 15,000 perspective is an incredibly powerful tool one that Chernobyl uses well this kind of subjective perspective is not always the right choice for a story more objective cinematography writing and editing can also be used for powerful effect but I think Chernobyl made the right choice here to maximize the dramatic impact of a story many of us already know some details about Chernobyl is one of the most effective shows or films I've seen and conveying a sense of despair and doom its use of perspective to place us right alongside the characters as they feel those things is an important part of its success thanks to movie for sponsoring this video movie is an online cinema streaming and download platform that focuses on a hand curated library of 30 films at a time every day they add a new film that you have 30 days to watch I often find interesting uses of subjective and objective perspective in indie international and art films and these aren't exactly the type of movies that you'll get access to with movie movie doesn't just give you access to these films it's a great way to discover new things to watch so if you're looking to find some interesting things and expand your film palate I recommend giving Mubi a try you can try it for free for 30 days at MU be calm slash Thomas flight go to MU be calm slash Thomas flight and give it a try today thanks everyone for watching I hope you enjoyed this video I want to give a special thank you to my patreon supporters go to patreon.com/scishow miss flight to find out how you can get access to my patreon podcasts merch and extra bonus videos

Channel: Thomas Flight

Views: 1,994,922

Rating: 4.9486237 out of 5

Keywords: Chernobyl, HBO Chernobyl, Perspective, Video Essay, Chernobyl Video essay, Chernobyl Breakdown, Chernobyl BTS, Thomas flight, Chernobyl Vs Reality, Chernobyl disaster, How real is chernobyl, Craig Mazin, filmmaking, POV, point of view, chernobyl characters

Id: MljytTReJ_o

Length: 16min 2sec (962 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 25 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/YOUREABOT]

The score is also worth mentioning, for far more reasons than one. It was made purely with sounds recorded at a powerplant, fittingly enough.

[u/Mailesan_R]

Anyone know what this show shot on ?

[u/mafibasheth]

I guess everyone just throws the word masterclass on everything now.

[u/theozgun]

I have very little knowledge about these stuff but this video is so educative and easy to understand.

Just watched this on YouTube yesterday, which made me subscribe r/cinematography :)